The Deck

We finally painted the deck. I wanted to do it in August on a Saturday, but there were a lot of summer storms that ruined that idea. Then Andrew broke his foot on Labor Day. (Fifth metatarsal on his right foot. It ended up healing faster than I initially thought it would. But is was still painful for him to get around for two weeks or so. And he's been cautious since then to avoid rebreaking it.) So the beginning of September wouldn't work either. By the time his foot had healed enough that I thought we might be able to do it, I really started to worry about the weather turning. I gave up the idea of hoping for a convenient Saturday. I saw one week of good weather forecasted, so we painted what we could after Andrew got home from work.

The job is not actually done; we still need one more coat of white paint on the railings. But I suspect the weather might not let us finish until next spring. Sadly. Notice that it's raining in the last picture.

Leah helped too. She helped lay out the paper and apply the painters tape. With supervision, she also painted. It's not surprising, but she tended to paint the layers a little thick. She was really helpful at reaching a few hard to reach places, such as the bottom side of the stairs. Frequent breaks helped her a lot. And some of the time she just went inside and played by herself.

I'm just glad that there is latex based paint available so that my pregnant self could actually help out.

I think it looks pretty good. I don't want to paint again for a while. It's just not fun, no matter how much I like the improvement.

Before we started:

Finished with the floorboards, and starting on the white railings:

Needs the second coat on the white railings:

It's a small deck, but it sure feels big when you're painting it.