All Decked Out!

Summer in the Pacific Northwest doesn’t last long, but what it lacks in duration it definitely makes up in splendor!  We love nothing more than sharing summer afternoon salmon-and-wild-rice barbeques on our deck with friends, and we live for those occasions. 

Lately, though, we’ve been apologizing for our rotting deck and secretly crossing our fingers that someone doesn’t put a foot – or more -- through the decaying wood!

When we refinanced last month we made sure to take out enough cash to replace our dying deck.  And I don’t mean for Tom to replace it – which would have taken months because, well, he works full-time and he’s a perfectionist.  Instead, we had it done by these guys.  And what a treat it’s been!  Si, the owner, has been a complete pleasure to work with and Poncho and Manuel, the builders, are talented, professional, and quick!

Judge for yourself.  Is it an improvement, or what?

Before:

After:

(They even replaced our long-since missing siding and expanded the size of our bathroom window!)

Before:

After:

 

Before:

(What a mess!  I’m almost ashamed to shows these pics of immediately before we started on the new deck!)

After:

Before:

(Look at all that wasted space!)

After:

(We moved the neglected, so-far-away hot tub up and onto the main deck, where it will get LOTS of new use… especially during the upcoming bathroom remodel!)

Before:

After:

Before:

After:

There’s less deck now, but every inch of it is so much more useable!

Before:

After:

Look at the seat/box they made for towels and spa chemicals.  Love that!

Before:

After:

Before:

After:

Now all we need are some sunny, warm days (they’re coming… I can feel it!) and I have a feeling we’ll be living outside! 

Next up: the main bathroom which hasn’t been remodeled since the house was built in 1978 – and oh, man, it is SOOO 1978!  The before and afters on that should be entertaining!  Stand by.  Kat and I will begin tackling that project next week.