Gearing Up For A Sunny Season - Part 1

Out the front of the beach shack, there is a high concrete deck. It's totally unsafe for a 18 month old who constantly threatens to tumble off the edge so we've been living this Summer with the sliding doors constantly closed. The deck area has been totally under utilised so Roge and I have brainstormed and come up with an inexpensive solution that will allow us to use the space as a bit of an extension to the living area.

First however, there has been some prep work required. I picked up a really good quality shade sail off Gumtree the local free online classifieds for $50. It is in perfect condition except that it is filthy. Easy fixed, a bit of sugar soap, a bucket of warm water and a scrubbing brush later and it's as good as new:

All up it took me about half an hour to clean it up but the results are well worth it. I have a HUGE, good quality shade sail to put up on the new "renovated deck area".

Meanwhile, my hard working husband was changing the colour of the shack from baby poo brown...

...to a much more "beachy" light grey. The idea was to paint the house first, before building anything on the deck as that would make the painting easier. The previous owners had spent money on having the place professionally painted just before they put it on the market. However, I think they were colour blind because the colours are atrocious. Baby poo brown with a olive green around the windows and facia. Then a totally different tone of brown on the brick work...yuck!

The grey goes a lot better with the olive green although we intend on re painting the brick work in a darker grey. The long term plan is to eventually get rid of the olive green too and introduce white on the facia and windows but we'll wait a few years to do that (too many other jobs we want to do first!)

The plan is now to put up a pergola and balustrade so we can hang the shade sail and keep Ewan from falling over the edge of the deck. This time next week I'll have the final result to show you and I can't wait....

Cost so far: $170 ($120 for 10L paint and $50 second hand shade sail)