I understand your reasons for not wanting to use timber, but if you went with an exotic wood like Ipe or Cumaru, they're basically impervious to termites. They're also really strong. The direct sunlight would cause the color to go gray, but aside from that the railing wouldn't suffer any structural damage.

What is not confusing is that you will require greater support beneath the very attractive enclosed back room. Is there a door to the lower level to the side of the cute play house? If so, you need some thoughtful advice from your local landscape adviser, or send me your engineer's plat for further advice, also at no charge, as you need help, pomajzir, as you appear to have given little thought to the ground level, rear yard development for the kids and adults, which needs some regrading to be useful below and attractive from the windows above. How about a slide from the lowest stair landing, for example? I am happy to see that you did not have just one straight stairway, all the way from deck to turf. Enjoy your new home, perhaps your first holiday season within it. cascio.offsite@gmail.com analyze first, then plan

hey, thanks all for reviving this discussion. i like the gray idea pragmatically, but my house is gray and i think might look funny without a little more contrast. angel, is that picture from when you did the initial coat last year, and on fairly recent pressure treated? do you think it's safe to figure that the translucent is just giving the existing color more depth and brightness, and that on my two-year old pressure treated, already graying some, i would not get the same effect? that's probably tough to answer, but any thoughts? i'm thinking i may need something with more color to get the right effect. i'm also reading that darker stains tend to last longer, so maybe there's a tradeoff between that and peelng being less visible with lighter color. i guess horizontal surfaces are just tough!

I would have left the entire deck light and natural, let it complement the mortar and fit with the natural outdoor environment, but since you have already stained the top rail you may be stuck with staining the entire deck. I would start with stripping the stain from the top rail and see how it impacted the color. Then I would re-stain with something that has a more natural feel, (Walnut, Chestnut)