I am thrilled to be home and back to working on my blog. As some of you may know we were evacuated from our home for weeks because of the Cameron Peak fire. Then we were evacuated from the place we were staying because of the East Troublesome fire. Things have definitely been stressful! The wildfire did come onto our property and burn some of our trees but our home is fine and so is our new back deck!
Brian finished the back deck in July but after a few weeks many of the boards shrunk despite us acclimating the wood. We suddenly had dangerous wide gaps between the boards, so he had to unscrew each board and move it over, buy more wood and also let that acclimate. Then my patio furniture was on backorder for 10 weeks. Once the patio furniture arrived and we put the finishing touches on the deck for the second time, then we were suddenly evacuated because of the fire. Looking at the fire satellite map we knew the fire was on our property and we had accepted the fact that the new deck was cursed and might had been damaged or completely burned. But I’m happy to say the deck was just fine… the deck curse is broken!
Ok let’s see some crazy before photos back when this area was a hideous looking sunroom.
I dismantled the interior and filled in nail holes while Brian removed the structure piece by piece. We kept the back metal wall of the sunroom as a retaining wall and covered it with deck boards. Brian did all the wood work while I painted the back of the house and the exterior metal stairs and stained the deck.
We love the final result and yes it was worth all the blood, sweat, and tears. We have a front deck that we love with an incredible mountain view, however it gets very sunny and it’s not very private. The back deck has a completely different feel from the front deck. It’s isolated, cozy with trees and rocks, and is always shaded. So now we have the best of both worlds. Below you can see where the fire burned next to our house.
Does anyone else love tree faces as much as me? They’re so cute and look like tree people!
We went with Polywood Adirondack chairs again because of the durability. We had them at our Texas home and they were very durable in the harsh summer sun and I felt confident they would survive Colorado winters. I was also concerned with chipmunks and squirrels chewing things up so again I felt confident going with Polywood products. Polywood is made in the USA and made from recycled plastics so it’s an overall win for me. Plus they have a ton of colors and styles to choose from.
We did have a big rock roll down during the fire that broke the bottom of a chair you can see above but Polywood has a great warranty and replacement parts available. Luckily nothing else was damaged.
Briefly we had some real potted plants on the deck and they were eaten instantly. So I went with faux evergreen trees and shrubs. They look very realistic from a distance and sort of real up close but hey… they’re animal and winter proof. Plus no watering!
We’re no strangers to outdoor string lights, I’ve bought so many over the years from various places but these LED string lights are hands down the best we’ve ever bought.
This is just phase 1 of our deck, you can see above how the boards just stop. That’s where we plan to continue the deck into what I call mega-deck! Mega-deck will extend off towards the area where the fire burned. So I’m actually relieved we hadn’t started any deck work over there yet. Mega-deck will extend around the trees, have a dining area, a bar counter, another lounge area and if I get my way with Brian some swings and a slide that goes from one level to the other. It will be epic.
I love to change up my decor seasonally inside and out so I went with washable removable pillow covers to compliment the buffalo plaid pillows. So once Christmas comes I’ll change the orange covers out to red. Yes, we will be enjoying this patio in the winter, that’s what heaters and blankets are for!
As for the fire you can see how it wrapped around our driveway, into our side yard, and in a small area went up on the hill behind our deck. Firefighters had hoses and sprinklers around our house to prevent the fire from spreading. We are extremely grateful for everything they did to save our home.
We did lose a few trees, and I’m worried about the trees that seem to be alive now but have charred trunks and branches. Only time will tell I guess. Hopefully this summer everything comes out nice and green again.
SHOP THE POST
Adirondack Chairs | Bench | Side Table | Plaid Pillows | Pillow Covers | Pillow Insert | Faux Tree – 36 in | Faux Shrub | String Lights | Tree Face 1 | Tree Face 2 | Sconce Light | Cheetah Door Mat | Berry Wreath
PAINT COLORS
Deck stain is Ready Seal in Natural Cedar
Exterior is Rockies Brown, by Benjamin Moore
Trim is Appalachian Brown, by Benjamin Moore
Door is Sophisticated Teal by the Home Depot Decorators Collection.
Such an improvement from a gross unusable smelly sunroom to a gorgeous outdoor living space. I’m thrilled with the results, and fingers crossed we will start mega-deck soon. Thanks for reading.
