Renewal

Shortly after Joey and I got our fences and deck done I dove right into setting up my raised gardens. Honestly, the stain hadn't dried on the redwood before I started planting seeds. For the last few weeks that really took up a lot of my time and I have not had time to weed or clean up the rest of my garden. It frankly is a big mess.  I've been dying to post before and after pictures, but in no way is it ready.

I have a huge task list of things to do and now that my vegetable garden is up and growing it's time to get to them. One of the first things on my list was painting our arbor. I used to think the weathered wood with the green tint was charming. Last year I grew morning glories and nasturtiums over it and it was beautiful.  However, now that the fences are done, it just looked shoddy. It was a huge eyesore right in the middle of our yard. Something had to be done.

I wasn't sure anything could be done about it, but figured I couldn't hurt it with a new paint job. This was going to be a challenge, though, since the rose bushes I have been lovingly tending for over a year grow right through the top. I would need to carefully clean and paint around them.

The first thing I did was clean the wood. Most folks power wash it, but like I said that was not an option for me. Instead I washed it by hand with a brush. This was no easy task and took me about six hours. Yep, I wrote that right - 6 hours! This includes the time spent hosing it off after washing. I have to say that the Behr All-In-One Wood cleaner I used really did the trick. I was so tired when I was done that I completely forget to take pictures!

The next day it was time for us to get the stain. We had three choices: Transparent, Semi-Tranparent, or Solid. We went with the Semi because while we wanted to cover the wood, we also wanted some of the natural grain to show through. This turned out to be a good choice.

The first coat took me about five hours to complete. There are lots of little slats, nooks and crannies in this arbor; and remember, I had to paint around those rose bushes. 

The next day I really had no interest in doing a second coat, but once I started I was really glad I did. It really made a difference. There were lots of spots I missed and in some cases entire sections! Also, having done it already the day before I had a better strategy in place. I actually enjoyed the second coat.  So how does it look? Well, see for yourself.

Here is a picture before:

Here's the after shot (ignore the messy yard, please!):

One more before:

And after:

I am really happy with it. The color really compliments the fence and the pigeon loft. the arbor honestly looks brand new.

So, now that this is done it's time for some major clean up. I have bushes to move and jasmine to plant and goodness knows what all. This certainly is a work in progress, but honestly, I am enjoying every minute.