Whoever thought painting the railings green and all the pickets or whatever you call them white (both of us) should have had their heads examined! And whoever thought of staining the deck Alligator Green (me) should have been committed! The bi-color railings took twice as long but really looks sharp. The staining was a pain in the buttooski! I swear I dropped one drop of that stuff in the lake and you would have thought I was CEO of BP! It made an oil slick! Lou spent the entire day telling how much the EPA was going to fine me if they found out! Well, after that I was so careful not to pollute our lake that it took me forever! The deck of the little dock didn't take so long because only a 2' X 6' area hung over water. And the stain on old wood looks more alligatory than the stain on new wood so now we have multiple shades of green. Then we thought of painting the two walkways connecting the three docks grey which came out nice and broke up ALL that green.
Now, everyone knows that you cannot put yucky old furniture on a new dock right? So Lou spent three days painting furniture! I was busy staining all the little edges of the boards on the refurbished dock slowly and carefully. Then I had to repaint all my birdhouses which had come off the railings so the railings could be painted. The last piece of furniture repainted was my tea cart which had been placed along the fence line hopefully but futilely put there to slow down the dogs. Little Tucker (the neighbors dog) comes outside about 3 or 4 time a day. Each time he does, he races to the fence between our properties, barks or rather yaps his arrival, and there commences a race back and forth along the fence. Our 5 and little Tucker just a runnin and a barking for about two minutes then little Tucker prances away, his work done! Now our five dogs when bored will line up along the fence line and sit and stare and wait for hours for little Tucker to make his appearance. What is really funny is when our are in the house and Tucker makes his entrance. Five dogs go through two doggie doors at record speed. This is a 9" X 18" doggie door folks and sometimes they go through two at a time. Now four of these dogs are under 20 pounds but one weighs 60 pounds if she weighs an ounce and she goes through that door like a hot knife through butter and sometimes with a little dog under her belly! But I digress.
The fountain is in, the newly painted furniture is on the refurbished dock. The lighthouse is in the corner though not yet electrically hooked up. So tonight while we sat relaxing on the dock, Lou says, "Too bad the lighthouse isn't bigger. It would look cool out on the edge of the dock." Do you know where this is leading and why we should not talk to each other at the end of the day? So I say, "Well, you could build a bigger one." We still have the new dock to stain! But tomorrow we are going to take a break....at least from paintbrushes. I might talk Lou into getting the compressor out to reattach the birdhouses with his air brad gun, and a couple of pickets Bear loosened as he likes to use them as back, head, side scratchers. And I need to give five dogs flea baths. The interior of the house needs a thorough cleaning but the weather is so nice that as we are outdoors until sunset and if we use low lighting and do not look down when we do come in, you could hardly tell. Thank goodness we don't get much company! So how big do you think the lighthouse should be? Night all!
Saturday, October 30, 2010
Friday, October 15, 2010
Decking!
Last week while hubby was awaiting the sandman he came up with a real brainstorm! Rather than carrying each 12' decking board down, scribing the needed cut, carrying it back to be cut and then carrying it back to be screwed in place (my idea), he thought to screw down a run of 12 footers, run a chalk line down the secured boards along the center 16 footers, saw them all, move the other halves of each board to its respective position on the other side of the center boards and Wallah! We save a lot of time and energy.
Well, this worked perfectly! And by days end we were done and believe me it looked so great!
Putting together the supporting structures for the demolished old dock was a piece of cake now that we were pro's. This time we came in a little under 12 feet wide so laying the decking took little effort except where the center side posts were positioned. We had decided to leave them above deck level by four feet and utilize them as posts for the railings. The challenge came when the deck board which alligned with them needed to be cut. One option was to cut the board so it butted against each post. This would leave 4" short on the outside edge on each side of the post. It would have been easier and afterall it is only a dock but yours truly rarely chooses easy. I decided that I wanted to cut out the centers of the deckboards at the ends and slide the board down over the posts! This involved yet another power tool (Yes, in the garage), a coping saw or jigsaw depending on which school of carpentry you attended. Hubby thought I had gotten too much sun but I went about measuring and drawing and he humored me and cut out my holes. Of course it didn't quite fit the first time but with just a minor expansion of one hole it slid into place just as nice as you please. He has to admit it was a good job and I ran for my camera and snapped a picture.
We had talked about a gazebo type structure for this dock but as we toasted marshmallows that night we decided it would really be an extravagance we really didn't need since we had a perfectly good screened in porch thirty feet away! We talked about the need for waterproofing the whole thing and it was at this point that I suggested since we needed to pressure wash the older structures first, it might be just as easy to paint the railings and posts green, the spindles white and the decking a grey stain before waterproofing. Is there a stain combined with waterproofing? We do not know but if there is we will check it out at Lowe's. Hubby agrees that it would look sharp but quite an undertaking.
