This post may contain affiliate links or sponsored content. For full disclosures and practices, please visit my policy page.

Table of Contents

• Getting Rid of the Railing
• Refinishing Existing Lumber
• Sanding Down the Deck
• Getting Rid of Rotted Wood
• Replacing Rotted Wood
• Creating a Step for the Front of the Deck
• Making Repairs and Sanding
• Staining and Sealing
• Finishing the Deck

Getting Rid of the Railing

I am starting this project by removing the railing from the deck. I do not like how it obstructs the view of the lake, so I think this deck would be better with just a long step across the front instead. Some of the railings had carriage bolts through them, so I had to remove the decking to access the back of the bolt. This did not work as I hoped, so I am cutting off the top of the railing and chiseling off the remaining. Luckily I only had to do this process on 4 of the posts, the rest of the railing is so rotted that it just falls apart.

How to Refinish Decking: Refinishing the Existing Lumber

When it comes to refinishing the lumber already installed on this deck, I am going to sand it first to see what I am working with. When I tried to sink screws into the existing boards to prevent them from hitting my sander, they kept breaking. This made me realize that a majority of the screws in this decking were extremely rusted. If I am able to back them out all of the way, I am replacing the existing screws with exterior treated decking screws.

Sanding Down the Deck

I went to my hardware rental store and the guy there convinced me to get a heavy duty floor sander. It has a pad that sits on it and then you put your sanding sheet down. I am running this across the old decking to get the existing finish off. This heavy-duty sander works well for what I need it for, it handles the differences in heights between the boards better than any other sander would.

Getting Rid of the Rotted Wood

I have realized that a good portion of the decking is too rotted to salvage. I am pulling these pieces up and replacing them with 2×6 green treated lumber. The worst rot is in the places where this deck sees the most foot traffic, I do not think this is a coincidence. Because so many of the screws have broken off in this area, I am sheering them off with my angle grinder once the boards are up. For the boards I am salvaging, I have to deal with a little bit of rot at the ends. I am cutting off the rotted portion and adding a decorative edge piece.

A majority of my framing pieces are in good shape, but a few pieces have some rot. Most of this rot is where the posts for the railings were. I am replacing the rotted framing pieces with new 2×10 green treated lumber. Once all of the framing is solid, I am going to put joist tape along the tops of everything to protect from rot.

How to Refinish Decking: Replacing the Rotted Wood

Now, it is time to replace all of the rotted lumber. I am replacing it with 2×6 green treated lumber. I am cutting these individually so I can use the lumber as efficiently as possible. Whenever I cut one, I am using the remainder for the next row. Along the edge I am placing trim pieces, these compensate for the rotted edge that I had to cut off. These square off the deck so well!

Creating a Step for the Front of the Deck

I am repurposing wood that I have to create framing for what will be a big step across the front of the porch. To build this step, I am building boxes that have joists 16 inches on center. This is going to create a step that is a little over 23 feet long. I am removing sod and dirt across the front of my porch where the step is going to go. This must be level, so I am placing rocks down. When I place my step framing, I am using a leveler to check. This step took a lot of adjusting! When it is level, I am predrilling the frame of the step through the frame of the deck. I am using 4-inch long leg screwes to connect these frames together. To go over the existing cement path that is off of the deck, I jigsawed out a portion of the wood so it will go right over the path. Next, I am covering my framing.

How to Refinish Decking: Making Repairs and Sanding

Once everything is in place, I am fixing any blemishes in the wood. I am going in with two-part Bondo, this will repair any rotted areas that I did not feel like needed replacing. It is also going to fix any blemishes across boards or knots in the wood. Once all of my Bondo is dry, I am going to sand it all smooth. After I am done sanding, I am blowing off the surface of the decking with a leaf blower to prepare to apply my finish.

Staining and Sealing

Before I can stain my deck, I need to test it with a moisture meter. It is important that this reads below 15%, you do not want to seal moisture into your wood. My moisture meter did read below 15%, so it is time to stain and seal! I am using Behr’s waterproofing stain and sealer in one. This is a solid stain that has a 10-year warranty on decks. The trick to this is applying two light coats, this is made possible by my airless sprayer. The first thing I am doing before staining is removing the edge piece and coating the endgrain of the wood with finish. This is going to seal it in and prevent it from rotting. Next, I am spraying the tops of the deck. Using my sprayer dramatically increased how quickly I could apply my stain, but it is still best practice to back brush so you can work the product into the wood.

