Like many projects, staining the deck has been on my to do list. I pressure washed it several weeks ago (after my dear husband did the roof of the house and siding) and have been patiently waiting for the prefect weather window since. We finally had the dry and windless forecast that I had been hoping for over Mother's Day Weekend, so I went to work preparing my canvas.
The spacing on our deck boards is just a fraction too wide, so lots of debris falls in and jams up the space. Step #2, is getting all the material out between the boards. My tool of choice for popping out acorns is a tapered metal file. I do this several times a year and every time, I mutter my grievances to the people who installed the deck. I don't think I would have ever given deck board spacing a second thought, but if I ever install one, you bet I'll be very particular after this experience.
Our deck is bordered by a wrought iron fence. And the plan has been for Jonah to play here this summer while I am working in the yard. After running my hands along the boards to test their smoothness (and getting multiple, deep splinters), I quickly realized that I should probably sand the deck too and remove all the burs if I wanted Jonah to be able to play barefoot. So the whole deck got polished with 60 grit and then 100 grit sandpaper. That would be Step #3 if you are counting.
Lastly, came the stain. I choose a semi transparent stain in the color Russet. Here's my little deck model showing off the end result. You can see the in-progress difference in the photo above this one. The staining part actually took me 4 days. My husband got sick which meant that I could only really work on this project while Jonah was sleeping. So I would get up at 5:30am and put in an hour in the morning, work again for a couple hours during his afternoon nap, and then again in the evenings between Jonah going to sleep and the daylight fading. My knees hurt like crazy on day two, but by day four, I hardly noticed them.
I am so happy to be done with that project!
Could there be a cuter cause? I think not.
Jonah has really taken to his wooden car this week. I talk about the artist here.
It is clearly his favorite. Without any coaching he "vroooms" it all over. I am honestly shocked at how intrinsic his sense of play is.
He even makes the appropriate noises.
Perhaps this is photo overkill, but he was really cracking me up.
Here's one more view of the finished deck. You can see the Columbia River in the background and the hills of Oregon on the other side. Our purple Clematis is also blooming which is quite a spectacle.
I did a lot of planting the first year we moved in and this vine has been getting more and more impressive each year.
The blossoms are huge!
Last one....
Hope you all have a good week!
xo
