Quarantine Updates

It's been almost two years since I last posted and it's time for an update.

Like a lot of people we spent part of our time in quarantine last year doing home improvement projects.

The first thing we tackled in a weekend was staining our deck and fence. We had last done both back in 2015-2016 and it was time for an update. With the deck we thoroughly power washed it beforehand before using Behr Premium Advanced Deckover. The one we used was textured to be make the deck more slip resistant. A gallon and a half was enough to do our entire 12x16 foot deck.

For the fence we used Behr semi-transparent Waterproofing Stain & Sealer. It's supposed to be good for eight years on fences but I don't imagine I'd wait that long to paint it again. 

The rest of the updates involved our front door. I had been promising my wife a storm door since we moved in back in 2014 and finally got around to buying and installing one. For that we bought an Anderson Easy Install Aluminum Storm Door. The 45 minute "Easy Install" was more like two hours of sweating and a bit of swearing but it was fairly straightforward. The frame of the storm door fits into the existing frame of the door and is secured with screws. With the exception of having my wife hold the door in place while I put the first few screws in it was also something I was able to do by myself. The only downside we found was that with our house facing east and getting direct sunlight the storm door handle gets exceptionally hot to the touch. We solved that by sliding the finger of an old glove over it.

With the storm door in place my wife painted the front door with Behr Hidden Sea Glass.

The last update to the front door was something else I'd had on my list for a while. I replaced the existing keyed lock with a Nest X Yale lock. I had looked at others but since we already have a Nest Hello doorbell and a Nest Cam it made more sense to keep everything under one app. Installation was very simple and made for a worthy upgrade. Especially with not having a covered front porch, it's very convenient when it's raining to unlock the door prior to getting out of the car and not having to fumble with keys. Everybody has their own door code too (up to eight numbers) and when we went away on vacation for a week later in the summer I was able to set up a temporary code for our neighbors that picked up our mail and fed our cats.

Deck Stain and Painting

Over the Labor Day weekend we managed to get a few things done to our house.

Much needed and long overdue was sealing the deck we had added last summer. I bought two gallons of Cabot Sun Drenched Gold exterior stain around the end of June with plans to use it fairly quickly. But the heat and humidity this summer was oppressive and prevented me from doing much of anything. It wasn’t until Labor Day weekend that the temperature finally dropped enough with no rain in the forecast to get it done.

Before.

I started by washing the deck with a bottle of deck wash attached to a regular garden hose. We had a bad stain on the corner where grease had dripped from the grill but between the wash and a wire brush it made it barely noticeable. From there we applied the first coat on Monday afternoon using a brush to do the edges and trim and a roller brush on a stick for the rest. Within a few hours it was dry enough to walk on but still a bit sticky. When I got home Tuesday afternoon I applied the second coat to finish the job. The next day we got some completely unexpected heavy rain but thankfully the coating was dry enough at that point that it didn't seem to affect it. There are however a few spots I still need to sand down a bit where the roller applied the second coat a little too thick. Overall we were really pleased with the result.

After.

The other project we completed was to paint the front wall where the front door is to match the accent walls in the living and morning rooms. While we generally like the color of the color Ryan Homes used on the walls the contractor grade flat paint shows every little smudge and bit of dirt. After two and a half years the front wall wasn't looking too great and needed a touch up.

Before.

After.

Close up of the sign Jenny made for the wall. 

To make the sign She took a basic 12 x 12 canvas panel from Michael's, applied a gel wood stain, and then printed out a vinyl decal with her Silhouette Cameo cutter.