Kitty Cat Mob!

So you are probably wondering about the title . . . More on that a little further down.

But first, we are finally done staining the front porch! It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, much like meeting your spouse's ex. You think it will be terrible but then you meet them and they turn out to be really sweet and nice, and not at all the ogre you hoped thought they'd be. :)

There's something about wet cedar wood that I LOVE. Maybe it's because I'm from the West Coast, but the color of a wet cedar fence or deck makes me swoon. So when it came time to decide on stain for the cedar deck I tried to find the color that would make it look like it was wet all the time! We went to Home Depot and picked out some CIL stain in ,what else, CEDAR color. haha
It took 2 coats to get our desired color. We did the whole thing with paint brushes in the middle of the night! Seriously you can't put stain on in direct sunlight, and we found the day time too hot. The stain would dry too fast and made patches, so we sanded out the patches and stained the rest between the hours of 11 pm and 2 am! Sure it looked a little crazy . . . sure some neighbors stopped by to ask what the heck we were doing, but it's done in all of it's non-patchy glory!

 Not too much of a change from the street, but we're really happy with the result when you walk up the steps!

What was really a pain the neck, was staining and installing the lattice all around the front porch!
Which brings me to my RANT: ARG outdoor cats! Okay maybe it's not all outdoor cats, but it is definitely some outdoor cat. You know who you are outdoor cats, I've seen you and your orange-y stripes, or black shiny coats I use to like you before you started using under our porch as your personal half eaten bird graveyard. You outdoor cats are no longer welcome!
I'll save you the details but it was GROSS! I'm going to file that incident under "Thank goodness I'm married" because otherwise little birds would still be under the porch. I think it's the work of a Kitty Cat mob, who can't make it out to the back woods to hide their crimes so they use the cover of our front porch.
We decided that it was time to block out bird murder crime scenes!
Some very inexpensive cedar lattice from home depot, the same cedar stain (it only took 3/4 of a can to do the deck so we had more than enough leftover to stain the lattice).
First stain you panels:

 Next cut to size:

Lastly install
It got a little tricky around the steps but nothing crazy. All the panels went up in about an hour!
Before:

 After:

By next year the hydrangeas will be HUGE and you won't even be able to see the lattice which is okay with us, it's meant to stop kitty cat mobs, dumping their bodies under our porch. 

So screw you little kitty cats you'll have to bury the evidence somewhere else from now on. (Okay screw you might be a little harsh).