Re-Staining the Deck - The painting

After the pressure wash was done , I had to wait couple of days. The sunny weather turned rainy for couple of days. The third day when the sunshine returned the deck started drying up. That evening I started painting a small area on the deck to check if the color I had got was up to my satisfaction. I had a sample made to order from the paint shop and used a small brush to do one of the side rails. Had to wait for a day to see the effect. Not satisfied tried a secind coat. The next day that looked very tanned. So decided to stick with the color but do only one coat.

Started with the side rails and finished 10 vertical rails in 2 hours. This was in the morning. The summer really helps, the day is as bright as 8 AM in other parts of the world when it is only 6 AM. Since the night darkness sets only by 8, I thought of doing two hours in the morning and 2 in the evening.

It took three days to do the side rails on two sides, before I could do the other sides of the rails , rain came back. So waited for two more days and when the sun returned finished the other two sides in couple of days.

Then started the floor of the deck. I had bought some rollers to paint the floor but used a broad brush instead. Finished the floor in three days., Brought back the plants that were living indoors back to the deck. Now they are happy.

The deck now looks like this.

Re-Staining the Deck - The Pressure Wash

The next thing after cleaning the deck was to remove all dirt and old stain. I went to the local hardware shop(Home Depot) and rented a pressure washer. This is one cool thing in the US. One need not buy expensive DIY equipments if it is not used regularly.

Last Saturday I went to rent the washer at 7 PM. I wanted rent only for four hours but use it for more time.My idea was  to make use of the extended daylight in the evenings (until 8:30 PM) and also the early daylight from 5 AM in summer days. The shop closes at 10 PM each day and on sunday opens only at 8 AM. But could not do it because  there was no working equipment(I think this is a trick many do, and the renter knows this and therefore I was told so).

Then on sunday I went at 8 AM rented the equipment. I had taken my Corolla (Toyota) to bring the equipment. When I saw the size and weight I was in doubt if I could bring it. But the rental guy helped.

After bringing the washer home I had to lift it and roll it (it had two wheels in the front) to the deck., Connect the water pipe, start the motor. The pressure of the water coming out was so much that the old stain and all dirt were all gone. One thing I noticed is, if the nozzle is held to close to the wood, it chips the wood.

Finished the cleaning in two hours and returned the washer back to the shop. The deck color now was something totally different. Just like when one has a jeans that got washed after 7 months.

Re-Staining the Deck - The first Steps

Many who reside in the US are quite aware of this. Just when one, at some point buys a house and make it a nice home, the maintenance of the house slowly creeps in.  This is in addition to  maintaining a home if the family has kids.

For me, it was replacing the water heater past winter and this summer I have taken up Re-Staining the Deck.

The project, being more of a paining one, is something I wanted to do as DIY(Do It Yourself). The first thing I had to do was find out was what is restaining. Actually I had read about this last year. I had to postpone the project last summer because the season got washed out by rain.

So , the first thing is apart from planning , one should really wish that the summer is dry and warm.

This summer it looks like it is going to be dry.

The first thing I did was to revise the steps I learnt last year, There is a lot of DIY videos in the internet that has good points on how to do the re-staining. I like the notes from This Old House website.

The next step is to clear the deck. I had lots of plants growing in pots on my deck that had to be moved. Some of them came indoor and some are on the lawn .

I then used a broom to sweep the deck clean of other items.

The next step is to Pressure Wash the whole deck

The potatoes - too early to harvest perhaps; but made me one happy dude

      One of the may potato plants that was in a pot started to behave like a creeper. I got worried that it kind of died and pulled it out of the pot and was happy to harvest my own first potatoes. The largest one looks like what in Tamizh we call as சாம்பார்  உருளைகிழங்கு (sambAr uruLai Kizhangu).  There are some more little ones so I have replanted the whole plant again.

The 2010 Vege Experiments continues

It has been a while. 10 days probably. And the plants have grown. The weather has been awesome for the plants. Nights it rains sometimes, daytime is full of sunshine. So what happened to the Pea Plant experiment on glass you might ask. I had to replant that in a pot.

The other plants are growing as well, The lettuce is coming really well. These have to be replanted as well.

The end of Noreaster- Or Did it?

After two days of continuous rain, the sun came back and  now the temp is rising to 80 deg. The plants are happy. I also had a full stretch of lettuce planted. Have to see how that comes out. the other plants have gone out to the deck to bask in the sunlight

The 2010 Vege Experiments

I thought of taking pictures of my garden experiments, gardening experiments might be a better way of putting it. Sitting in New England with a weather that does not yield much vegetables for an amateur gardener. Many of my experiences the past two years have become more of experiments.

My idea of gardening is rather simple. Throw any seed from the vegetables used for cooking into a pit(pot) and then see if they can grow. The pictures below shows what I mean.




With winter receding and the spring coming, I had planted an onion that was sprouting and some potato eyelets in a pot. Two days later I could see them growing but the weather outside did not want to warmup. So these became my first batch of indoor plants



















With two kids around, it is pure joy to see their faces light up when they see seeds sprouting in just water. More than that, it is also easy to live your young days again. Found a nice long tall glass vase at the local store. Found some good pea seeds to grow. So here is the experiment to grow hydroponics pea. The water does have some "miracle grow". This is an experiment I do every year. Last year it was with beans, this year it is with peas and watermelon. The pea plant as you can see is growing. The watermelon is trying.

















The other day I was at BJs our wholesale grocery shop and I found a box which said, grow 200 vegetables in your garden. Inside the box were different kinds of potatoes, onions(red ,white and purple).Garlic and some seeds. I have planted the potatoes in the backyard. Have not seen any growth yet. The picture to the left is a onion seedling.




















My neighbor saw me planting these and said, you are in New England and many of the vegetables and tubers need lot more sun than what we get over here. But then I am not a farmer, I palnted five garlic pods in a pot and two of them are sprouting. Not bad more than 20% fruitful effort.