My Biggest Outdoor Project Regret (I’m Considering Correcting It Sooner Rather Than Later)

About three weeks ago, I told y’all that i wasn’t quite ready to jump into a big project yet (like turning the hallway bathroom into a storage room), so I was going to spend some time doing fun projects. I had originally planned to jump into some outdoor projects, but as soon a I purchased the boards I need to finish up the porch skirting, it started raining. That’s when I turned my attention to the entryway makeover instead.

The entryway makeover is finished. I’ll have new pictures of the whole living room, music room, entryway area for you soon (hopefully tomorrow). So of course, my mind has been consumed with outdoor project ideas. I’m not even sure how much I’ll be able to do since we have even more rain in the forecast for this week, so once again, I might have to concentrate on more indoor projects in the meantime. But I do want to take advantage of any nice days we have by getting outside and working on those outdoor projects.

Anyway, as I’ve been thinking about those projects and planning the order in which I want to tackle those projects, one thing keeps bothering me. It’s honestly my biggest regret so far on the outdoor improvements I’ve made to our house. And that regret is that I used cedar porch boards for our front porch instead of a composite material.

But it just doesn’t stay that way. I’m now several years into dealing with this porch, and I’ve tried several different outdoor porch products. But I have yet to find one that continues to look nice and keep its color for even a year. All of the products I’ve used start to fade and come off within a year of resealing the porch boards.

Obviously, all houses require regular maintenance. But at the same time, as we’ve planned for this to be our forever home, I’ve begun assessing just how many things require regular maintenance. And since Matt can’t help me with any of it, that means it’s either all on me to do it, or I have to hire someone to do it. And y’all know I’m cheap, and I hate hiring out jobs that I know I can do myself. But my time is limited, so these projects, which are really pretty easy, get pushed off to the side while other things demand my immediate attention.

It’s not just one porch, either. Since I had already used cedar porch boards on the front porch, I also decided to use the same cedar porch boards when building the steps on my workshop because I want them to match.

But now I’m at a crossroads. As I’ve been thinking about and planning outdoor projects, I have two more areas that I want to match the front porch and my workshop steps. First, I still need to build the steps to the side door of my studio. I’ve had cinder blocks there for years, but I really need to get the steps built soon before the weather destroys the OSB that isn’t covered by the siding. And of course, I want these steps to match the front porch and the steps on my workshop.

And then I need to build the porch and steps to our new bedroom door. And this definitely has to match the front porch since they’re both on the front of our house.

So if I continue on with the cedar boards for the studio side door steps and the porch and steps to our new bedroom door, I’ve locked myself into having to reseal all four areas at least once every two years. So I’m really considering changing course on the studio steps and the bedroom porch and steps and using composite deck boards on those areas. And then, at some point in the near future, I would redo the front porch with the same composite deck boards.

In all honesty, I really don’t care of if my workshop steps are an exact match to the areas that show from the front of our house, but I would eventually want those done with composite also so that I won’t have to reseal those, either. I really hate to spend the time and money redoing such a big project as our front porch that is already finished and has been finished for years. But after dealing with the front porch for several years now, and dealing with the headache of having to reseal it regularly, I’m just at the point where I’m thinking about long term maintenance of our house. I think it might be worth it to just go ahead and replace those boards sooner than later.

Addicted 2 Decorating is where I share my DIY and decorating journey as I remodel and decorate the 1948 fixer upper that my husband, Matt, and I bought in 2013. Matt has M.S. and is unable to do physical work, so I do the majority of the work on the house by myself. You can learn more about me here.