Thanks budge! Oh cliff and joann! I have always loved your deck and yard. I only dream of having one as nice. As far as the deck, the reason it looks so bad is it went through alot with the remodel, the dogs' scooby doo impersonations and a bad choice of a dark color (by me.) The dogs don't "go" on the deck. (I think that would be Oceanna's.) I do want to work on it as soon as the weather cooperates so thanks for the advice/instructions. AS far as tables, I do have a dining set with six chairs on the other side of the deck and two adirondacks on a small patio. For the wicker set area I have one side table and would like to make another one. (I spent so much money on the equipment and need to use it!) Then I was thinking of a big ottoman in the middle that could also serve as a table if you put a tray on it. Here is my DIY table: Here is a pic of the dining set with a little snow: This pic was taken earlier this season. The bad news is that there is even more snow out there today :( I really love the privacy side of your deck. Is that freestanding or built in?

I'd do a deck. I hate weeding between pavers. Some advice: Our deck is about 10" off the ground, and we get suckers from our plum tree that pop up between the planks. It's low enough to make it really hard to trim under there, and thick weed cloth doesn't stop those things. If you have certain kinds of trees nearby, make sure something is put under it to stop suckers. Also, I cannot over emphasize how much I HATE maintaining the wood. I strongly suggest something like Timber Tech vintage collection (that brand in particular because it's more realistic looking than the other brands). We have that for our front porch and it's super easy to keep clean, and super grippy when it's wet. (edit: I see this is a very old post. seriously people, start a new thread if you have a question.)

Thank you so much yardvaark! So our thought is to not have the second transitional deck only to have stairs from the first deck and garage door (they might connect?) leading to a (20’x20’ish) patio which will go to the end of the garage. So where there is currently landscape (a tree in your rendering) we will have all patio. The new patio’s depth will extend about 6’ into the yard past the current deck. We don’t want to eat up too much of the yard since the kids use it often. We also have a sport court and gravel area with swing set adjacent to the grass (where i was standing while taking the photo). We’re debating having the end of the patio that extends past the garage curve so we could possibly do a fire pit or fire table with comfy seating... maybe even an outdoor tv at some point. we also have pricing to build a rectangular pergola over the patio portion and would install a shade cover option with it. We’re feeling a bit lost in this process though and it’s frustrating that deck and patio has to be done by two separate companies! I’m clueless how to bring it all together. So far no one has offered up drawings... which seems crazy for such an expensive project.

I know this is an old post, but we are about to use Millboard. We have switched our plan from replacing our worn-out deck with another deck and have decided to have a screened porch instead. I still plan to go with Millboard though since it fits together without gaps for insects to invade. Did you end up with Millboard? I like that it is not slippery or as hot as other composites because our steps will be Millboard, too (second story deck/porch).