Short answer: scrubbing and finishing our deck. But here, pictures speak louder than words.

Here it was before:

Here it is after many hours of hard work:

Last night I dreamed it rained before the deck totally dried and I woke up in a cold swear. Shows what I’m thinking about.

And, for good measure, here’s a side-by-side comparison:

This is a narrow section of deck we never use and that isn’t visible from the house, so we started with that area. Learning curve definitely applied on this job.

Sadly, we’re not 100% done; we ran out of finish before we got to the one step and the vertical parts. But comparatively that should be a snap. I’m quite pleased with our result, considering this was all new. The wood is much smoother – no splinters in baby feet – and protected from water. I count it a win!