Early Progress!
Due to an early morning appointment for my lawn mower, I had to be up and presentable to the public early today, even though it's a holiday. I was in the front yard pruning a tree at 7:20 this morning. By 9am, I had pruned two trees and four rosebushes and had weeded 1 1/2 flower beds. The bad news is that my mower needs some work that the service guy couldn't fix in the back of the truck, so my mower is having a little vacation at the shop this weekend.
Since I was up an about this morning, I decided to stay productive. I've since pruned a shrub, weed whacked the front yard and finished weeding the front flower beds. I even took a couple of breaks in the air conditioning. I had a go at cleaning the deck too. I have discovered that doing this in full sun is a bad idea. The cleaner stuff dries before it can really do its work. This will be more of an early morning/evening task if I want to maximize the effectiveness of the cleaning stuff and reduce the amount of work it will take to get the deck clean enough to stain.
On the deck and fence staining front, I have picked what colors and stains I'll use as well as the order in which I'll do the three jobs. The non-public side of the fence will be cleaned and stained last because that's going to be a biiiiiiig job. The public side of the fence would be the quickest job and the most visible, so it will be first. The deck will be more complicated. For starters, the deck will be getting a solid color stain, so it'll need two coats. It's also going to be two colors. Finally, getting the vertical parts of the railing stained will take more time and effort to stain well.
I really want to get the deck and fence done soon. The problem is that it's not a hot weather project and it's going to be hot weather for the next couple of months. I would just work on this project in the morning, but the morning dew makes that impossible. The deck and fence must dry out completely before I can stain them. Looks like I get to practice patience for a while. Maybe I'll transfer my painting energy to the baseboards and trim inside the house. They really need to be refreshed.
If you're wondering about what colors I picked (since I've changed my mind about six times since I started planning this project), I have chosen Russet, a semi-transparent stain, for the fence. The deck will be either Winning Red or Navaho Red on the top rail and deck floor, with Rawhide on the vertical slats in the railing. Those are both solid stains. I wasn't sure what the deck was previously stained with and a solid stain will be able to cover whatever is there already. The color choices for the deck were difficult. I wanted a reddish brown for the floor, but worried about picking a color which was too dark and that would get hot in the sun. Yet I didn't want a color which was too light and which would readily get dirty when I walk across it after digging in the garden or mowing the lawn. I also wanted colors which would look reasonably good with the current landscape. I think it would be impossible to pick the right color green and orange or pink were definitely right out.
Typographical Errors
I'm sure I'm not the only person who does this: if at all possible, I refuse to do business with companies who have spelling and grammar errors in their advertising. If the company isn't smart enough to proofread their ads, I really wonder how smart they are about their products and services. If they cared enough to do their very best, they should check their ads and/or hire people smart enough to spell/write properly. This message brought to you by a product which as a "poll adapter" that allows you to use it with a POLE so you can reach the ceiling. With a poll adapter, it should be helping me vote.
Since I was up an about this morning, I decided to stay productive. I've since pruned a shrub, weed whacked the front yard and finished weeding the front flower beds. I even took a couple of breaks in the air conditioning. I had a go at cleaning the deck too. I have discovered that doing this in full sun is a bad idea. The cleaner stuff dries before it can really do its work. This will be more of an early morning/evening task if I want to maximize the effectiveness of the cleaning stuff and reduce the amount of work it will take to get the deck clean enough to stain.
On the deck and fence staining front, I have picked what colors and stains I'll use as well as the order in which I'll do the three jobs. The non-public side of the fence will be cleaned and stained last because that's going to be a biiiiiiig job. The public side of the fence would be the quickest job and the most visible, so it will be first. The deck will be more complicated. For starters, the deck will be getting a solid color stain, so it'll need two coats. It's also going to be two colors. Finally, getting the vertical parts of the railing stained will take more time and effort to stain well.
I really want to get the deck and fence done soon. The problem is that it's not a hot weather project and it's going to be hot weather for the next couple of months. I would just work on this project in the morning, but the morning dew makes that impossible. The deck and fence must dry out completely before I can stain them. Looks like I get to practice patience for a while. Maybe I'll transfer my painting energy to the baseboards and trim inside the house. They really need to be refreshed.
If you're wondering about what colors I picked (since I've changed my mind about six times since I started planning this project), I have chosen Russet, a semi-transparent stain, for the fence. The deck will be either Winning Red or Navaho Red on the top rail and deck floor, with Rawhide on the vertical slats in the railing. Those are both solid stains. I wasn't sure what the deck was previously stained with and a solid stain will be able to cover whatever is there already. The color choices for the deck were difficult. I wanted a reddish brown for the floor, but worried about picking a color which was too dark and that would get hot in the sun. Yet I didn't want a color which was too light and which would readily get dirty when I walk across it after digging in the garden or mowing the lawn. I also wanted colors which would look reasonably good with the current landscape. I think it would be impossible to pick the right color green and orange or pink were definitely right out.
Typographical Errors
I'm sure I'm not the only person who does this: if at all possible, I refuse to do business with companies who have spelling and grammar errors in their advertising. If the company isn't smart enough to proofread their ads, I really wonder how smart they are about their products and services. If they cared enough to do their very best, they should check their ads and/or hire people smart enough to spell/write properly. This message brought to you by a product which as a "poll adapter" that allows you to use it with a POLE so you can reach the ceiling. With a poll adapter, it should be helping me vote.
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