Deck Makeover

Last summer our focus was on the front of the house. We figured that we had ignored the outside for long enough, and that our neighbors would appreciate us improving the curb appeal a bit. So we slaved and toiled all summer long, and into the fall to take the front of our house from drab to fab. All of our efforts paid off, when we ended up with the front looking like this:

But the back of the house received zero attention. :-) We've tried really hard to balance out our life with our renovations, and not allow them to take over completely. With that in mind, last summer we decided to only work on the front. Which meant that the back of the house still looked like this:

Not quite as pleasant, right? So this summer we thought we would tackle at least part of this mess in the back, and at the same time spruce up a fun little deck area that we could enjoy throughout the summer. My other two goals were to mostly tackle projects I could do myself, and to not spend huge amounts of money or time by changing anything. We would simply work with what we had, using paint, new light fixtures and simple accessories to make everything liveable. And here's what we accomplished:

Quite a difference, right? I need to mention here that we ignored the left side of the house entirely. Its time will come, but we need to kill some weeds, get rid of some garbage and take out some planters before we can even think of "sprucing up." So this is two thirds of the back fixed up. :-) We continued with the yellow and green color scheme we started with in the front, and then added in some fun shots of red, blue and colored glass to make it very festive.  As you can see, the difference is drastic.

Painting all of the exposed wood, and caring for the neglected deck wood really changed the overall look. For all of the wood that I painted, I simply sprayed off any dirt, then followed with a coat of Kilz primer, and finally with outdoor paint. I love how sunny and warm the yellow is, with the bright pops of green. Caring for the wood of the deck floor was a little more tedious. It took me several hours to sand it all smooth, then I sprayed a deck cleaning solution on, and scrubbed that off. Finally, after everything was clean and dry, we spent a Saturday afternoon applying an outdoor deck stain to the freshly scrubbed boards.



The color is super similar to the concrete paint color we used on the front porch floor. Although not intended, I love that there is such a continuity from front to back now. The other thing that made a huge difference was painting the storm door that leads into the house and swapping out the old handle for a new black one. It's just a simple plastic door, so it looks much better painted.



The deck isn't large, just 10x11 feet, so there was just enough room to add two chairs by the door, and a table and chairs on the opposite side. We made the table from a table base found on Craigslist, and an old cabinet door screwed on as a top. Eventually, I'd like to make a nicer top, but for now, covered with a red and white gingham cloth, it looks sweet and allows us to eat out here in the summertime.

See how rich the wood looks now? And it is splinter free, which encourages bare feet. :-)

The plants, other than the silk poppies on the table, are mostly clearance finds at the garden centers. Next year I hope to grow some healthy geraniums and petunias to fill up all the pots, but for now, these bargain babies provide some much needed splashes of color.


These last ones, the red petunias, are my favorites. We found the little red pails at Target for $1.00 a piece, and I filled them with a six pack of red petunias from Walmart. They are the perfect scale for the corners of the deep windowsills, and they make me smile every time I see them.

I ordered a new light from Overstock for the funky pole in the middle of the deck. The halogen spotlight that was previously there was broken, and had way too much wattage for the small area. This little wall mount lantern was a much better fit. We purchased a decorative halogen bulb at Lowes for inside, and I love how it looks through the glass of the light.

The aqua colored votive holders on either side were clearanced out to $2.57 at Pier 1. I used some floral wire to string them from the ironwork above, and they are so pretty with the sun shining through them, or with tealights inside at night.

I wanted this area to be slightly reminiscent of the balconies in Spain, so I hunted down some pretty plates to hang on the wall, as they so often do there. Beneath them are some colored glass jars and bottles I thought were cool, and a metal smiling sunflower from Christmas Tree Shops.

Lover also made up a bunch of glass tiki torches. We simply collected some little bottles we liked, and filled them with tiki fluid. The wick is a length of sisal rope, threaded through a hole made in a bottle cap. Once the sisal is saturated, these torches burn super clean and work wonders at keeping the bugs away from the deck. The green torches below were made from cooking wine bottles, and we repurposed their tops to hold the "wick" in place.

We also painted the front of the entryway, and it looks tons better. I'm slowly building up a pretty flower garden for this planter, and already it looks tons better than it did before. My beautiful morning glories from last year naturalized, and I love how they look climbing up either side of the window.

So that's how we transformed our less then stellar deck into a fun, relaxing retreat. I can't decide if my favorite part is the yellow wall color, the happy red geraniums or those cool plates on the wall. What about you?


