BaRK Home Maintenance 2010

This past summer involved a fair bit of work on the exterior of our home — painting, new front fence, and resurfacing of the back deck.

Work related to the painting began 2010.07.10. Barbara and I removed everything from the wall of the garage, and house. I also managed to replace a piece of bad siding - had been hiding under the often wet window boxes. But, didn't have the time to do the second one. We also cut back plants, bushes, and such to make sure we had full access to all the walls. Power washing was done on the Monday. Unfortunately, Del's son discovered a wasp nest in the pile of garden rubbish behind the carport. Stung 20-30 times. Painting continued, somewhat intermittenly, until 2010.07.27.

On July 29, Barbara and I moved all the plants along the fence that were in danger of getting damaged during construction of the new fence. On August 4, we tore down the front fence, east side of the house. We also removed one of the cement post blocks. That was challenging. The boys showed up on August 4. While they started on the east side, Barbara and I took down the fence on the west side. The whole job was finished that day.

The first, and largest, load of wood for the deck was delivered 2010.08.09. Barbara and I moved it into the back yard, stacking it where we could to give it a couple days to dry. We wanted to stain it on both sides before installation.

On August 12 we started stripping the deck — we knew it was going to take a while. Wanted to pull all the nails as we went. Got about 5 feet done on the lower deck. Over the next week or so, we moved most of the pots off the deck. Some went to the neighbours yard —: we just didn't have the room. And, when possible continued pulling up the decking and removing the nails. The decking was left in place so that the cats would have "easy" access to the house, especially the old guy.

I didn't start staining until 2010.08.17, prior to that I felt it was just too hot to try staining the wood in direct sunlight. Finished staining the available wood on 2010.08.25 (roughly 900 sq ft of wood stained).

We finished tearing up the deck, and removing all the wood, stacking behind the carport for later removal, on 2010.08.30. Work on the deck began 2010.09.01. And what we were going to do this year was completed 2010.09.11. There was more wood delivered, for the stairs and railings but I never got time to pre-stain most of that. I finished staining the railings, and the last two steps on October 3rd. Will power wash and stain the foundation in the spring. At that time, I will also add some strategic lattice to hide the junk under the upper deck. We also still need to do something about providing shade and seating on the lower deck.

But, that's enough for one summer!