In My Opinion: Deck Before and After

I bet you can't guess why we love our new deck so much. Ha Ha. Obviously from this before picture it's pretty easy to guess why. This house just called for a deck and what we had was a small landing held on by a few screws no less, and stairs down to nothing. We wanted a place to relax, to socialize when we had company over, and a place our kids could play that still felt close by. Well, the husband delivered. After months and months of watching youtube videos and researching deck building he went to town and built our deck from the ground up.

Rewind a few months since this project started we called upon some contractors for a quote to see what we needed to save up so we could make this deck dream come true. Want to know the scary number they quoted us? Do ya? Really? They gave us a quote of $25,000-$30,000 dollars. Say what? Mike and I both giggled when they told us. I mean there's no way. We might as well just buy a new house that already has a deck. When the contractors left I turned to Mike and said, "You know what I think? I think YOU can build a deck for way cheaper." I was right, like usual, duh. We spent just under $5,000 to build our dream deck. And I'm so proud to say that Mike built it.

Check out THAT before and after. What a difference this has made in the appearance of our yard. Yes, the plants are small now but you wait a few years and they'll be a few feet higher and our deck will look like it's just hovering next to our house. Also, I must say, I did my best to stage this so it looked perfect but honestly...our deck will never look perfect. It's a place where the kids play. It's where I hide underneath to escape the sun while the girls run through the sprinklers. So, tidy is what I aimed for and that's what you'll find most of the time.

Below you'll find me fake laughing and being an idiot because that's what I do when my sister is the one taking my photo. But in all seriousness she's an amazing photographer and I'm blessed I get to reap the benefits of her talent. Check her out here and give her some love.

I looked for a while to find the perfect outdoor seating that not only fit our budget ($1,000) but also fit our space and aesthetic. It was a lot harder than I thought. Unlike indoor furniture that comes in every shape and color under the sun...outdoor furniture basically comes in five colors and is either a million dollars and you'd have to sell your first born to afford it or it's really cheap and won't last under the extreme seasons of Utah. I stumbled upon this sectional on the classifieds and luckily it was a brand new piece that a furniture business was selling. Plus it was under our budget ($895). WIN!! The rug was a steal on Rugs USA and it just made sense with the look and lines of the deck.

It warms my heart to look outside our back door and see our kids playing on this deck that my husband spent hours and hours building. They love it so much and I love them so much so there's a lot of love happening here. The girls have brought their doll house out on this deck and played for hours on it. They set up bubbles for Daisy and jump around trying to pop them all. They help me water my plants and gosh my heart could explode at how happy we all are out here.

These trays were a DIY must. I could not for the life of me find an outdoor side table that I liked. Maybe I'm picky...or maybe I'm just cheap and I can't spend over $50 on a side table. So, these side tables are actually stools from IKEA for $5 and a tray from IKEA that I glued on top. They're amazing, stable, and can withstand the wear and tear from my destructive children.