Pepper Design Blog

Curb Appeal: Icing on the Cake

There’s something about flower pots with overflowing plants and color that just makes a deck or patio space sing! It’s the icing on the cake.

My mom has a great eye for plants and color (and even a horticulture background to boot), and so during one of her recent visits (and a super busy weekend) I sent her to Lowe’s with one mission: help me choose plants that look beautiful together and won’t die on me.

It’s funny, because had I planned this all out I would have probably steered us towards a more Mediterranean look (crawling rosemary, tall purple lavender stalks, etc), but the tropical vibe that she ended up settling on definitely looks great in the space! And everything (for the most part) has survived post her trip. I’m so grateful for her help with tackling such a BIG project on the deck (see the size of some of those pots? woah).

The added color in the space makes a huge difference. I love the pops of red and yellow and the bright greens that compliment the existing pepper tree there in that far left corner (above).

We finished the sandbox in the same weekend! It’s such a great addition for Liv out on the deck, and since the kitchen is just through that door there on the right, she can play in the sun (yay day light savings!) while we’re just inside prepping dinner or cleaning up. Bodie is a great playmate and big brother too.

Back to those flowers… look at that beautiful red.

When cleaning out storage in the very back of our yard, we also found two huge bags of river rock that I had used as vase fillers for a friend’s wedding (seriously the most perfect/cheapest vase fillers, straight from the home improvement store). We poured the remnants into the tree openings around the deck and it looks so much cleaner rather than the old pile of dirt and dead leaves.

I still owe you a post on Kevin’s monster project of designing and assembling this table…

Perhaps my favorite deck addition to date! Look how rustic and perty she is…

We’ve revealed this new side yard project in stages (a complete series for the deck, a glimpse at the new sandbox and a still-yet-to-be-complete post on the table is in order) but the flowers are officially the icing on the cake. Here’s the deck pre anything green or colorful, makes a big difference, no?

Still have to tackle plaster and paint on the garden box at the front of the side yard (we’re looking from the back to the front in this photo), but then we can stamp this project as finished!

Remember when the side of our house was nothing but a crazy jungle?

Me neither. I’m grateful that that was ages ago! And there is little that is making me happier these days than sitting out on those new stairs enjoying lunch in the sun (and a break from work in the office) with Liv while she’s playing.

We partnered with Lowe’s and their Curb Appeal campaign to include all of the new flowers and pots for this post. Our newly-green-thumbs are incredibly grateful and we are hoping to not have to take advantage of their awesome year long guarantee on all flowers. Just kidding! I’m watering every week…

PPS You can find all posts (including the building of the deck, flagstone walkway, giant cement wall, DIY sectional cushions and the rest) by sorting posts on this blog by Our Yard, or by clicking right here.

Curb Appeal: Transforming the Side Yard, Part 5

Great news! The deck is stained and sealed and it’s looking awesome.

Just as a quick update, you can see the jungle that this space started as by hopping back to the first post in this series, or catching up with parts 2, 3 and 4 to see the full transformation.

The entire staining and sealing project from prep to dry time took about five days, with just a few hours of that dedicated to full on painting.

Here’s the before:

The deck is a decent amount of square footage so for this particular project we pulled out our Graco Magnum paint sprayer (the kind folks over at Graco teamed up with Lowe’s to sponsor our curb appeal efforts this year, a huge honor so thank you again, Graco!). This is one excellent example that paint sprayers, once you have an area thoroughly prepped, can make a painting project fly by.

As far as a stain and sealant is concerned, we chose a two-in-one penetrating oil sealer that prevents wood damage and adds a slight natural color to the grain. We will have to reapply annually, but the process is supposedly easier than other coatings because there is no sanding involved. And an oil-based sealant means that this stuff is absorbed into the deck wood rather than just a layer on top.

Other benefits of this particular stain include: eliminates mold and mildew, helps prevent wood rot, helps to prevent warping, cracking or splitting, low VOC and is excellent at repelling water. Click on the above picture to learn more about the stain/sealer, we chose ‘Natural’ of the options listed.

Up first was thoroughly taping and papering off any areas that we wanted to make sure were absolutely not in the ‘spray zone’. Kev and I woke up bright and early one Saturday morning to completely secure the side yard while Liv was sleeping .

