The deck is done. I am grateful. A big thank you again to everyone: Ted, Winslow Paint, our neighbors Marc & Alyssa, our friend Larry, Grandma. Thanks to God too for the great weather .
Hurray!
At the same time, I am disappointed a bit. To me the wood glowed more beautifully when it was freshly stripped and wet, sweet hues of honey. Now it seems darker in tone. And after three days of drying, it is still sticky in a few places, mostly in a protected area under overhang near the back door, where the wood was least weathered. Perhaps there was something wrong with the wood in the beginning, which is why the first staining two years ago was sticky too.
But all in all, it turned out well, better than the first stain done by the pros, if I say so myself. A couple people who have seen the deck have said that it looks “new”. Maybe even better than new! It is now a permanent pretty princess, a cedar Cinderella indeed- and no clock will strike midnight and turn the coach into a pumpkin! Overall, it was easy – and certainly more economical than paying someone else $20 an hour for 30+ hours of labor! Wow, that would be one way to make some money….
…but I don’t think I’ll do decks for a living. While it was fun to facilitate the transformation, I don’t have – at least not yet – the strength to do the work. Two mornings this week I got up early and stained the deck for a couple hours before the girls woke. I painted parts of the 140+ posts in the railings by the light of sunrise, climbing on ladders and doing the necessary gymnastics. And each morning, once I got back in the house, my arms were so tired, I spilled something. One morning I spilled yogurt inside the refrigerator. And the other morning I spilled the contents of Michaela’s potty onto the bathroom floor….
So I don’t have the muscles to do decks all day long. And I don’t think I’d want to spend my days with stripper and stain, even if it paid more than my current occupation :).
No, I think I’ll be keeping my day job. I realized that I like it too much 🙂
