Deck Before and After

When Jacob and I bought our house 2.5 years ago we didn't realize what bad shape the deck was in.  Our house is only 6 years old but because the previous owners didn't properly stain it and it was built with nails the deck was a mess and was getting worse quickly.  

Here is the before....sorry the pictures are over exposed

And the after:



Let's go back to the lovely before.  The posts were all 4x4's, and had no post caps meaning it looked wimpy and plain.  When you stepped out onto the deck it wobbled and didn't feel safe even though it was structurally sound per several contractors.

This is the awful stain job we were dealing with.  Our neighbors told us the former owner painted it and his wife didn't like it so she tried to power wash it off......  It explained the spotty runny stain.  Awesome.

Let's get right to the afters!  We left the basic structure of the deck to save money and upgraded the posts to 6x6's with post caps for a little bling.  We also added detailed boards (not sure what those are called) and reinforced all the posts into the ground with concrete.  

You can see we added a metal roof under the deck to create another seating area.  The goal is to add pavers hopefully in the near future.  Because the back of our house is west facing it is impossible to be on the deck in the afternoon/evening.  The shade of the deck is invaluable to this Mama who needs to cool off after chasing her toddler around in the heat of the afternoon!

Ceiling fans keep the bugs away and are seriously necessary with the heat in the summer.  The roof is pitched and we are having a gutter installed and tied into our French drain.

The rock pile in the corner needs to go as soon as I get the motivation to put them around my flower bed. ;)  I have to brag on my mom because she sewed the red cushion covers and saved us a bundle.  All the furniture is hand-me-downs and I purchased the flower pillows for some color!

You can see the reinforced 4x4's with 6x6's.  We might eventually do rock around the 4 larger posts.

You can see my toy storage behind the sofa!  I am looking for a console but it works in the meantime.

You can see Miss M's play area.  Her Granny and Papa got her a swing set for her birthday!

This galvanized bucket is from my late grandpa's farm.  He used it to milk cows and I love that I now have it!

Our previous deck didn't have any lighting except the light beside the door you can see in the below pic.  We added stair lighting and post lighting.  We also plan to do do string lights under the deck eventually!

The stain we chose was Behr Tugboat and this picture is pretty accurate.  It is darker than we anticipated but I think it looks nice with the house and let's be honest....we aren't going to have it redone. ;)

We also chose to add a gate, which was a great idea.  We can lock kids in without worrying about them falling down the stairs.   I think we should have added one at the bottom too....which we may eventually do too.  See how the to-do list is still long.  Jacob loves it. :)

This is the area I don't know what do do with.  I kinda think we should have done bench seating.  Thoughts?

One more before and after??  Yes, please!

You can see our grass isn't that great hence the pavers and mulch around the play set in the future!