Next it was time to stain. I should first mention, backing up two days, that we power washed the deck and then allowed the deck to naturally weather and dry out before this particular Saturday (aka the day of the sealing). This is a step that is easily neglected and if skipped, can turn into an issue when it comes time to apply the actual sealant to the wood (aka make sure that moisture content isn’t too high – the wood is like a sponge and needs time to completely dry out before it will soak up the sealant appropriately). Check with the manufacturer of the stain/sealant that you choose and follow all the guidelines for surface preparation and application.

Then Kevin came back through and used compressed air to blast the last little bits of residue from the cracks and crevices of the deck. You can see that he found a new (and better) use for my just-purchased vegetable scrubber… (don’t worry, he literally stole it out of the grocery bag, it’s brand new).

Now it’s time to paint! Keeping the contents of the paint sprayer and various buckets (the front paint bucket contains the stain, which is being sucked up into the sprayer, the back bucket is the mucky bucket, full of all output and solvent from the sprayer) in one large container – an extra under-the-bed storage bin did the trick for us – is a really easy tip for moving your entire set up around the deck as you go while also keeping items orderly with fewer potential accidents (hose knocking over a bucket of paint, etc).

Deck in progress! The deck itself was a quick spray once all equipment was ready to go.

The paint sprayer has a two foot wand attachment that can be purchased to help focus your spray directly onto the targeted area (and not leave you with a hunchback). Kevin being the super tall man that he is especially enjoyed this feature.

Once the sprayer had coated a generous amount of sealant directly onto the deck, Kevin used a squeegee/sponge (there has to be a proper name for this, but we couldn’t find one) to push the liquid into each and every crevice and deck crack (don’t want to leave those cracks exposed ). The pattern went something like: spray, spray, spray, squeegee, squeegee, squeegee, repeat.

 Using a paint brush, Kevin applied a coat of sealer directly to the sides and stairs of the deck. Possibly the most time consuming portion of the morning.

And she’s done! After drying for 48 hours (per instructions for the oil-based sealant), the deck is a pretty golden hue now. The entire project took Kevin a few hours (including prep) and another hour or so for clean up, pretty darn great for such a large space.

Here’s the man behind the machine, finished and ready to enjoy his Saturday.

And after a recent overnight sprinkle, the sealant is already proving to be worth its weight in deck gold.

The warm, natural color that we chose will continue to lighten with time to reveal the beautiful, natural redwood color variations and grain beneath.

A near-finished deck to bring us into fall.

And before I forget… a big thank you to iVillage for featuring Liv’s felt Christmas tree in their Christmas Tree slideshow, honored to be included amongst those creative bloggers who were also showcased!

We are incredibly excited to have partnered with Lowe’s and Graco for various parts of this project. All opinions are always our own and as usual we try to keep it as real as can be.

Curb Appeal: Transforming the Side Yard, Part 4

The side yard is almost finished! The entire backyard feels transformed and we are now very close to crossing it off of our list. In a couple of months it went from a space that you practically had to pull on mud boots to wade through, to a relaxing read the morning paper/play with Liv/dine under the stars snuggle spot.

Then:

Now:

Cue the collective ‘ooooo’. I can’t take much credit for this space and I hand over all of the glory to Kevin.

We put it to good use on Halloween when we test drove the new dining spot with a few close friends and their families:

It was perfect. And thank goodness for this beautiful San Diego weather that we have through the better part of fall! I think we’ll get plenty of use before it’s too chilly to eat outside.

We partnered with Lowe’s for pieces of this project as a part of their Curb Appeal campaign this year, and I’ll be sure to point out areas where their expertise and product played a big role. You’ll see more of my favorites in the final reveal when pots are in place and flowers are a bloomin’. It is a huge honor to represent our favorite home improvement store on the blog, so a big thank you to the folks over at Lowe’s – you guys are awesome.

Back to the side yard transformation… it is still amazing to me that there was SO much space hiding in those bushes! Here’s a shot from the front of the side yard looking back.

We expanded the deck all the way out to the new wall and property line between our house and our neighbor’s, which essentially took a foot path that was three ish feet wide and turned it into a deck space 3 times that width.

I last left you all with pictures of the wall as it was beginning its ascent. The wall was an arduous task – who knew so much cement and cement block could take so long? But as soon as the wall was finished it was time to lay the footers and frame out the future deck. These photos were from days before we left on our big trip, so we actually brought in a couple of recommended guys to help us knock it all out. Local San Diegans, hit me up for phone numbers if you need deck or flagstone contacts.

