The Amazing Husband Award

The winner is BLAKE!!!!

Blake spent the entire summer refinishing our huge deck. It took him about 12 1/2 weeks to water pressure it, power sand it, remove the vines, remove the lattice, remove the yellow jacket hives, remove the mold, stain it and attach new lattice. He spent every Saturday and week night that he had available working on the deck, unless it was raining. (It rained almost the entire month of June so it took longer to finish the deck and the deck grew mold). I think he deserves the award for all the hard work he put into the deck and now it looks beautiful.

BEFORE:

This is the picture that was on the website when we were looking to buy the house. The deck reaches past the house on the left and is in line with the end of the house on the right. There are three levels and an entry way from our bedroom and the kitchen. It is pretty much amazing and one of the main reasons why we bought the house. The view is amazing too. We can see most of Utah county from the top level.

This is our swing on the top level. It's hard to tell in this picture, but there are two different kinds of stain. A reddish orange on the spokes and vertical surfaces and a maroon purple color on the horizontal surfaces. The person that stained the horizontal maroon didn't sand off the reddish color first so the maroon started to peel off.

This view is from the top level looking down on the roof of the bottom level. We had to cut all the vines down in order to stain all the wood.

The right half of the deck. All the vines are gone now, but will probably grow back in a couple years. I love the shade the vines provide.

The left half of the deck. The sprinklers made the support beams fade over time.

This view is looking down the stairs. The picture is rotated. You can tell that the railing is a different color than the steps. At the bottom you can see it fading.



AFTER:

Tiffany was my model for most of these pictures. This is after product of the lower level of the deck. It is a darker reddish color stain.

The spokes and the floor boards are all the same color now.

The lower level of the deck. Blake removed all the vines and the deck looks a little bare without them.

The left side of the deck. Notice how dark the support beams look now.

The right side of the deck. I really like the darker red stain.

The underneath part of the deck wasn't stained before, but we did it this time. It looks so much nicer now.

Underneath the deck. Notice the yellow jacket trap? We found multiple hives under the deck while working on it.

Looking up to the third level.

The view down the stairs without the vines. I like the stairs better without the vines. They are very steep and narrow and when the leaves grew we had a hard time walking up and down them.

The third level.

The second level. That door enters into our bedroom. It's great.

Blake attached new lattice when we finished the deck. The person that built the deck installed the lattice before he stained the deck and all the lattice had stain marks on them.

Tiffany posing for the camera at the top of the stairs.






Blake worked really hard on this deck and I don't think I could ask for a better husband. He did such a great job! We will be able to enjoy this deck for quite a few years. (Maybe we'll move before we have to refinish it again). Sometimes I felt bad for not helping on the deck, but someone had to keep Tiffany company.

Thanks Blake for all of your hard work. I LOVE YOU!!!