Just say no to deck staining...

First, here are a few more honeymoon pics (nope, still no wedding photos) from Hershey Garden:

 {don't mind his funny smile...}

Ahh, looking at those pics makes it seem like it all happened years ago - but we've only been married for two weeks.  Crazy!

It's been kinda nice having the house to ourselves (my sis and her family are on vacation for two weeks) as we've been able to act like a real married couple and pretend like the entire house is ours, not just the little tiny bedroom upstairs.

This weekend we worked on the deck and re-staining it.  Ivan likes to keep busy, so he's been anxiously waiting for the perfect opportunity to stain the deck, ever since our neighbors did it.  Well, it didn't go quite as smoothly as we thought but I was amazed at Ivan's patience and refusal to give up.  

On Saturday we headed to Home Depot to buy the stain.  We bought Redwood Solid Color deck stain and some paint brushes.  That day, while I was cooking, he was out there bleaching the deck to get rid of all the dirt and mold that was beginning to grow.  He also decided to bleach the patio downstairs and remove all the leaves from the back garden - I've never seen the backyard look so nice!

On Sunday, after Ivan's soccer game, we decided to get started on the staining part.  I say we, but really it was him.  So, we got one section of the deck painted and the neighbors thought it was too red and in violation of the housing association codes.  So, rather than continuing painting, we ask the housing association rep.  She says it's too red too.  

 

So, we go back to Home Depot, exchange the one can of stain that's not opened, get stain/paint stripper, some protective gear (like face mask and gloves), and a light cedar wood semi-transparent color.  

Unfortunately, the red doesn't come off (please note that if you decide to stain your deck red - it's impossible to remove) and the cedar wood color is not dark enough to paint over it (even though the Home Depot experts assured me it was - just like they assured me the red stain would easily be removed).  So, then I went BACK to Home Depot and exchanged the cedar wood stain for a chocolate solid color stain that would cover the left over red.  

By now it's 7pm and I have a headache from worrying about the stupid deck that isn't even mine, from spending almost $150 on stain, stain remover, stain tools, ect., and hoping that we didn't kill our plants with the horrendously hazardous stain remover.  However, rather than call it a day, Ivan headed out there with the new chocolate colored stain and proceeded to stain another section of the deck.

As of this evening - the plants are still alive (but I don't think they are out of the clear yet) and the deck color looks great.

Ivan working on the sunburst railing - isn't he doing

an awesome job!!

If you look at the floor of the deck you can see remenents

of the red color - luckily the brown easily covered it up

And I am so thankful that Ivan's my husband...and that we don't actually own a house.  An apartment sounds great...one without a deck that has to be stained...and maybe no homeowner association.