Stain!

Mandy and I have spent (at least) the last 9 evenings staining our back deck. It is approximately 40 feet long by 8 feet wide and requires about 4 gallons of dark chocolate stain to coat it. What a pain! We *almost* finished the underside of it tonight, but it got dark and I'll have to look at it tomorrow to see if we did a good job.

This will be the last time I stain that deck (I hope). I'd like to resurface it with either composite decking or aluminum decking that creates a dry area below it. The aluminum is the way to go -- we get the dry, usable space below without having to worry about replacing the support structure due to rotting. All it costs is time and money!!!