So you know how you can not notice something has changed until you see it in a picture. Like, say, you gain ten pounds, but you look the same in the mirror, and then you see a photo of yourself and think "Whoa Nelly! What happened there?"
Well that's our deck. Not that it had changed, it's just that I've spent the past year (ack! We've owned the house a year next week!) walking past the deck and just not noticing. It was always ugly, beefy and red and looking a little like a tick on the side of the house. But to make matters worse we've been using it as a staging platform for the past year. We cast the concrete counters out there, we've painted cabinet doors out there, we've stored toilets and wood scraps and bags of drywall that need hauling to the dump. And, over time, a lot of crapola has ended up under the deck to add to it's general ugliness. But it wasn't until Will was taking photos a few weeks ago so we could photoshop some house colors in that I realize what a pit it had become. But NO MORE.
OK, so a little bit more. There is still stuff under it. We still need to sheath the sides and finish painting. But still, there is a plan. And white paint. And dark grey with a tad of blue paint that will also go on the house.
It's been hotter than, well I can't really say without being rude, let's just say really hot, and then quadruple that, and you get the picture, but the evenings haven't been horribly humid so Will and Briton and I have been working on getting the white paint on the upper parts of the deck this week (Evelyn has been adding to her collection of chigger bites while we paint by rolling in the grass) and while it's no where near "good" it's at least starting to look better. It helps that we pulled most of the junk away where it awaits various craigslist/freecycle/Habitat Store/dump destinations. And there are large blotches of different shades of blue gray all over the back of the house where we tried out different colors. But still, better.Tonight we are hoping to do the floor and the base, and next weekend we'll hit the Habitat store to look for something to sheath the sides in so you can see all the bits of wood Will still wants to keep down there. In time we want to add uprights and beams across the top to create a private outdoor space as the rest of our yard is very, very exposed to the street. We like being out with the crowds, but sometimes, like when I want to drink my morning (decaf still, blah) coffee outside in my pj's, it would be nice to not show off my crappy old yoga pants to the whole town.