This was home improvement weekend for Steph and Shawn. We had a couple of big projects to finish up before winter and Saturday was the big day! A little background... when we bought our house, the deck was painted (not stained) a horrible brown color that peeled up every time it rained. I had the great idea last summer to try to get all the paint off with a pressure washer. Bad idea!! It didn't do much except damage the wood. We spent all last summer trying everything to get the paint off...scraping, a chemical that eats paint, sanding, and just peeling bits off with our fingers. We got worn out and then winter came so we just left it in a state of disrepair. After a lot of discussion over the winter and spring, a conclusion was reached. We would paint over the brown on the railings with white and then try to get the rest of the paint off the floor and stain it. And ta da!! It turned out really nice. We are just really happy to have this project done after almost 2 summers of work!!
The other major project was giving our front bushes a big trim. They grow like weeds and they are taking over the front of our house. We decided to whack off as much as we could to try to get them under control. Shawn spent most of the afternoon with the hedge trimmer and ended up with a big mess of tree limbs to clean up when he was done. The bushes will look great next spring when the leaves come back and hopefully they will be more manageable next year, too. As far as projects went, these went pretty smoothly. Sometimes working on the house together can bring out the worst in us, but we were still talking to each other at the end of the day!
This was home improvement weekend for Steph and Shawn. We had a couple of big projects to finish up before winter and Saturday was the big day! A little background... when we bought our house, the deck was painted (not stained) a horrible brown color that peeled up every time it rained. I had the great idea last summer to try to get all the paint off with a pressure washer. Bad idea!! It didn't do much except damage the wood. We spent all last summer trying everything to get the paint off...scraping, a chemical that eats paint, sanding, and just peeling bits off with our fingers. We got worn out and then winter came so we just left it in a state of disrepair. After a lot of discussion over the winter and spring, a conclusion was reached. We would paint over the brown on the railings with white and then try to get the rest of the paint off the floor and stain it. And ta da!! It turned out really nice. We are just really happy to have this project done after almost 2 summers of work!!
The other major project was giving our front bushes a big trim. They grow like weeds and they are taking over the front of our house. We decided to whack off as much as we could to try to get them under control. Shawn spent most of the afternoon with the hedge trimmer and ended up with a big mess of tree limbs to clean up when he was done. The bushes will look great next spring when the leaves come back and hopefully they will be more manageable next year, too. As far as projects went, these went pretty smoothly. Sometimes working on the house together can bring out the worst in us, but we were still talking to each other at the end of the day!
1 comment:
Hey Stephanie (and Shawn)!
I just saw that you had a blog as I was checking Beth's blog. It's fun to be able to see how life's been treating you. Anyhow, I definitely hear you about the "joys" of home ownership. Your porch looks great--I'm glad you guys were able to figure out a solution.
-Chrissy
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