What Not to Write: Weekend Warriors

Last weekend when we began all our home improvement projects, I decided I would almost rather be still training for a marathon than power washing and staining a 500+ square foot deck. I told Ben three years ago that when this time came, I would be hiring someone. I reminded him of that again when we were halfway through and I had more stain in my hair than on the railings.

Among power washing and re staining the deck we had several other items on our list that we wanted to complete before the first of June, our anticipated date to put the house on the market. Don't get too excited, we have NO idea where we will be moving. I'm sure you'll all hear that announcement in late July, early August.

Over the last two weekends we have planted the garden, power washed the deck and front sidewalk, stained the deck, planted all our annuals, removed the back door and painted it, removed all the hardware from the front door and replaced it with shiny new hardware, trimmed the trees and bushes, decluttered the garage, and more importantly, FINALLY finished our hardwood floors! I'm pretty sure I worked harder over the weekends than I have through the week, which Ben pointed out is 100% accurate all the time.

Here are a few before, during, and after pictures of the back deck. We thought we bought the same stain color as the owners before us, apparently we were wrong. Bottom line, it looks like a million bucks... or, at least $225,000!