After much research and many hours spent perusing the forums of deck builders (yep, they exist), we settled on pressure treated douglas fir for the frame of the deck and redwood for the top. Choosing a synthetic vs real wood deck is very much a preference and budget choice – there are so many options out there these days and it all comes down to the look and feel that you are hoping to accomplish as well as the amount of upkeep you’re willing to supply on every-few-years basis.

We chose natural wood for a variety of reasons, a few included: the overall look and feel of the deck (wood vs wood-like), redwood is naturally weather-resistant (though we’ll seal it annually to prevent damage) so it won’t bow or shrink as it retains and sluffs off water from a storm, there is little expansion/shrinking of boards over the years, it contains tannins that make it least-termite friendly and rot prone of natural woods, it’s easy to work with, it’s quite durable and most importantly, it fit our budget. Other materials considered: oak, cedar, tropical woods (like ipe), pressure treated wood, plastic and composite options.

This is where we finished up before leaving for Europe. A functional deck but not yet stained or sealed (bad!). Now we’ll have to pressure wash it back down (as well as possibly sand) so that we can seal the deck asap.

We have a little surprise going in at this end for Liv!

The flagstone path from the front of the house now wraps around to the back. We’ll eventually replace that window above the path (the only aluminum guy in the house), the door in the forefront of the photo (with a version that matches the paneled sliding doors) and add a nice gate to the front of the side yard, too. Also on the list is texturing and painting the garden box that is still sad and grey.

Mid-deck build we asked our electrician to come out and help us install deck lighting. Kevin chose to wrap rope light all the way around the base of the deck so that a subtle uplighting would highlight the space at night.

Oooo, so soft and pretty (and energy efficient). Here’s a glance at the under side, the lights are held into place with U shaped nails.

We also had electrical outlets added to the outdoor kitchen island and porch lights installed on either side of the kitchen sliding doors. These guys are great! and very cost-efficient.

Kevin and five of his strong buddies added the new table to the deck just in time for Halloween, but we’ll pull the 1,000lb beast off again before we stain. Can’t wait to share how that table came together so quickly!

The outdoor dining area sits right off of the large four paneled sliding doors from the kitchen with the goal being that the two spaces could easily be integrated on warm summer nights.

Still need to find or DIY some sort of long candle plate to hold my white pillar candles (from Ikea), so that any potential tip overs don’t hit the actual wood table or deck.

Here’s a view from the grilling area that we built back when we first moved in. We found the grill, doors for the various storage compartments in the island and the beverage bin on Craigslist for a steal (a landscaper had just pulled them out of someone’s property for an upgrade), and then Kevin built them into a cement block cooking area that was eventually plastered a neutral sand color.

To the right of the grilling area is our outdoor fireplace (Kev also built that from scratch a couple of years ago) and the outdoor sectional that we semi-DIYed (the cushions at least ) for cozy fire-side wine nights.

The original plan was for the deck to stop after the side yard, but Kevin came up with the idea of wrapping it around the back of the house and it was brilliant! Now the two spaces feel very entwined and connected.

I hope to one day replace that decomposed granite that continues to crawl around the back of the house with a lawn area for Liv to run around on. But it’s very pretty and neutral for now.

The above photo is deceiving, but that DG actually stretches another twenty feet to the left. I’ll have to snap a few photos and show you all soon – perhaps when the chicken coop is a bit more photo ready!

Bodie and Liv, best friends forever.

I found a cute set of wicker chairs at Ikea a while back as well. I need to treat them for outdoor use (I’m already starting to see the side affects), but Liv’s a huge fan of sitting on the porch and playing or ‘reading’.

She really digs Liv-sized chairs right now.

One more post on staining and sealing (still deciding on colors – possibly just a nice clear to really show the grains in the redwood and so that it contrasts nicely with the table) and then our deck is finished! To be completed on the yard front is the flagstone path that stretches from the back of the house to the garage, a remodeled chicken coop, finish the garden bed and find a beautiful gate to seal it all up.

Yay for fall projects! And more Curb Appeal posts headed your way as we finally finish painting the house, continue our work on restoring the windows and add pretty winter foliage to the bare spots that still need a little love.

We are incredibly excited to have partnered with Lowe’s for various parts of this project, including those great dining chairs (more on that when I share about the table), outdoor lighting and deck framing materials. All opinions are always our own and as usual we try to keep it as real as can be.