Holy Hardwood!

Wow! What a difference a day can make! We started out the day with warn out caramel colored hardwood floors and ended up with these to die for mocha hardwoods and a finished deck to boot! We spent the entire putting a second coat on the deck while the Booher's were inside sanding their little hearts out. Before noon they had called us inside to pick the stain color. Lets just say the hardwood guy was a little suprised when we picked the dark stain, so much so that it made Rach second guess the choice. But WOW! We think they look gorgeous. Of course, they don't have any sealant on them yet and we had to take these McGuiver shots through the half opened door so that we wouldn't mess up the stain.

Another life lesson learned today, when life hands you an unpainted deck, NEVER paint it. Davy spent the entire afternoon putting a second coat on what we started on Saturday while Rach massaged deck stain into the cracks so that they pre-existing gray paint didn't peek through. Nonetheless, we finally tackled the task, and it gives the back side of the house a much better look! What do you think?

On the docket tomorrow, visit Lowe's in hopes for some inspiration for the landscaping (BTW thanks for the thoughts Steph, our front yard gets afternoon sun but does have some shady spots. We will definitely have to consider the sun situation with those laurels in the sunny front yard), unpack our Garrison pendants that arrived today from PB, and possibly even paint the side steps, although the the thought of another day of deck stain already gives us low back pain! :-)

New dark mocha stain

Freshly sanded floors, the dust was flyin!

Porch before Davy and E rhododendron demolition and with redwood posts, gray deck floor, ans white railing

Davy is actually stuck in this position :-)

Finished product! We chose Olympic solid deck stain in Outside White for the railing and Ebony Gray for the deck floor, posts, and steps. Two coats did the trick for covering the weathered redwood stain.