Guest blogger Associate Editor Ashley Bennion decided to renovate her deck; here's how it went down:
After weeks of humming and hawing over cost, we finally decided to move forward with extending our backyard deck. Although a definite investment, dropping such a large amount always seems scary (regardless of the increase in our re-sale value).
Our decision was helped along by a great contractor, the tax rebate for home renovations, and the fact that we love to entertain so Monday we (and by we, I mean my husband and contractor Dan) tore down the old deck and by Friday, we were sitting on it enjoying some long-weekend cocktails.
Although I’m amazed the deck was finished in five days, there were (of course) a few snags:
-Because I’m basically incapable of ‘picturing’ things, after day one I was annoyed convinced the deck was going to take up the whole backyard (but after day three, settled down and realized, the bigger, the better).
-Two extra days of work, meant extra cost. Deciding to include privacy walls, meant extra cost too.
-You don't know what you have 'til it's gone! Not being able to just let the dog out but instead, having to walk her to the park for every potty break, got real old, real fast.
But all in all, after five days and spending nearly 30% more than we anticipated, we’re absolutely thrilled with the result!
Before:
After:
And since I’m writing this on the long weekend, excuse me while I get back to lounging…
-Ashley