Deck plans and dreams

We are tearing down our deck and rebuilding and expanding it. We are nearly doubling it in size. The deck now sits at 14' X 10'. We will end up with 22' x 14'

 Here is a picture of the deck now (as we start to remodel I will post more before pictures. I LOVE before and afters!)

And here is the placement of the new deck in relation to the current deck

No, it won't be a turquoise deck, although I think that would very whimsical.

OH! Not this year, but next, we will be adding a white pergola to the top. We are learning that Pergola's are nearly as expensive as decks.  So a lot of the posts will actually be longer than necessary to accommodate the addition of the pergola in the future.

This, is with the pergola. 

Aren't my drawings incredible? Ha!

The pictures where taken looking east. We will be adding 4 feet out to the West and about 12 feet to the North. There will be a little bridge about 4 x 4 feet wide going over the basement door to get to the new stairs. The stairs will change from heading North to heading out to the West.

. I am SOOO excited for this! Kevin keeps saying, "This is going to be the nicest 'room' in our house." Which is true. This marks the first significant investment we will have made on the house. 

I know my drawings are awesome, but here are some inspiration pictures and details I'd like to include:

I like the post details of this one

 

I like how wide the posts and posts caps are

I would LOVE to have electricity in the pergola!

Our deck faces west, so curtains are a must

Again with the curtains

I really like the contrasting colors here

More lighting on the pergola

 

While I love, love, love the location and the yard of our home, the layout is a bit awkward and the house is getting up there in years. My dream of dreams is to level the whole thing and rebuild. However, I have come up with a few plans (that nearly gut the thing) that will save us from leveling and still make the home more functional as our family grows...meaning when our kids get married and start having kids. It does NOT mean that I will be having any more kids. ;) This just makes the first step of changing things up.

Anyway. 

Today we finally decided on the color. It came down to two choices who happen to be complete polar opposites.

Vintage Lantern from Trex

and Rope Swing from Trex

I think both of these look great with the house. Our brick has a lot of colors in it.

but it came down to function. We did a sun test. We left both samples out in the 55 degree heat today (don't mock. My kids were in shorts. It was dang near hot!) for about a half an hour. Then I brought them both in, had Kevin close his eyes, and put his hands on both samples simultaneously. The vintage lantern was much warmer. Since our deck is west facing we feared the darker color would dissuade us from using our nice, new deck for fear of baking to death in the middle of the summer.  Plus, the lighter color will allow any dark deck furniture that we get to pop a little more ;)

Rope swing it is!

 Monday we will finalize the railing. We've decided on going with metal, except for the posts. After that just a few more crossed T's and dotted i's and we should be able to start digging! My goal is to have it all completed by the end of May. 

Here is a picture of the color scheme we are going with.

 We debated for quite a while about whether or not to add a drink rail on top of the railing (the top picture), it's basically one of the deck boards secured to the top of the railing, but I think in the end we are going to go without it.(the bottom picture)

The picture is not the size or shape of the deck, we only want one level etc.,  but you get the idea.

I've been dreaming about deck furniture and outdoor pillows. 

 I especially love this one. That patterned fabric is perfect!

Source: grandinroad.com via Emilie on Pinterest

Ooooo and this one

Source: grandinroad.com via Emilie on Pinterest

And this one

Source: grandinroad.com via Emilie on Pinterest

All things that will probably have to wait until next year as well. Still, one step closer is better than nothing!

(Most of these pictures I grabbed from my pinterest page. If you want the original source for the image, head on over there :)