The next morning we pick up 2 gallons of primer sealer and more screws. We really went through a lot of screws on this job! I commence a-painting while he commences railing placement. He is using the railing we took down from the old dock and amazingly it is fitting with only minor adjustments. He is as much of a perfectionist as I am, but his language is much more colorful! He is making a few attractive upgrades too but some existing structures with which he is trying to incorporate are less than "plumb." That means straight up and down, and boy are the not "plumb!" I remind him it's just a dock, not our livingroom, and he reminds me of my little cut out slide over the posts thingy I insisted on. I quietly go back to painting. He less than quietly entertains me with colorful language . By the end of the day he has completed the railing with a few spindles short and I have completed painting about 25% of the spindles. He reminds me that I am only doing primer sealer coat so I am actually 12 % done. He then tells me that as soon as he finishes the carpentry work he will give me a hand and working together 5 hours a day we should finish it about two weeks! That would be with painting the railings. I think we should stop talking to each other at the end of each day about what would look nice!
But after dinner we go down to admire the days work and...He says,"Maybe we could run a connecting walkway between the two docks at the deep end. "And I say ,"Sure! And then we could fence the whole thing in and make it a Koi Pond!" We can still laugh. This is a good sign. But the he says,"You know, we could put a fountain in there between these two docks. We have that pond pump we still haven't used because you fixed the old one." I have to admit this seems like a great idea and not too much work, just piling a few concrete blocks we have laying around with no particular use. It would be relaxing to have a water feature down here. Goodnight George....Goodnight Gracie!
Well, this worked perfectly! And by days end we were done and believe me it looked so great!
Putting together the supporting structures for the demolished old dock was a piece of cake now that we were pro's. This time we came in a little under 12 feet wide so laying the decking took little effort except where the center side posts were positioned. We had decided to leave them above deck level by four feet and utilize them as posts for the railings. The challenge came when the deck board which alligned with them needed to be cut. One option was to cut the board so it butted against each post. This would leave 4" short on the outside edge on each side of the post. It would have been easier and afterall it is only a dock but yours truly rarely chooses easy. I decided that I wanted to cut out the centers of the deckboards at the ends and slide the board down over the posts! This involved yet another power tool (Yes, in the garage), a coping saw or jigsaw depending on which school of carpentry you attended. Hubby thought I had gotten too much sun but I went about measuring and drawing and he humored me and cut out my holes. Of course it didn't quite fit the first time but with just a minor expansion of one hole it slid into place just as nice as you please. He has to admit it was a good job and I ran for my camera and snapped a picture.
We had talked about a gazebo type structure for this dock but as we toasted marshmallows that night we decided it would really be an extravagance we really didn't need since we had a perfectly good screened in porch thirty feet away! We talked about the need for waterproofing the whole thing and it was at this point that I suggested since we needed to pressure wash the older structures first, it might be just as easy to paint the railings and posts green, the spindles white and the decking a grey stain before waterproofing. Is there a stain combined with waterproofing? We do not know but if there is we will check it out at Lowe's. Hubby agrees that it would look sharp but quite an undertaking.
The next morning we pick up 2 gallons of primer sealer and more screws. We really went through a lot of screws on this job! I commence a-painting while he commences railing placement. He is using the railing we took down from the old dock and amazingly it is fitting with only minor adjustments. He is as much of a perfectionist as I am, but his language is much more colorful! He is making a few attractive upgrades too but some existing structures with which he is trying to incorporate are less than "plumb." That means straight up and down, and boy are the not "plumb!" I remind him it's just a dock, not our livingroom, and he reminds me of my little cut out slide over the posts thingy I insisted on. I quietly go back to painting. He less than quietly entertains me with colorful language . By the end of the day he has completed the railing with a few spindles short and I have completed painting about 25% of the spindles. He reminds me that I am only doing primer sealer coat so I am actually 12 % done. He then tells me that as soon as he finishes the carpentry work he will give me a hand and working together 5 hours a day we should finish it about two weeks! That would be with painting the railings. I think we should stop talking to each other at the end of each day about what would look nice!
But after dinner we go down to admire the days work and...He says,"Maybe we could run a connecting walkway between the two docks at the deep end. "And I say ,"Sure! And then we could fence the whole thing in and make it a Koi Pond!" We can still laugh. This is a good sign. But the he says,"You know, we could put a fountain in there between these two docks. We have that pond pump we still haven't used because you fixed the old one." I have to admit this seems like a great idea and not too much work, just piling a few concrete blocks we have laying around with no particular use. It would be relaxing to have a water feature down here. Goodnight George....Goodnight Gracie!
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