Dirty Days-Part 2

I love working outside...From my last post, you know this. My neighbors probably think I'm crazy. I mow, edge, weed, plant, dig, trim, and prune. Last week I asked Jesse if he could show me how to hold the weed-wack. He looked at me and said "You're weird."

Funny story- The other week, I went to a place a few miles down the road to a place I've never been to look at buying some topsoil. I step out of my car and start talking to the man there. Half-way through our conversation, he stops and asks "You look really familiar. I know you from somewhere." I told him I live in town and the light floods his eyes. "Oh you bought the auction house! I see you working outside all the time. You moved from..." and on and on he went. I guess you know you live in a super small town when people you've never met know all about you. Anyways, the point of the story is that I'm outside a lot.
You've seen the amount of work the front of the house needed-mind you, this doesn't happen over-night. It took a solid year before progress was seen. (I always like to point that out so nobody thinks we're superstars or anything. Things take work!-whew!)

Now for the back. I loved our back yard. It has mature trees-one of which is an amazing fushia crabapple tree.






But...it was also overgrown with every vine imaginable.

And here's a close up of under the deck in case you didn't believe me :) It even had a full-size tree growing out from under it!

My dad and I got right to work pulling out all of those vines and wonder of wonders-we discoved a hidden treasure. Cut sand-stone right underneath.

We then took the ivy section from this:

to this- (We trimmed it back and my dad placed a little stone walk-way from the door.) Cute isn't it?

So....we had a sign made for him. Hey!-I like to show people appreciation!

After some mulch, it started looking really nice.








Except.....


Do you see it? I started noticing the bright green algae on our deck once the black mulch was down. Maybe the contrast or something.

It wouldn't be that bad but well, after I noticed it, I really started noticing it and it started to look like this in my mind.
Ever have that happen to you? When you don't take notice of something and it's fine. And then all of a  sudden-bam! You can't not see it now! I guess that's why they say "ignorance is bliss..."


Well, anyways for my last 3 days of summer, I tackled this project.

I took some amazing pictures too of the entire process, but I think I accidentically deleted most of them. :(

First, I bought some deck cleaner. I went with Olympic and it worked wonders! You just spray it on and you can literally see the algae dripping off. No scrubbing or anything. The far side of this picture had the deck cleaner sprayed, the blackish-greenish, did not.
If you are attempting this though, please wear old clothes and take frequent breaks. I think I'm now missing some valuable brain cells that would've come in handy this first week of school from breathing in straight bleach for a few hours.


Next, I stained it. I went with a solid stain because our deck definitely has some wear and tear and solid not only covers imperfections, it also protects it the best from future damage.

The final result: I love it!


Our back-yard is really coming. Of course....we just took out a tree last weekend and there is now a 300 square foot pile of dirt in the back. But I won't show you those yet!