If you haven’t realized by now, Trent and I get our kicks from DIY projects and home improvement. Our last house was so new and in no need of repairs, that we really had to think hard to figure out projects that would keep us busy and that we would see a return on when we decided to sell. One Saturday (prior to parenthood) we decided to stain the concrete on our back porch. It was our first time dabbling in such a project and it was a HUGE success! A year or so later we got bored and decided to do the front porch, which really increased our curb appeal and made our house stand out.
We have known for a while that we wanted to stain our ugly back slab at our current house, but didn’t really see a reason to act on it until the pergola was finished. Trent’s pergola project has been done for a few weeks now and as beautiful as it is, the hideous slab that lived under it was really taking away from its wow factor. Last Saturday Trent spent about 4 hours prepping the slab so that we could begin the staining process. Most slabs would not require this amount of prep work, but ours was in pretty bad shape since the floor boards of the old addition had been glued to it. Trent had to use a grinder to remove tons of caked on glue before he could acid wash the porch. After the porch was cleaned and dry we were ready to start staining. We used Behr stain and do a two phase color technique called Desert Oasis. It combines a base color (Sand) and an accent color (Walnut) and is finished with a wet look sealer.
First you spray on the base color.
Next comes the accent color.
Finally the wet look sealer.
Voila!
This has really made our back porch area feel so much more finished and attractive, and is such an easy and inexpensive project! In a few years we plan to flagstone over the entire porch and pool area, but that is a MUCH pricier and time consuming project. This took 3 days, only cost us 100 bucks, and has made all the difference!
In other staining news, I stained our decrepit privacy fence that surrounds our pool.
I used the same translucent cedar colored stain on the fence as we used on the pergola wood. It really helped tie the areas together. I should have taken the time to power wash the fence prior to staining, but it looks MUCH better than before!
The next thing on our ever so busy agenda is exterior paint! Though we do almost all of our projects around here, we are guilty of subbing out our major paint projects. Though the painting will be done by the professionals, my handyman has lots of prep work to do before they can begin beautifying this place. Lots of fascia and soffit around the house has wood rot and has to be replaced. While Trent is busy doing the dirty work, I will be finalizing our exterior color scheme. Wish me luck. Paint. Picking. Is. HARD.
Project Ugly House 