Finished 2 hours of shoveling, during which one of my fairly new Yak Trax Pro, uh, trax..es broke. The rubber webbing snapped, and so my boot went through the middle. Boo. I’d had the regular type before and they worked fine until my cats bit them to pieces. However, this pro version isn’t really better. I wrote the company an email and hopefully I can get a free replacement. I asked for an upgrade to XTR extreme too, so we’ll see how that goes.
Well, this Sunday I finished the deck. Stripping the lattice was a horrible experience, as any area with lots of nooks and crannies results in a ton of overspray bouncing back. Combined with tall hard-to-reach areas, and I was left with a bunch of small, bad chemical burns, but it was worth it to be finished with the caustic paint stripper and the horrible sweat-with-a-touch-of-paint-thinner smelling rubber gloves that accompanied the task. Sanding wasn’t fun either but that went fairly quickly. I figured staining the deck would only take 2-4 hours.
Unfortunately, I was completely wrong. Staining the lattice was another long endeavor, and might have taken 4 hours by itself (although it looked great afterwards since I took my time doing it). I basically spent my entire day (with a break for dinner) staining. It wasn’t so hard, but time seemed to fly and I felt like I was in a time warp. I did the lattice, then the railing side that faced the interior of the deck, then the deck floor, then the outtward-facing parts of the deck.
The inside of the railings and the lattice look fantastic, and most of the deck floor does as well. Unfortunately, at this point it was getting late, and after putting Kiwi to bed, Bunky had to come out and help me finish the rest. The deck floor was very easy to do with a roller and back brushing, but the 5 planks that lead to the stairs (so I didn’t paint myself into a corner) ended up not being back brushed properly. It was so dark at that point that I could barely see what I was doing, and so I left lap marks there.
Even worse was the outer railing. We were going on tiki torches and solar LEDs at that point, so it was little surprise to wake up the next morning and find that I had missed one complete edge of a baluster, and some of Bunky’s sections looked like they were done while intoxicated.
Still it looks worlds better than the ugly brown paint from before, since it looks like real wood now. The color is very rich, and while redder than it appeared in the brochure and store, I think it looks very handsome (it was Cabot’s Oak Brown, in the express stain line). Even better, now the deck looks unified, since the previously unpainted railing I installed now looks like it was an original part of the deck. We got the furniture and flower pots all moved back on the deck, and now we just need a grill to complete the transformation.
All in all, staining wouldn’t have been too bad if I wasn’t in such a rush. Future touchups probably won’t need as attention to detail to nooks and vertical surfaces (since they don’t see traffic or that much sun and won’t wear much) if we use the same color, and the floor of the deck was trivial to stain with a roller and a paintbrush. As for stripping paint and sanding a deck, it was every bit as bad as other people warn on forums, and possibly even a touch worse. Still, the transformation is remarkable, and now that it’s done I’m glad I finished it in time to enjoy it.
Haven’t posted as much lately, but work on my deck has pretty much consumed my life. We’ve spent a lot of time and money thus far essentially undoing some of the terrible choices the previous homeowners made:
So far I have learned a ton about wood from this project. Everyone says stripping paint off a deck is a pain, and they are all completely correct. I have used so much chemical stripper and powerwashed so much paint off the deck, and yet it still remains in a few spots. I still have to strip paint off the railings, but I have completely stripped the main floor area and sanded down all the fur and raised grain from the stripping process.
The deck looks so much better already, and I can’t wait to get the rails done so I can slap some stain on the deck. I really hope the wood takes the stain well, or that could be a whole ‘nother headache.
I am one of those unfortunate individuals that has many seasonal allergies. Allergic Rhinitis (hay fever) is very common and in recent years I’ve gotten it under control with a nasal glucocorticoid (Fluticasone). I really love the spray since it doesn’t have many side effects, and usually it is very effective after the first few days.
While trying various antihistamines for treating my allergic rhinitis, I found that oral H-1 antagonists were simply not effective and my primary care physician said the same thing to me. After looking it up online, research supports my anecdotal evidence that nasal beats oral when fighting hay fever. The only oral antihistamine that worked for me was Benadryl (Diphenhydramine), but it makes me sleepy as hell.
As for Urticaria (hives), I get them maybe once every year it typically happens when the weather turns cold. It’s super itchy and unpleasant, though it looks even worse than it feels. I use diphenhydramine to treat my hives, but while it is moderately effective in reducing the itch, it completely knocks me out of commission. It was only until researching antihistamines again that I realized that the H-1 antagonists that failed to defeat my hay fever might have better success against my hives.
The generally recommended non-drowsy antihistamine for hives is Loratadine. Sold as Claritin, generic loratadine is listed as a good value by Consumer Reports. I also saw this post about Allegra (Fexofenadine) and Zyrtec (Cetirizine) being good. antihistamines to try. It seems like Loratadine is a good value and less sleep-inducing, whereas Cetirizine might be more effective. I guess there’s only one way to find out which works better for me.