Deck Restore Painting

We have an old house. I think it is around 35 years old. So this deck may be really, really crotchety! That means old in pig latin. And we redid the flat part last year.  This year we wanted to redo all the posts and cover up those dumb hearts. (who puts hearts on balconies except the Swiss? Are we living in the Swiss Alps or what?)

The awful Deck.  This is the BEFORE DECK RESTORE picture. 

When we started the project last year we had to do a lot of PREP! Oh my GOSH the deck was flaky. Is yours that way too? Yuck!  I took the power washer and washed off the entire deck really good. It took me an hour or so. Then I let it dry.