Finishing the Deck

As a finishing touch, I am going to paint this aluminum angle flashing. This is going to go along the foundation of the house where the deck meets it. Once this is dry, I am just gluing it down. I also have to patch the holes where the old railing post came down into the concrete. To do this I am using a mortar concrete mixture that is fast setting and works in applications up to 6 inches deep.

Now the deck is finally done! I love how beautiful it looks. You get such a beautiful view sitting and relaxing on this deck!

I hope you loved following along as I learned how to refinish decking! If you want to check out more of my outdoor projects, my blog post Build a Retaining Wall in One Day is a great place to start!

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This post may contain affiliate links or sponsored content. For full disclosures and practices, please visit my policy page.

Table of Contents

• Picking Up Where We Left Off
• Placing Rock
• Back to the Planter
• Building the Benches
• Finishing Touches on the Bench
• The Final Product!

Picking Up Where We Left Off

To start this DIY Fire Pit Patio, I built a raised concrete garden bed. As you saw in my last blog post, I was having some trouble with coating the planter that I built. I planned to use a leftover product I had on hand that was meant to resurface horizontal concrete surfaces, but it was too thin. To apply this, I poured it from a cup and spread it with a squeegee. My daughter wanted to help with this part, so we did it together. I liked the color of this when it dried, so I decided that I would move forward. After adding my plants, I realized that it bothered me that you could still see the seams of the block. This happened because the concrete coating was so thin. I decided that I would think it over while I moved on to the landscape rock.

Placing Rock for my DIY Fire Pit Patio

I began by placing large pavers in the center of my space. These will be used as a flat base for my fire pit to sit on. Once they are leveled out, I am laying out a geogrid so I can dump my rocks into it. I got this grid to prevent the rocks from moving around as they get walked on. I got yard rock from a local landscaping supplier; the rock is called “fort dodge white.” Once I got them to my house in a trailer, we spread them out. The diameter of this rock is 1-2 inches. No matter how high I pile them, they are not compact enough to cover the geogrid. I decided to ditch the geogrid and add edging because the rock is big enough to not travel out of place.

Break to Focus on the Planter Again

At this point, I am going back to the concrete planter to coat it in concrete another time. This time, the product I am using is thicker and made for vertical surfaces. Unfortunately, I did not notice that this product was fiber-reinforced. I was not experienced enough to lay this without fiberglass sticking up all over the wall, looking fuzzy. In addition, I ran out of material and had to mix more. This created a seam that I needed to cover with yet another coat of product. At this point, I tried so many different ways to get rid of this fuzzy look, but none of them worked and I was left with a very rough finish. This has caused me so much frustration. I re-coated the planter a FOURTH time!! The color looked very dark and uneven, so I was STILL not satisfied.

After a lot of consideration, I decided to re-coat the raised concrete planter one more time. I used Surecrete wall spray for this coating. I chose to squeegee it on to the planter to get the very smooth texture I wanted. When it dried, I was delighted to see that the color matched the pavers I placed in the center of the DIY fire pit patio!

Building the Benches

Now, it is time to build the big benches that will be the seating in front of the concrete garden bed. I bought twelve green-treated 2x4s and let them dry for a week before building. Once they are sufficiently dry, I am gluing and screwing them together in sets of three, trying to force out any warping. Next, I am gluing the sets of three together and clamping. I am driving super long lag screws in every so often so that each set of three was connected by screws. I was careful to plan my hardware so nothing would be visible on the front faces of the bench. This design utilizes the edge of the 2x4s as the top of the bench because it is a lot stronger in this orientation than if the boards were laid flat.

To get that edge as flat as possible, I did so many hours of hand planning and sanding. I used my belt sander with 40-grit sandpaper, then 80 grit. Then, I used my planer to create a chamfer on the front edge and smoothed it with my belt sander. I then fixed any visible imperfections with stainable wood filler, when it was dry, I did a final pass with my random orbital sander and 120-grit sandpaper. To clean up the ends of my benches and make them square, I used my circular saw. Unfortunately, the bench was way too heavy and large to use my miter or table saw. Because of this I had to make do with a blade that did not go all the way through the lumber. I lined it up and cut it as flush as I could, then sanded the end smooth.

