Patio plans

In the spirit of warmer and sunnier days, it’s been hard not to pay attention to our patio situation. One word – sadness (the moody picture really helps to illustrate that). I find the excuse of not being ready “patio-wise” in the fact that we’ve been homeowners for only a year. Last summer – was our first summer in the house, so we were caught completely off guard in terms of putting together some sort of seating/relaxing area to enjoy the sun. So the deck was practically unused. This year, I’ve decided to look into the situation thoroughly and make the best out of our very descent size deck and gazebo.

Furniture

As for the outdoor furniture, we knew we wanted more of a lounge type of seating, rather than dining table and chairs. An area, where we would hang out after dinner, an area for light bbq cookouts, a place to enjoy drinks after work in warm summer evenings.

So after some heavy browsing the net for an affordable patio set, I found a used one on Kijiji. Yes, ideally, who wouldn’t want a brand new, bright-coloured, freshly-cushioned patio set, right? Especially at this time of year, when all those “perfectly-set-up-outdoor-patio-ads” are screaming at you from magazines? But the truth is, we’re fine with having to sit on “used” furniture. It’s in a good shape, which means it passed the test of time and more importantly, it suits our budget and our needs.

Grill
Our compact charcoal grill that we've been using for the past couple of years didn’t make it through the winter and had to be disposed of. We are thinking of getting a similar portable one to take to parks and beaches and we are also thinking of investing in a bigger charcoal grill to use when bbq-ing on the patio. V has been thinking of making a mangal himself, as it's more traditional for us to use than a regular grill. That may be a project for the future though, due to finding the right type of metal, cutting and welding it.

Deck
Now that the outdoor furniture matter and grill situation have been dealt with, I’m determined to freshen up our deck. The structure is only three years old but it looks like 15. I hate to see the wood fading and being unprotected, not to mention – it doesn’t look very inviting. I'm very eager to paint/stain it all, so it might look something like this.
Have you ever painted or stained your deck? Was that worth time/effort/money for something to be abused by our harsh climate?