When we moved into our new house this year, the one major problem area was the backyard. The house had been vacant for awhile, so the plants in the backyard were basically all dying. There isn't much green space because we have two huge trees and their roots take up most of the open space. Our deck is also quite large and takes up a good amount of the backyard.

Our first task was fully fencing the yard. The two longer sides were done, we just had to finish off the two shorter sides. Luckily David my stepdad Jack took care of that project! You can see the fresh wood in this picture- we still have to stain it!

I really disliked the deck itself- it had been painted, not stained, and the paint was majorly peeling. The color also had a redish tint which I was not a fan of. David thought we should wait but I wanted to get it done ASAP, so I volunteered to do it all myself. It ended up being a huge project and a lot harder than I had bargained for, but in the end I'm so happy with the result, and so proud of myself for doing it all!

After doing some research I decided to use Behr Deckover textured paint to paint the deck. There are definitely some bad reviews out there, but it still seems to be one of the best things on the market for what I was looking for. I couldn't stain the deck without completely stripping off all of the paint, which was a much larger project than I was willing to do. I chose the color "Chocolate", which in the end I don't completely love. I think I would like either a darker, richer brown, or maybe something lighter. However, I do like it a lot! In the end I am still happy with it.

I followed the directions and power washed the whole deck, followed by sanding everything with a power sander. The painting took me a lot longer than it would take most people to do because we have an issue in our yard: pine needles. The trees shed an insane amount, and I didn't want pine needles falling in the fresh paint and drying there. I ended up having to tent each area before painting, waiting overnight for that section to dry, and then moving to a new section the next day. If I could have done it all in one day it would have gone so much faster!

In the end I'm super happy with our new deck! We've had a few dinners outside since, and I think it makes our backyard look so much better. We still have to do all of the landscaping next spring, but until then I don't hate looking into our backyard!