All (Red) Hands on Deck

Several years ago, we bought this house in Farmington as an investment. We have had good luck with most of the renters who have lived here over the years, but after the last ones moved out we decided to renovate it and will most likely sell it.

We (mostly Ken) have done lots of work on the inside (pictures coming later) including:
New paint throughout the whole house
New tile floors in the kitchen and both bathrooms
New carpet throughout (installed 2 days ago)
New stainless steel appliances in the kitchen (to be delivered tomorrow)
New kitchen sink
New light fixtures
New faucets and fixtures in both bathrooms
Regrouting in both bathrooms
New door handles throughout
And much much more.

In the past few days, I painted the front door black (previously an ugly gray) and I painted the railing on the stairs (previously a bit rusty). I also painted the mailbox post (previously peeling white) since I had more black paint left over.


However, my biggest painting project has been the deck. Those of you who know this house know that it has the smallest deck known to man. It is a tiny square off the sliding doors from the kitchen in the back of the house. It is so small that one person standing out there with a BBQ would feel crowded. It is so small that it doesn't even have stairs going down to the backyard.

You would think that repainting this deck would be easy. That's what I thought until I started the job yesterday. Somehow this small deck grew bigger yesterday. After going through one can of paint, it was back to the paint store to get another can. It was kind of embarrassing to walk through the store with red paint on my hands, which looked similar to dried blood, but I did it. After 5 hours of painting, the inside of the deck, the part visible from inside the house, is done. However, the job is still only half done. I still have to paint the outside of the deck, which means getting up on a ladder and balancing a can of paint while painting. That should be interesting. I'll try to post pictures tomorrow, after the job is completely done (assuming I don't fall off the ladder and break my neck).

As a side note - my kids will remember they were the last ones to paint this deck many years ago. One summer day, we just gave them a can of paint and asked them to do the paint job for a little work project. I think they did the whole job in one afternoon. At the time I didn't realize how difficult this job was. So thanks Kevin, Ryan, and Suzy for doing that paint job, even if it is a bit late!!