All hands on...

Well, no it's really just MY hands on deck!  So, after starting 2 DIY outdoor related projects (an outdoor cart and an outdoor carpet) I realized that I didn't want to put these new lovely things on the deck when it looked like this!

Gross

Gross

Double gross!

Ew!!

GROSS GROSS GROSS!!!

Our house seems to attract a LOT of pollen, which then turns everything green AND makes us sneeze. I have no idea how old our deck is, and it could probably use a good re-stain and shaping up, but that's a bigger project that I don't want to tackle as of now.  For now, I just want that green goo gone!!

Since we go to Home Depot just about every other day, when we went on Sunday and asked someone about it, they led us to this...

Behr All-In-One wood cleaner.  He told Dave it was the best one that he knew of.  That was good enough for us!

We already had the bucket, hose with nozzle and the deep cleaning brush, so I was all set!

I did a little test spot, to make sure nothing weird happening and was amazed at just how dirty this deck is.  See that little ray of sunshine wood?  That is how it's supposed to look!  Ugh!  I started yesterday around 3pm and took little breaks here and there and finished up the project right around 8pm.  I took the breaks because I wanted the cleaner to really soak into the wood, the bottle says to keep it on there for 10-15 minutes before hosing it down.

I did the deck in sections, and I went over each section twice, sometimes even 3-4 times in some of the reeeeeeeeeeeeally dirty areas.

LIke the area under the table, that was all green...

I had to scrub and scrub to get that off, and it's still there a little bit, but so much better!

We kept our trash can here, so this part is all gross.  I have decided to keep our trash can back behind the deck now, I can't stand look at it or smelling it all the time!  We don't have a back yard, since we are on the front/side of our row, so storage space is very limited!

Wet, clean, scrub, wait, scrub, rinse.  That was my process.

I liked that the cleaner foamed while I worked with it, I could tell it was really working.

Scrub, scrub, scrub!

The work was totally worth it.  The deck looks SO much better.  It's still so wet and looks really dark, even this morning, I guess because I washed it over and over, but you can see the difference!

Look at that wood!

You can still see some of the greenish tint, so we may go over it again.

Look at that!  So much better!

Love it!

I can't wait for it to dry, so I can see what the wood really looks like!

That spot was so so so dirty and I scrubbed that one probably 5-6 times.  Maybe in another 5-6 scrubs it'll go away;)

I am happy with the results.  I mean, look...

Now I am not worried about putting my new DIY rug down there.  I know that it won't rot or succumb to any mold;)

I have been inspired to jazz up the deck even more.  I'm thinking flower boxes, plus my rug and the new cart, maybe some other fun things.  We spend lots of time out here grilling, eating, and sitting around on our phones or iPads in the evening.  Dave & I like to sit out there and chat about life and love and traveling.  It'll be so much more pleasant when it's clean and pretty!

I am off to work on the other outdoor stuff!  Oh and before I forget, I really wanted to create a nice seating area on our lawn.  Somewhere that we can go and put our feet in the grass (earthing!) and read or chat or get some sun.  Here is what we came up with!

We have this sweet little "secret" but not so secret area!

It's sort of hidden by the bushes that enclose those electric boxes.  It's not hidden from our side neighbors, but it is hidden from the street.

I like to sit out here while Dave is grilling, I can chat with him while he cooks.  I like to read out here too, especially in the morning or when the sun is going down.  We bought the chairs from Lowes, $18 each, and the pillows are from Home Depot, about $10 each on sale:)

I like jazzing up our outdoor space!  I love being outside in the summer!!!  Have a great day!