Our "new" deck!

O.k. I've been holding out on you. Over the last few months my posts have really lagged... for a couple of reasons, the biggest of which is that we have been working on some serious projects to share with you when time would allow me to finish them. Once of these was sprucing up our 12 year old deck.

Our poor deck. It was seriously in need of some TLC - or a sledge-hammer. I preferred the second option but once again that irksome budget thing decided to get in my way. Fortunately for us, Hubby works in the building supply industry. Funny thing is, on may occasions over the last few years "Fortunate" is not how we would have described it! Anyway, there is a fairly new product out there called Encore for wood decks and docks. What it does is basically turn your wood deck/dock into a composite encased deck without having to rebuild it! There is a similar product out there that I've seen at Home Depot called Restore, but the big advantage to me of the Encore is you can make it any color you want versus the limited palette of the Restore. Both only work on a deck/dock that is still structurally sound, though. There is a limit to the miracles you can put in a can!
This was our already rough looking deck when we bought the house several years ago:

The problems just continued to grow over the next few years. Everyday life with deep south humidity, trees, three boys, neighborhood kids and a dog didn't help! But, hey... th...