Weekend Work

As I mentioned before, we're getting ready for company this Thanksgiving. We've been doing loads of work on the weekends in order to get ready. So far this weekend, we've accomplished a lot of things.

We started repairing our deck. It's about 10 years old and is still in pretty good shape. There are a couple of boards we needed to replace. Hubby replaced the railing boards. They were warped and twisting. I painted them and the railings so everything looks fresh. We demo'd the steps and put new ones in. Hubby wanted to reuse the stringers, but I thought they were too shabby to reuse. So I went to the local hardware store and bought three 3-step stringers. My bill came to $29 and some change. SHOCK! When we last bought stringers, they were about $4 a piece! Whoa! $9.25 is what they were today. Double Whoa!! So I hauled them home. The steps look really nice. There is a lot of room for sitting on them and watching the bees, butterflies and butterfly moths drink from the lantana. That will probably be my favorite spot to sit at night.

Previously, we had covered our deck floor with Restore. It is that new stuff that puts a coat on the surface of the wood and fills in some small cracks. Remember...what you see on TV is after they put down a brand new surface then painted it with Restore. What actually happens is your surface will have some small cracks filled in with the larger cracks remaining to a certain degree. This stuff doesn't level any boards out for you. You will need to check your fasteners before you apply this stuff. It will coat the head of the nail and screws. We may not be able to unscrew anything when we demo in the future. One very important thing to remember...THIS STUFF GETS HOT HOT HOT IN THE SUN!!! We get upwards of 90 degree F weather here for most of the spring and summer. Since this stuff is a kind of plastic, it heats up quickly and stays hot for a long time. The dogs won't even stay on it. One good thing is that it is a clean up with water. It is easy to use. Just roll or brush it on. It is relatively inexpensive for what you are getting, which is a fairly new-looking deck. It gives a non-slip surface, which is a real plus.

We put a new underpinning around the deck. We used 6' pickets. We stained them and cut them into 3 equal pieces. It is cheap and looks great! We applied them about 2" from the ground and it should last a long time, too.

I've been working on another piece of furniture for our company bathroom. Pics to come soon!

What's nice about us is we work well together. He does the nitty gritty stuff and I'll help him if he needs it. I do the finishing stuff which usually isn't all that hard but it takes a lot of time. We're knocking off our chores rather quickly. I can't wait until he helps me get the house ready. That will be a great big blessing!

Take care.