A pain in the deck...

Last summer I got on a big furniture painting/distressing kick and painted the heck out of some old furniture (and other things) around here.  This year, ever since I got the idea to spruce up the shady area of the backyard, I've gone a little gung ho crazy about beautifying the rest of the yard too.  


My current project is the deck.  


The weekend before last we made a trip to Lowe's that took three shopping carts, a forklift, and the truck and trailer to get it all home. I was making a planter all along one side of the fence where I had planted my Black-eyed Susans and Butterfly bushes.  Mission accomplished. 


But more on that later.


That day we also bought two four gallon buckets of Restore deck paint along with a gallon of matching Restore stain because the lady working there told us it was the straight up bomb as far as deck paint goes.  And our deck was in serious need of a little TLC.  But little did I know just how much painstaking labor that would require on my part...  


Back the first of last week I got out there one morning and began trying to clean the dang thing with some "green" cleaner I'd ordered that was supposed to clean that deck wood like nobody's business without harming any living being or plant in the process.  Hmph.  


I scrubbed and sprayed and scrubbed and sprayed and swore and cursed my day away but as hard as my stubborn self tried I could not, for the life of me, get all that algae gunk off that deck. Even after I broke out the bleach.  About the time Charlie pulled up that afternoon I was fed up and half past my wit's end so I whined a little, threw down the hose and scrub brush and said, "I'm done."  


So being the gentleman  (and super smart husband) that he is, he hopped in his truck after a long day of work and headed to the Home Depot to rent an industrial pressure washer and then came back and pressure washed the smack out of that deck.  It didn't get finished that night but after he stayed home to work on it the next day, that stubborn arse algae was no more...  

Yesterday morning I finally got around to the paint.  This substance is like painting with a whipped frosting with sand in it.  It was weird.  It was messy.  It was labor intensive and it did not go nearly as far as I expected it too.  Yesterday afternoon I was just about finished with the first coat when I ran out of paint.  It requires two coats.


Back to Lowe's I went, complete with the fighting boys, where I bought two more four gallon buckets of the sandy batter and another gallon of the stain for the rails, convinced now that I would not have near enough of that either.  


Do you have any idea how much a four gallon bucket of that stuff weighs?  Me neither.  But it's a lot.  A whole lot!  I know because I drug four of those bad boys around yesterday. 


I won't go into all the fiascos I encountered right now or the soreness of my right hand and other parts of my body but it was 8:00 before I finished up last night. And that was only the floor  and steps of the deck.  I still have to paint the rails and the trim with the stain.  


And seeing as how it is supposed to be well over one hundred humid degrees for a few days straight after today, I better go find my paint brush...