Linked to Sunday Showcase @ By Stephanie Lynn, Metamorphosis Monday @ BNOTP, DIY Parade @ DIY Showoff

Ivy done it!

You've seen plenty of pics of the front of the house, as I have talked about Project Curb Appeal for the last several months. Today, however, you will have the rare opportunity to see the left side of the house. Up until last week, it was so covered in English Ivy and Virginia Creeper that it could hardly be recognized as part of Wendhurst Castle.

The ivy was absolutely beautiful, and because we have a stucco exterior there was no danger of it ruining the side of the house. What it could ruin, however, was the roof, and as you can see in the pictures below, it had really started to invade that area. Our roof is less than five years old, so we didn't want it to hasten its demise in any way.

The biggest problem, though, was the colony of sparrows that had taken up residence in the ivy on the corner of the house. There were at least two dozen sparrows living in the plant, noisily fighting over the bugs the ivy attracted, pooping all over our deck and the neighbor's driveway, and apparently fighting so badly that a few were killed. Our neighbor said she had found at least four dead birds on her side, and we found one or two dead ones on the deck as well. Obvisouly something had to be done.

This is what the house looked like last Friday as I began the project.

My tools consisted of a strong pair of pruners, a couple of rakes and brute some strength. I ripped off as much as I could from the ground, and then hung out the windows getting whatever else off that I could.

Three hours later you can see the fruits of my labor. The fence is still ocvered, but I needed to talk to the neighbor about that, as it is technically "hers" as well. She concurs that it needs to come down, so we'll take the pruners to that one too.

As you can see, there was a little corner that I couldn't reach that we'll need a tall ladder to get to. Luckily, my grandpa is a pack rat and has one that will work for us. He'll be dropping it off in a week or two so we can finish removing the ivy at the very top of the house (over 20 feet up!) and also fix some drooping eaves on the opposite side of the house.

We decided to kill off the English Ivy completely, as it is the most damaging and the most resistant to being removed. It is also extremely hard to keep under control. We cut the Creeper off and completely removed it, but we'll let it regrow next summer. It comes off very easily, and can be completely removed each year right before winter. It turns a beautiful deep red in the fall, so I'm glad we're not getting rid of it completely.

All in all it was a good day's work, and I'm, glad we were able to check this off the list. I am linking this up to Metamorphosis Monday, as it was quite the transformation! Be sure to check out all the other great transformations!

Ivy done it!

You've seen plenty of pics of the front of the house, as I have talked about Project Curb Appeal for the last several months. Today, however, you will have the rare opportunity to see the left side of the house. Up until last week, it was so covered in English Ivy and Virginia Creeper that it could hardly be recognized as part of Wendhurst Castle.

The ivy was absolutely beautiful, and because we have a stucco exterior there was no danger of it ruining the side of the house. What it could ruin, however, was the roof, and as you can see in the pictures below, it had really started to invade that area. Our roof is less than five years old, so we didn't want it to hasten its demise in any way.

The biggest problem, though, was the colony of sparrows that had taken up residence in the ivy on the corner of the house. There were at least two dozen sparrows living in the plant, noisily fighting over the bugs the ivy attracted, pooping all over our deck and the neighbor's driveway, and apparently fighting so badly that a few were killed. Our neighbor said she had found at least four dead birds on her side, and we found one or two dead ones on the deck as well. Obvisouly something had to be done.

This is what the house looked like last Friday as I began the project.

My tools consisted of a strong pair of pruners, a couple of rakes and brute some strength. I ripped off as much as I could from the ground, and then hung out the windows getting whatever else off that I could.

Three hours later you can see the fruits of my labor. The fence is still ocvered, but I needed to talk to the neighbor about that, as it is technically "hers" as well. She concurs that it needs to come down, so we'll take the pruners to that one too.

As you can see, there was a little corner that I couldn't reach that we'll need a tall ladder to get to. Luckily, my grandpa is a pack rat and has one that will work for us. He'll be dropping it off in a week or two so we can finish removing the ivy at the very top of the house (over 20 feet up!) and also fix some drooping eaves on the opposite side of the house.

We decided to kill off the English Ivy completely, as it is the most damaging and the most resistant to being removed. It is also extremely hard to keep under control. We cut the Creeper off and completely removed it, but we'll let it regrow next summer. It comes off very easily, and can be completely removed each year right before winter. It turns a beautiful deep red in the fall, so I'm glad we're not getting rid of it completely.

All in all it was a good day's work, and I'm, glad we were able to check this off the list. I am linking this up to Metamorphosis Monday, as it was quite the transformation! Be sure to check out all the other great transformations!