Deck Restoration

 Before I get into the deck fun, I want to say thank you to my friends and family for the wonderful birthday presents! Some of the things I got include a full set of nail polish, kitchen gadgets, snacks, gift cards, bath soaps, scrapbook paper, and my favorite of all--a custom homemade Italian feast! My mom had the family over for dinner and she cooked lasagna rollups, fettuccine alfredo, salad, and garlic toast. Delish!

I got some extra days off this week so Nick and I decided to begin our deck restoration projects. It is one of the last big things we want to have done before we list the house for sale next year. Basically half of the deck is very weathered and the joists are rotted. We are replacing that half with new wood, then cleaning the rest of the deck, then restaining the whole thing. I'm *hoping* it looks fabulous afterwards and is worth all of the hard work. 

I had an estimate done earlier this year and the labor alone was over $1,000! No thank you, I will do it myself.

Here is the empty spot where the old deck was:

We also removed a few boards from the rest of the deck that were rotted in spots.

It may not look like much but here is all of the old wood in my brother's trailer to be hauled off!

....and here is $500 worth of new wood....

Tearing up the deck and hauling all of the wood was VERY hard work yesterday in the heat. We were all worn out at the end of the day.

Today me and Brad went to the store and got sealer for the joists and some deck cleaner. Really all we did today was seal all of the joists that will be under the decking.

 I work the next two days so we won't get back to it until Thursday. I am hoping to have it all installed by this weekend because we leave for the lake on Sunday!

While I was outside taking pictures I snapped some of my lovely plants! Here is my amazing eggplant with 3 huge fruits on it:

And here is my sweet potato vine that is going nuts:

 To end with, here is the latest nail design I did using the polish my hubby got me for my birthday! I can't wait to play with it some more and come up with new designs. I have already decided on my July 4th design...