Slave Labor

They Who Shall N0t Be Named (the previous owners of our house) are funny. They did the most Ruben Schlick work we have ever seen. Well... This is our first house, so we don't have a lot to compare it to. They built a deck on the side of the house, and they built a play fort in the yard, which are both great features but... they hadn't stained the wood in I don't know... Decades? Kent and I decided that we should do something to prolong the life of the deck and the fort, so a couple of months ago the process began. Kent rented a large sander, but the boards were so bowed, it didn't work as planned. Our palm sander was going to take forty years to do the job, so be bought a belt sander to get in the middle of the boards. Anyway (this is boring, sorry- but I have to gripe) that still didn't do it, so we decided to break down and power wash the deck. It leaves dents in the wood, but whatever! We were at the end of our rope trying to erase years of bare wood decay! Blah! On the fort, the whole floor was rotten out and there was no top, so we put up joists underneath the old floor, cut a new one, and I bought canvas and sewed up a new top. Last week we stained everything (with final touch-ups today) and I think it turned out pretty good. The only problem? Now the fence looks worse. It never ends! Despite the pain in the butt of it all, I am thankful to have a house to tinker with.

Now about that fence...