Finishing the Bench for the DIY Fire Pit Patio

When my moisture meter signaled that my wood was dry enough, I applied an oil-based stain and sealer in one. I used the same stain that I used on the treehouse that I built, so my backyard looks uniform! For the legs on these benches, I am going to repurpose the legs made of flat bar steel from my end tables. My sister and I welded these ourselves 8 years ago; they are super heavy-duty, so I think they will work for this project! I drilled holes in the steel for screws to go through into the bottom of my bench.

I was so excited to get these benches into place that I made my assistant Kate help me with it when she came over! They felt stable on the rocks and sturdy to sit on, but the corner of my planter was not a perfect 90-degree angle. I had some scribing to do. In order to connect the two benches in the corner where they meet, I drilled pocket holes for keg screws to go in at an angle hidden underneath. I also decided to cut and stain another piece to cap off the visible ends so it looks a little more custom! I moved the finished benches back in place and leveled them by adjusting the rocks below the steel legs. Finally I went underneath and screwed them together utilizing the pocket holes I drilled!

The Finished DIY Fire Pit Patio

After a month and a half, I have a total oasis in my backyard! I sourced black polywood Adirondack chairs and the smokeless fire pit online. In addition, I draped solar-powered string lights along the fence to add to the ambiance! This project was much more fun to design than to build, but even with my struggles finishing the planter and the geogrid not working out, I am so glad I did this. I love that this corner makes a destination out of an area that was forgotten and unused before! The design is amazing – the concrete planter serves as a backrest for the bench and the bench is so smooth and comfortable after all that sanding! I feel like this luxury look was so worth how much it cost, especially for the huge benches!

I hope you loved following along as I built this DIY fire pit patio! If you want to check out more of my outdoor projects, my blog post Build a Retaining Wall in One Day is a great place to start!

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This post may contain affiliate links or sponsored content. For full disclosures and practices, please visit my policy page.

Table of Contents

• Kitchen Door Removal
• Repairing Damaged Siding
• Building a Retaining Wall
• Exterior Painting
• Front Entrance Makeover and a Look at the Finished Makeover

Kitchen Door Removal

The house initially had five entrances including one located in the kitchen. When I designed the kitchen makeover, I decided it would be better to have more wall space for storage than to keep an entrance that had the kitchen function more as a walkway. I removed the door and put some plywood in the cavity while hiring out the rest of the work to add a vapor barrier, replace the siding, and jackhammer out the concrete steps.

Damaged Siding Reparation

When the warm weather came, I began to work on the rotted areas of the exterior. Many areas were severely damaged and needed replacing, like the fascia board. I replaced the fascia boards, cleaned the soffit vents, and finished caulking everything to make sure it was sealed off. Below the affected area was more rot and water along with a poor grading along the house. To fix the issue, I needed to build a short retaining wall.

I hired my neighbor to excavate about two yards of dirt out of the area. From there I removed the damaged tar paper, affected sheathing, replaced the OSB with plywood, and caulked the seams. To cover it fully, I stapled vapor barrier house wrap and used flashing tape to seal it up. I finished this by reinstalling the siding back into place.

Retaining Wall Construction

After the damaged siding was repaired, I decided to build a retaining wall. First I leveled and tamped paver base on the dirt, then I laid my first row of blocks ensuring each one was level in all directions. I installed drain tile behind the block and covered it with a sleeve to prevent sediment build up inside. After that was completed, I laid the subsequent layers of block and poured pea rock behind the wall for drainage. I covered the rock with soil slanted away from the wall. A heavy-duty black poly was laid down between the house and the retaining wall to prevent erosion. We poured the rock, then glued the top caps of the retaining wall to they would stay in place.

Painting Full Exterior Makeover

The next step in my exterior makeover was painting the house a new color. Quickly, I ran into a problem when I realized the paint did not adhere to the house and was pulling off in pieces. I decided to take off the entire paint job on all three sides of the house and stain the siding so that in the future it could breathe.

I used Diamabrush angle grinder attachment and sanding sponge to get the paint off. After the paint was off, it uncovered areas around a window and doorway with extensive rot. I cut out the rot with my circular saw and oscillating multitool. I applied flashing tape and nailed in trim boards, and finished by caulking all seams.

In the front of the house and the garage, we did not remove any paint because it was well adhered to the house. Removal of the shutters and the bulky railing was the first step. From there I scraped, filled blemishes, sanded, caulked, and pressure-washed the house. I primed all bare wood spots with a mini roller. I hired professionals to apply a solid stain that was color matched to my paint on the three bare wood sides, while I painted the garage and front of the house myself. For this project, I was gifted a Magnum X7 Sprayer by Graco. I rolled the soffit and fascia by hand, while spraying and masking off where the tape lines could be straight with Marquee line from Behr. Thankfully I only needed to do one coat of this beautiful smoky trout color.

