Last weekend was a long one, so we used it to stain our new picket fence. Whew. Before we began this project, I estimated it would take a five-gallon bucket of clear sealer and two gallons of stain (I always cut the stain with clear sealer because I think it's too opaque otherwise) to do the deck AND the fence.
This is why I should not go into the painting business, or become an estimator.
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| Sing with me: "16 gallons of stain and sealer on the fence, 16 gallons of stain and sealer..." |
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| R.I.P, old sprayer! |
In the 24 years since, it has painted a lot of walls and siding and ceilings and trim in several homes, so we weren't too surprised when it conked out halfway through this job.
The new replacement sprayer (in the box on the bottom) looks and sounds almost identical to the old one, but Mr. Official said it worked better. He would know, since he was the man holding it all weekend. Hopefully, normal sensation will return to his right hand and fingers in the next few days.
The final casualty of our weekend project was this 3-inch brush brandished by yours truly. This brush was in pretty good shape until I used it to stain between the deck planks. It went downhill from there. By the time I had slathered on the last bit of stain, I felt like this poor brush looked: frayed, frazzled and permanently stained redwood color, although I'm sure the spots on my toes and hands will come off sooner or later. And now we can put this to-do in the ta-done category, at least for another year or two - hooray! (Note to self: when it comes time to stain again, we should definitely aim to tackle it in April or May, or September or October. Definitely not in June, July or August.) Here are the results: front and side yard views. I already showed off the deck a couple of weeks ago.
At least the other loose ends are indoor or shady spot projects.
Happy lasso-ing your loose ends!
