It Took Less Time To Build It!

Last summer we had a new deck built on Bliss Manor. They started about 1 PM on a Tuesday and by 5 PM Thursday we were lounging and cooking some supper.

So I was quite optimistic that we'd make a quick go of it when we decided to take on the task of staining/sealing it ourselves. I researched the best stain (Defy) and we assembled the gear and got going about 11 AM on a Saturday. We worked until 7 PM and this-----

----is all we got done. Why just the rails down just two sides in 8 straight hours of work you say? They neglected to mention that every linear foot of rail/spindles (32 feet in these two portions) is equal to five square feet of deck to be stained. In bright 85 degree sunlight. On about five hours sleep(me). Hungover(also me). Red Bull and Donato's pizza would have been excellent sponsors as their products made it possible.

So sunburned (me again) and fully hydrated we started out the next morning at 7:30. The floor was a breeze. However we had another long rail of spindles ahead....

We realized that we would need more stain (that whole 5x more for the spindles thing) so we took a break at noon and got two more gallons and then plunged back at 1 PM. It became obvious toward the later afternoon that we'd likely need yet another gallon so I headed back to the paint store. As I'm making my request from the very nice lady at the counter some know-it-all tool chimes in "Are you doing this in direct sunlight?" He is amazingly lucky to be alive. I laughed at him and said "Dude--it's a deck". He kind of mumbled "Well you should start in the morning". That made me giggle and say " I thought 7 AM was the morning". The lady at the counter enjoyed his discomfort almost as much as I did.

End of day two came about 8 PM--again it was 85 brilliantly sunny degrees and more sunburn and aching everything. I wasn't sure we'd make it up the stairs to bed. Luckily we'd grabbed a bucket of KFC's new grilled chicken during our midday break and the leftovers made for a nice cold supper.

We rallied and finished it off in three hours on the final day.

Despite being out of his comfort zone Brad remained a cheerful, wonderful workmate. We had far too much fun with the word 'cooter' in a 'Marco--Polo--' sort of way. It still needs a touch up here and there but it is beautiful and worth the effort.

And in just 30 short days ConFab, Baby guests will enjoy the fruits of our labors.

Smooches and some counting it down gropes babies!!