Where Does the Time Go?

I can't believe how quickly time can get away from me.  It's been days since I've written anything here.  I hope that you noticed! :) 

We've been doing little "gardening" of late, but spending most of our time sanding, painting, sanding, sanding more sanding and staining.  The front porch railings look FANTABULOUS... and the deck is such a huge change.  Other than needing something to elevate you up about three feet from the patio; so that you could enter into the back door, I never really understood the deck on the back of the house.  If it were just a deck... I'd get that... but a 12'x10' deck built over an existing concrete patio???  Now that always seemed odd.  What a waste of space.  So, as you may remember from a previous post, about a year ago we had a cover built over the existing patio so that we could enjoy the area more and not just sit out there baking like a couple potatoes.  Well, once the patio cover was in place it became even more of an eyesore to have this monstrosity of a deck on the patio. 

BEFORE:

12'x10' Deck

BEFORE:

    Side view of 12'x10' deck under patio cover

(ignore the man crawling around under the deck)

:)

DURING:    

Deck reduced to the width of the steps.

Notice how it opens up the patio area!

DURING:

Another view showing the reduced deck.

Before sanding/staining.

AFTER:

Wow!  See how pretty? 

Deck reduced in size and stained to match siding.

AFTER:

See how it just fades into the background?

AFTER:

Much better!

Really opened up the space!

So you see... we've not just been sitting around sipping iced tea and relaxing.  We may not have been doing much in the garden... but we've still been making progress outdoors!  I hope you like what we've done!

I hope that you've been enjoying your own gardens while I've been busy.  I'll look for you in the garden tomorrow!