Front Entrance Exterior Makeover

The front entrance still needed some renovation, so I started with purchasing a new door and prepped the holes needed to mount the knobs, painted it the color Spiced Berry by Behr, and installed new hardware. I took off the old storm door, installed some new lights, and painted the brick mold and trim around the doorway to match the rest of the house.

The last step of this lake home exterior makeover was the front step. After removing the rotting railing I realized that most of the wood was not salvageable. I began prying the boards up and put joist covers on the framing to protect it from further rotting. I laid down decking boards on top of the framing and it turned out beautiful. The joist covers and composite deck boards were from Armadillo Decking. I had the fascia board cover the side of the decking and covered the unsightly edge.

Finally, after a whole of summer of hard work, this exterior makeover looks modern, charming, and inviting. I am so proud of what I was able to accomplish on the exterior of this house and am so thankful for all the help I got along the way. The before and after of this house are such a big difference! I am more than pleased with how this house turned out, what do you think? I hope this project inspires you to tackle ones of your own!

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This post may contain affiliate links or sponsored content. For full disclosures and practices, please visit my policy page.

Table of Contents

• Preparations for Painting
• Priming and Painting Exterior Siding
• The Results!

Preparations for Painting

Before I began painting, I started by taking down the shutters, which was very simple just removing a few screws. I thought the railings were visually heavy on the front of the house so I got rid of those too. The railing had ripped off part of the siding, so I tried blending it with a wire bristle brush. For the leftover holes, I filled them with wood filler, and caulked several areas of the siding. To finalize preparations, I used my random orbital sander to give it a light scuff and pressure-washed the siding.

The more preparation you do beforehand, the better your paint job will turn out! Filling blemishes, sanding so the paint adheres better, and washing the siding to get it clean are all super important steps. Before the next steps, I let the wood dry completely for a couple warm days.

Priming and Painting Exterior Siding

After prepping the siding, I started by priming the areas that were totally raw wood. For this, I used the Multi-Surface Primer from Behr which I really trust. It can also go on metal or masonry and so I used this for the foundation as well.

The painting could finally begin after the primer was fully dried. I used a sprayer for the first time ever! This was a faster and more efficient application method for me. The paint I used was Behr’s Marquee Exterior Satin Enamel in the color Smoky Trout. It reads gray-brown, but also has an undertone of green. This advanced stain-blocking paint is specifically made to resist dirt and fading, perfect for siding! I’m obsessed with this product because only one coat is needed; I was able to cover the bright yellow with less product and taking less time. This paint also comes with a lifetime limited warranty!

Spraying paint turned out to be fun AND easier than I thought. I can’t believe how fast I could work, I got half the house done in only one day! I used painter’s plastic and masking tape to cover each obstacle like windows and doors as I went. I also came with a brush every five to ten minutes after spraying to check for drips. I found that by using a sprayer, it was ten to maybe twenty times faster than if I had brushed and rolled the siding. For the trim, I used the same Behr Marquee Exterior Satin paint but in the color Peppery, which is like a dark gray-brown.

The After Result!

I love the new siding and trim colors together. It is definitely a lot darker, but it’s also much more modern. Both applied beautifully in only one coat. This house was so yellow it was the talk of the neighborhood. Now that we’ve updated it, our neighbors can’t stop gushing! As you can see, the front entrance still needs a lot of love. I’m going to add some new accent lights, a new front door, and replace decking on the front step to bring this house more alive! I couldn’t have transformed this house without Behr paint and I’m so thankful to them for sponsoring this post! If you want to check out more of my outdoor projects, Building a Retaining Wall in One Day is a great place to start!

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Table of Contents

• Before
• Siding
• Garage Makeover
• New Cement
• New Garage Door
• Finishing Touches
• After

Disclosure: this post contains sponsored products. Read my policies here.

Before

When we moved in, this was the front of the house. We had gray siding in poor condition on the house likely from the 80’s and white trim. The two garage doors were set pretty far back from the road. The front door wasn’t centered on the porch and it entered right into the kitchen (awkward).

In the back, there was a chainlink fence and a lean-to shed off the back of the garage. The house had another darling porch on this side as well as a roofed pass through between the garage and house where there was an awkward patio area. The windows and roof were rather new, but the soffits and facia were rotting, the gutters were broken and rusting, and the cement was all cracked as well as sloping in towards the house.

