Updating our front deck on a dime…

We recently tackled a little project on the front of our house which has actually made me feel like there is at least one area I can look at and feel ok about… I just have to keep my head down. On the front of our house there is a little deck that has definitely seen better days. Last summer when we bought our Cottage we planned to rip it off, and extend a deck across the whole front and perhaps incorporate a pergola… pictures like this brought us inspiration

Fast forward 9 months, and we are well into a massive addition, and other deck and porch plans that are taking precedence. And so, we needed to do something to spruce up the front for the time being. Ok, I needed to do something. ahem. This is not in the 20 year plan… but more like the 2-5 year plan.

Here is a shot of the front of our house in all of it’s just moved in/save the transplants glory!:

You will notice a few things, many of which I will not mention… the front deck does not extend across the full width of the jut out that the front door is located in… this has always bothered me. Also, there are no stairs to get onto the deck other than that non attached, portable step on the right… also, the step in front of the door is another non attached portable step… We added the gravel path, because there was nothing leading to the front of the house, just a field of grass.Don’t worry… since this picture was taken we added border stones, mulch and planted a tree… it doesn’t look as awkward.

Our mission was:

-strip the remaining chipped paint.

-Build out the area in front of the door to extend across the whole jut out, and be level with the threshhold.

-Add stairs.

-Stain the deck.

-Remove the rotting plywood that was acting as a skirt around the deck, and add a beefier non rotting skirt board.

I went with a solid stain in “Cape Cod Grey” for the existing porch, the stain for the upper level is called “Provence” and I also used it on the stair treads. The Skirt boards are in a Basic White Trim Paint. We used untreated 2×6 for the upper level, because we had it left over from the addition and also because the existing deck was done in 2×6. Again… not the 20 year plan, just something to get us through until we are able to do something more permanent. This is really hard for Matt to do, but otherwise all we see are $$$$ flyin out our pockets… gangsta style.

I scraped and sanded the existing deck, and sealed all of the boards we used for the additional top level.

After one coat of Cape Cod Grey on the deck. I have heard that with stain less is more, as if you do too many layers it will peel… The coverage was great. I will revisit the deck mid summer to see if I should add an additional coat.

I decided to do the upper deck in “Provence” to add a little drama. I know… the exterior isn’t looking so hot now, but just envision cedar shakes, chunky bright white trim around the door and windows and a lovely blue on the siding…

Here is a shot of the deck thus far. We just need to finish skirting the deck, and add the treads and risers to the stairs. Once we are finished with this little project we will be finishing off the trim around the front door and adding a new threshold. I would also like to figure out what to plant on the left side of our house, which will probably have to wait for a while…. decisions, decisions. Hopefully I’ll be back soon with an update.

Now we have a spot to enjoy our morning coffee before tackling the day ahead, if only spring would show up and decide to stay so I can plant some pots!

-Miss Ash