Excuse the radio silence over here. If you follow us on Instagram, you may already know we’ve been working on an outdoor space since early August. We’ve been saving money and energy for this project for a few years. My husband was excited to finally take a break from the indoor projects and get into the outdoors, his natural habitat. At the beginning of quarantine, we noticed several families turning stock tanks into pools and at the last minute added it to our plans for the outdoor space. It took several months to find one, but finally managed to snag an 8ft stock tank at Tractor Supply this fall. Since we are putting so much effort into painting and installing the pool, we plan to heat it so we can enjoy it all year long! More on that to come! We had to divert from our original plan for the steps due to the placement of our septic tank but our initial drawing below illustrates the decking pattern, the placement of the stock tank pool, privacy wall, and metal poles that will support our outdoor lighting.
Our Plans:
Our Inspiration:
We chose a black + white combination for our exterior, much like one of our favorite homes: Catalina Burradoo. We went with Caviar by Sherwin Williams for our black accent wall but we haven’t picked our white quite yet. We are currently deciding between SW City Loft and Snowbound.
We picked a similar color scheme for our stock tank pool. Our painting process has been a long one. We began by sanding the pool with an orbital sander, washing it down with vinegar, and then used a self-etching primer. We used Sherwin Williams Pro Industrial High Performance Epoxy all over the pool and on the exterior we used a black satin spray paint. We are still in the process of touching up a few areas on the stock tank pool and testing to see how the paint holds up to moisture, so I’ll share more about our painting process once we know it works!
Our Furniture:
We landed on this affordable outdoor dining set by AllModern. Right now, the black is out of stock but be sure to sign up for email notifications because they re-stock this set pretty regularly. The chairs are still available and you can find them here. We love this dining set because it’s plastic, lightweight, and requires little-to-no maintenance. Not to mention, it seats up to 8 people. We could even purchase two additional chairs and seat 10 people!
Where We Are:
We are getting so close to the finish line! We completed the black accent wall, set the pool in place, and laid the last of the decking boards. We picked the absolute best and worst time to build a deck. It’s the best time because many of our travel plans were put on hold due to COVID. It’s the worst time because lumber is the most expensive it’s ever been due to COVID. We have already spent more money on this outdoor space than we have for our entire kitchen remodel. And we aren’t done yet. We look forward to showing you this space once it’s fully completed! Our goal is to have it completed in time to take a Christmas card photo of us soaking in the stock tank hot tub! Ha, here’s to hoping!
