Tuesday began early. I was outside by 6:00 am to water all the gardens before going to the hardware store to ask about our next steps and get back before Pete arrived for another day of torture working on the deck. It’s another beauty of a day!
Sonja, with whom I could speak in French, helped me. She is profoundly knowledgeable about paints and stains. Pete won’t make a painting/staining move without her advice. She suggested we stain the deck with a matching colour to the paint that won’t come up, so that’s what we’re going to do. It’s an ideal solution.
But when I got home, Ali and Pete arrived soon after and Pete decided we’d go to Ladysmith to rent a big sander. There was a 3 sailing wait on the ferry, though, so that plan was scratched, and we’re back to plan A which involved more work today like yesterday’s effort. Pete said that he wants to finish the scraping today, but then he had a change of heart and went to visit a neighbour. He came back to Pinecone Park with the neighbour’s belt sander. It does an awesome job.
Pete spent the rest of the day sanding, and I vacuumed up the dust and cleaned all the cracks between the planks. Today we’ll finish the sanding, and we’ll fill the rotten spots in the deck with wood filler. Then we’ll break while Pete and Ali go to the city for a few days, and we’ll paint the deck next week. I will carry on with the crack cleaning and I will sand the places where we put the wood filler.
The deck is going to look absolutely incredible when we are done. Pete’s ambition for the project vastly surpasses the plan I had for the deck. I was just going to scrape it. His drive is going to give me a deck to be proud of. I am so, so grateful. All in all, he’s likely to put in 5 or 6 days of work, and Ali is going to help us paint the stain on, so the gift of the lodge stay was entirely appropriate. Pete and Ali really loved my gift of 2 nights at April Point Lodge, and I was thrilled that I’d chosen a gift that they value. They know Quadra Island and love it, so my choice of location was perfect. Now I can accept all this help more comfortably.
My deck is about 35’ wide and 20’ deep. It’s about 700 sq. ft., so there are miles and miles of crack between all the planks that form the deck. My job, while Pete sands, has been to vacuum up his dust and to work on the cracks, cleaning out all the dirt and peeling paint. I’ll finish the cracks while Pete and Ali are away so that everything will be ready for painting when they come back.
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I’m tired just thinking about more work today. But today is Pete’s last day for this week. He and Ali will help me paint the deck next week, but tomorrow is my first day off from deck work in three demanding days. Friday is predicted to be cloudy and there may be—I really hope there is— a few showers.
I’ve got to get through today and then I can rest tomorrow. I am so tired. But what a wonderful change to the look of Pinecone Park this sparkling clean deck is going to make! All hail Peter!
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| We found rotten steps that we will fix by removing all the wood and extending the garden. |
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| All my plants almost, are off the deck. Sheba is our supervisor. |
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| The wood in the front was treated with paint remover and it didn't work, The cleaner wood in the back has been sanded to death by Pete. He'll be going over the wood he tried to clean with paint remover with the sander. |
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| You can't see how handsome Pete is in this photo. He is one HARD worker! |
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| This wood was treated twice with pain remover and the pressure washer and it was a big failure. It will be sanded today by Pete. |
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| The dark wood shows you how bad the condition of the deck was before Pete got to work. The lighter wood is sanded clean. |
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| Above and below. The state of the wood before our work. |
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