Repainting the Deck - Takes Two and Three

Dear People of the Midwest:

I apologize.  If had had been aware that I held the key to ending this drought that we have been locked in all summer, I would have planned to paint my deck a lot sooner.  However, until my third attempt at getting this project finished, this revelation did not occur to me.  Therefore, I vow to you that from now until the end of time (or at least until my deck is fully painted) I will plan to paint my deck every weekend so that we may all recover from this dry summer.

Sincerely,
Dawn

Ok, seriously, I know the drought has had a huge impact on our country and especially those who depend upon the rain to further their livelihoods, but really...  how many times do I have to plan to paint the deck and it rain?  I am SO close to being done.  I thought for sure I would get it finished today, and just kept on painting as I could see the clouds rolling in and feel the temperature dropping.  I painted clear up until the sprinkles started.  I am still not finished.  The main parts are complete, it's the small tedious parts that need attention.  Also, I'm going to put a second coat of paint on the deck itself.

What's done looks great.  Let me back up and share a bit.

Labor Day Weekend:
Friday - rain.
Saturday - rain.
Sunday - woo hoo!  No rain, but the deck is still wet.
Monday - PAINTING!

Step one: SUNBLOCK!
I'm a white girl.  I don't tan.  I turn various shades of pink.  Colten likes to tease that if Shamus (from WWE) and I had a kid it would be translucent.
I used to try to tan, but I have come to accept that it doesn't happen for me.  Skin cancer runs in my family.  I decided it's not worth it.  Break out the SPF 70 broad spectrum.

From there I started painting the rails on the "inside" of the deck, and finally the deck floor, giving myself a way out down the stairs.  About 1/2 way through the deck floor I realized that even though I calculated the area needed to cover to be approximately 240 sq ft, and the paint can said it would cover 400 sq ft, I wasn't going to have enough paint.

I was able to finish the deck and get the stairs painted before I decided to take a break and get another gallon.  Once I came back, I finished up the first gallon on starting the "outside" of the rails.  By this time, dinner was ready - I forgot to mention that the whole day I was also baking a ham for dinner.  I thought I would go back to painting after I ate, but once I sat down, the aches and pains started creeping in and I knew I was done for the day.

I don't want to give away the big reveal until it is completely finished, but here's a sneak peek.

This is where I finished off:

And an up-close of the color I picked, although this doesn't really show the true color.  It is "Harvest Brown" by Behr.  Initially I thought I wanted a darker brown color, but I really liked this one, especially the way it looks against our grey house.

I planned to finish it up yesterday, but there was a chance of rain.  So I just worked on Mount St. Laundry and did my usual Sunday running (Petsmart, Aldi, KMart, Sun Fresh).

Today, I had to take Colten to a follow up appointment for his jaw surgery (more on that on another blog post) but I had the whole afternoon to finish painting the deck.  It was beautiful out.  The sun was shining, but far enough over the house that I could work in the shade,  I gathered my supplies and got started.  I don't think I was 5 minutes in before it started clouding over.

I've been home with Colten while he has been down and out, but he is feeling better so I am back to work tomorrow.  My next chance to paint will be next Saturday.  I should be able to finish it then.

Count on rain.

Repainting the Deck - Take One

This weekend we had planned on repainting the deck finally.  Here's what it looked like this morning with the furniture all taken off...

We've never really been fans of the grey paint, and as you can see, it's all chipped and worn off.  I can understand that the previous owners were trying to match the deck to the house color, but there really wasn't anything that made it stand out.  What we do like are the black rails.  They are really nice accents, but we feel like somehow they are just lost with the current color.

So the plan was that one of Adrian's friends from work would come by this morning and power wash the deck for us.  We went around and hammered in all the nails that were poking theirs heads up, took the remnants of the gazebo off, and started scraping a bit in one corner.

I'm kind of glad I started that just so I could get a feel for how looonnnggg it would have taken to scrape the entire deck.  Thankfully, Lance showed up with his power washer and made quick work of it.  So thankful for that!  Here's how it looked after he was done...

So the plan was to let the deck dry today and get started painting tomorrow afternoon.  Unfortunately this happened...

That's what's left of Hurricane Isaac.  So all it has done today is rain, all it's going to do tomorrow is rain.  It's a long weekend, but I don't know if there will be enough dry time on Sunday to get to painting on Monday.  This could just be a redo next weekend.