Siding

Up until the siding got done in mid-August, I had been putting all my efforts towards the inside of our home. Before siding got done we did have our handyman move the patio door to a new location off the porch. He also installed our new front door where the patio door was. Since what was the back would now become the front of our house, the weird pass through area was going to be our main entrance.

Then the large crew of nine guys came to side our house in the span of only one week! I chose a board and batten vinyl siding because I love the look of vertical lines. We went with traditional lap horizontal vinyl on the two tall sides of the house to save money. Black is for the soffits and facia to trim out the house nicely and provide contrast. Our gutters were installed to match!

One cool thing is when the siding crew tore off the gray, we were able to see the old wood siding painted sunny yellow from long ago.

It has to look worse before it looks better, right?

Garage Makeover

My dad came to help me after the siding was done take down the lean-to shed on the garage. It was the back, but now this would be the front and we needed to prepare for our new garage door. It took us 4 days and luckily it all fit in our dumpster!

Next our handyman came to install the 16 ft header for our new double garage door.

Then the excavation company came to rip up the cement slab where the shed was and grade a new driveway. We put down asphalt bits because the trees growing on either side of our driveway had roots which would compromise anything poured solid. In the future hopefully we will do concrete!

At this time the excavation company also removed our old asphalt driveway on the other side of the house (now our backyard). Then they leveled black dirt there and I planted grass.

I was planning to reuse the plywood siding on the garage and just paint it to save money, but unfortunately it was rotted where the shed met the garage. Instead of spending time to reside the garage with cheap plywood again, I decided to pay the handyman who was creating the header extra to side the front of the garage face as well.

During this process, I worked on installing a new service door on the side of the garage and painting the other three sides of the garage white.

We left the old garage doors so we can have a pass through garage if we like. We also left the slab of cement near the garage on this side as a spot to play basketball. Our exterior home makeover was nearing completion…

New Cement

At this point in the process I thought we were ready to install the garage door and be done. But alas, I was informed we needed a cement apron to install the garage door. So I was referred to a cement guy who actually gave us a really inexpensive quote. We decided to go all the way and removed the cracked and sloped cement around the house and front door entrance as well as pour a new apron.

Because we were doing the cement, our electrician was also able to run a wire to the garage and get all of our exterior lights hooked into one switch! This was a bonus I was happy about and wasn’t expecting.

New Garage Door

Finally it was time to put in the new garage door! At this point in the exterior home makeover, we were almost done with September. A lot had changed in six weeks, but we were excited to be completely done and enjoying our new house!

Augusta Garage Door helped us with installation and Wayne Dalton sponsored the door. I love the style of the door – black that won’t fade, flat panels that have a modern style, and windows which tie into our front door design and let light into the garage.

Wayne Dalton doors are really lightweight and well made giving them lasting quality. I feel like our garage door makes the house 100% more stylish and sleek. It made all the difference!

Finishing Touches

There were a few finishing steps like painting the garage service door as well as the front door black. I also ripped the carpet off the old wooden steps and painted those black, too. Hopefully we can build better, bigger steps in the near future!

Oh and of course I made a new mailbox since we have a new address off the cul-de-sac.

Exterior Home Makeover After

Here are the incredible after photos and some side by side comparisons!

Now obviously it’s fall and so the house is littered with leaves, but I still think it’s pretty amazing, don’t you!? Here are some photos showing the other side which is now the back of the house.

In that last picture you can the baby hedge bushes I’m trying to grow which will give our yard more privacy to the road. Please excuse the blotchy photos (it was raining when I took them!).

I’m making these images just for you to pin them, hint hint.

If you’re feeling surprised, like this whole renovation happened and you didn’t even realize I was doing this, then you must not be following me on my social media channels. I invite you to follow my Facebook page where I add a weekly video and my Instagram where I’ve been showing lots of behind the scenes renovation stuff in my stories.

And lastly, here’s my beautiful home lit up at night.

Thank you to our sponsors Wayne Dalton, Augusta Garage Door, Ville Doors, and DecoArt.

This exterior home makeover has been radical and so rewarding. I love driving up to my house now! Don’t forget to leave your thoughts of how it all turned out below in the comments! Did you love this post?? If you did and you want to check out more of my outdoor projects, my blog post How to Build a Retaining Wall in One Day is a great place to start!

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