Deck is done! Well. Almost.

 It's taken us two years.

Two years to finish the top portion of our deck. 

And it's beautiful. 

We used Trex(r) composite material for the decking. This way we don't have to stain it, sand it, etc. Very easy to maintain.

Railings are NOT Trex, it was just too expensive. So these railings are wood. Painted, assembled, then painted again before mounting. Post covers and caps are vinyl. 

I am in love with this deck. I'm so glad I pushed to have this deck.

There is nothing I hate more than an above ground pool just standing in a yard. With a gross ladder.

Sorry if that's what you've got going on, but it's just not for me.

We had that the first year. 

Not only was it ugly, it was super inconvenient.

Two years ago my kids were 3.5 and 6.

If they wanted to swim, someone had to go in the pool with them.

They'd want to swim for 20 minutes, then come out, then go back in, then get out.

It was exhausting.

Plus, the "safety" pull down thing on the ladder? Yeah, not gonna work for my little one. Ava scaled that on day one. Not safe. 

I realize this deck is huge. 

I wanted to make it a place where we can you know, hang out.

More than just a couple of us. 

And it's been wonderful.

I'm also really happy with our umbrella find. It was the end of the season and a color I don't love, but it was on sale for a really good price. It's also pretty big, bigger than many umbrellas I looked at and again, super grateful we made the decision to get one this size. It provides so much shade. Since our pool is located in an area of our yard that is FULL SUN, (literally nothing blocking the sun except clouds) we knew we needed shade of some type. It can be BRUTAL. 

This umbrella can be collapsed down and also "brought in" from the main unit. Steve secured it by mounting the base under the deck (the base is HUGE) and screwed it to boards under the deck. This is to ensure the thing didn't topple over or blow away. Since our deck is elevated, it's a possibility. It's so secure, the umbrella will likely rip off the frame before the frame went anywhere. What's also nice is that in the top of the umbrella is another "layer" so there is airflow - if a gust of wind did come, it'd end up going through the layers if you will, so it won't fly away (hopefully). 

We are thinking of getting a bar height cocktail table and two chairs since we have so much room and need more seating areas. 

The second photo above is my typical set up. What's nice about it is that we can just go up there and hang out, without ever going in the pool.

The girls go in pretty much every day that is nice. I'd say I go in about 75% of the time. Other times I'm just dipping my feet in, or sitting on the steps. Totally dependent on water temperature!

We can spend hours out there. I bring my laptop (job hunting, hello!) for music and the girls bring their toys up there and we just lounge. 

It's lovely. 

And now I have less worry about someone jumping (ahem, AVA!) off the deck and breaking a leg. 

Or while I'm trying to kill the horse flies I don't take a tumble off the deck.

The girls love jumping off the deck too! And they can get a running start.

Obviously, the railing is not complete in the above photo, but I wanted to show a pic of the girls jumping :)

The part that's NOT done yet is the bottom, lattice portion of the deck. Once we frame those and get them up, it'll be beautiful! Right now we just have to look at all the shit under there. 

It's taken us (mainly Steve) 2 summers to get this thing done. 

It's well worth it.