I continued to use the disk sander on the railing all last week and Saturday. Sunday was a day of rest. And then Monday ushered in some rain. I did get pretty far on the railing until the rain. I've now sanded the handrail on the entire railing, with exception of needing to scrape the small amount up against the support posts.
With the sun coming back this afternoon, I'll get back to sanding and scraping. I'll begin the bottom rail tomorrow. I hope to get that part done in a week. Then I can apply a stain to the top and bottom rails.
The sanding is going faster than I had thought it might. So, I just might get the entire railing refinished this summer. I'll keep you posted. And again, thank you all for your advice and tips last week.
We had initially planned on having the deck railing replaced with a composite railing that would never need repainting. Then the roof needed replacing (big $$$), the car needed expensive repairs (more big $$), the dishwasher needs replacing, the furnace needs replacing, and the list never ends. So we sat down and talked about how we can do as much as possible on our list for this summer. Refinishing the existing railing was the one item that we could do ourselves. If we like the end result, we will have saved some substantial $$ over replacement.
Tomorrow morning I'll be up early and out there scraping and sanding.
All fixing or improving things take are time and money. Sometimes you have more than one than the other. I'm glad that the deck work is going faster than expected. We've had a lot of expenses recently at our house. I would have rather spent the money on something fun like a big vacation, but you gotta do what you gotta do.
ReplyDeleteHi Live and Learn,
DeleteI can relate. I much rather would have had a nice vacation than re-roof the house or repair the car. But it is what it is, and I'm rolling with it for this year. I hope next year is less expensive for both of us.
From what I can see, the railing looks great! You have a lovely deck. I know just what you mean when you say that you were thinking about one (more expensive) house update and then ..... life happens and you have to think twice about it. That's where creativity and elbow grease come in handy. Kudos to you for your efforts.
ReplyDeleteHi Kris,
DeleteThank you! The deck railing is coming along nicely. And the work has been a good workout for my upper body, so I can't complain.
I totally understand "when it rains, it pours" with the home maintenance. As we near retirement we want to tackle the expensive things while we still have income but the unexpected ones are the ones that kick you in the gut. We had a full furnace/AC replacement on my birthday mid-January during the big snowstorm. Roof was replaced 10 years ago, electric box updated maybe 7 years ago, water spigots tended to 2 years ago, new refrigerator 2 months ago, and last week was our 7 year old water heater. Didn't see that one coming so soon. Keep strong and keep doing what you have to.
ReplyDeleteAlice
Hi Alice,
DeleteOuch! You've had some expensive costs in recent years. You've got a good plan, though, to tackle these things before retirement. We're doing the same, here.