Front Deck mini Makeover

I had this past Friday off, so I decided to spend it in the garden! I pulled weeds (with this really cool weed puller we got!), raked leaves and started to pick up sticks, I watered flowers, took pictures of all the cute things growing in the garden, and then I decided that the front deck needed a makeover! I'll try to explain this as clearly as possible - but the pictures will help.

Our front deck is only about a foot, foot and a half off the ground. The west side of the deck is up against the house, the North and South ends of the deck are open, and the East side of the deck has a railing with really ornate pillars, which are super wide and block your view to the pretty yard - which are not spaced to code anyhow. When you sit down and look out to the yard, all you see is railing. I thought it was kind of funny to have the railing only along only one side, especially along the side that you want to look out from while you're sitting on your deck.

The deck could also use some ambient lighting (along with 20 other upgrades), but I figured I could do something with the existing railing, and some lighting to make it esthetically pleasing, and serve a purpose. Mikey and I bought some solar post lights from Wall-Mart (an 8 pack for $60) and then got to work.

This is what it looked like before, while Mikey started taking down the ornate pillars (click on pics to make them full size):

<- Heh, cute tiki man (his eyes light up at night)

**Note that Mikey is using a screwdriver to take it apart** Maybe 10 minutes after this, Mikey got a fire call and had to leave. That's when I busted out the power drill, and finished taking everything down in about the same amount of time:

Then I took the beams that went across at the top, and moved them down:

After that, I just had to wait until Mikey got home so he could saw off the posts to a shorter length, and then we attached the post lights!

It looks so much better, seems to make the deck feel so much larger, and adds a great feel to the whole front yard. I will post a photo of it at night, I just have to wait till it gets darker, and I can get a pic of the lights on! Now all thats left for the deck makeover is to stain it (dark brown maybe?), re-building the steps up to the front door, fixing the area along the house that has been chopped up for some reason.. etc etc etc.