Houston, we have a problem.

My problem is this: I come up with random projects that I like to do right after work or during lunch breaks or on a Saturday mornings. I usually don't tell Keith about them (he would possibly roll his eyes and ask why on earth I felt like doing something like that) and he comes home to something new or updated quite often! Case in point, I wanted to re-stain our back deck since the dogs manage to take the stain off each year. This is our second attempt at staining the back deck and I think it turned out better the second year. I bought a stain attachment pad thing that I duct taped to the end of a swiffer. Worked quite well, I might add!

Before...

Cleaning out all the pecans, sticks, dirt, etc from in between the cracks of the deck took forever, but once that was finally done, I could begin the task. It took probably an hour to apply all of the stain...not too bad.

Doesn't that look so much better?! Mother Nature had another idea in mind and just a few short hours later, this happened...

It started pouring rain. By this time, Keith was home from work and he quickly helped me find a tarp to cover the majority of the deck to hopefully preserve all the staining I had just completed. Note to self, check the weather forecast next time I attempt something like this. Luckily, the rain didn't destroy all of my hard work.

Here is the newly stained deck in all her glory (with a few muddy dog footprints plus a few new pillows from Home Depot on clearance, thanks to the end of summer sale):

Much improved, right?! Now if I can just keep Kayli from jumping on the love seat and tossing the pillows off. Plus she now likes to take the plants out of the planters and eat all the dirt. Since this picture was taken, she has managed to kill both plants. Grrr...

I just had to add this picture of our sweet Cason enjoying the pretty new deck!