We decided to buy a pool...

We decided to buy a pool this past year. To be completely honest... I have never wanted to own a pool and I am not sure where I am on it... still. But Maddux and his dad were begging for one. So I decided to give in and see how it goes... Under the agreement that taking care of the pool is 100% my husbands responsibility  And we got Maddux in swimming lessons so he knows how to swim. Because... pools and kids... FREAK ME OUT!

Our yard is crazy messed up. its a giant hill filled with weeds and craziness. so the idea of not having to worry about the yard is great. However... trying to tie a deck in with our current deck and patio is going to be.... interesting. But I think we finally came up with a plan... In my head it looks good. We will see if that comes across in real life or not.

They delivered the pool a few weeks ago and set up a time for the dig. So after the guys left...
Day 1 of pool installation left us looking at this...

We are going to attempt to design a deck and figure it all out with some help from some family and friends. I like that they dug into our yard so the deck will be relatively low, so I feel like it will fit in a bit more with the stone patio. We will see how it all goes over the next month.

And because I like lists... Our to do list is as follows

- Level out the extra dirt - use it to level out the side yard
- Have electrician put in electric line
- Have gas line installed
- Get a heater for the pool
- Build retaining wall around the pool so the yard does not cave in and ruin the pool
- Design and build a deck around the pool
- Build flower boxes between patio and deck
- Plant something big at end of patio to block site  of the pool
- Stain deck
- Add furniture and Accessories (the fun part!)
- Enjoy pool

It is quite the to do list... and because we are doing so much of it ourselves it will take some time.
This week we have someone coming out to move the dirt on the side of the house and we went out and bought all the materials for the deck and retaining wall.

We are hoping to get a good head start on the deck this week. And hopefully the week after that we can get the electric and gas going... and finally start enjoying the pool!
Fingers crossed for us. A lot of things have to come together to get it finished within the next few weeks!

Anyone love building decks? Anyone feel like just volunteering time to come over?

No??? Figured as much... Guess we need to get started...

Deck... after week 1

So last year we changed our deck around a bit. We put in stairs that kind of wrap around the deck so that they would land on our patio as opposed to just a random spot in our yard...

But then you have to let the wood sit for a year...

But finally this summer we are able to stain it.
We are fighting rain and spring thunderstorms so we got quite a bit of it done the first week and this week we are planning on finishing up the one side and fixing a few spots here and there... and also doing the underside of the deck.
So hopefully within this next week I can do a full reveal. But looks like we will have another week of rain ahead of us... so hopefully soon!

It is amazing what a difference stain makes. Truly.
This deck looks 1000 times better. and I am shocked at the difference.

You can see the stain color in this photo. We also grabbed an outdoor rug that brings a ton of color to this space!

This is a window box I made last year. I am hoping to attach it to the top of the deck... somewhere not sure where yet.

This is a pretty accurate color of the stain we used. Hawthorne - Sherwin Williams. Don't mind that sad dirt area.. we are laying seed as I type. and don't mind the random wet spots... Nala got in the mud... so i had to wipe down the stairs before taking a photo.

We still have a long ways to go.
Finishing the stain
Adding in deck lighting
Adding in some cushion storage up on the deck
Buying more throw pillows
Switching out the sad little light next to the french doors
and maybe picking up some seating for the other corner of the deck

But this is definitely a step in the right direction and we are excited to move forward on this project so we can get as much use out of this area as possible in the upcoming months!