Yesterday, because I had the time and the weather was right, I tackled redoing the surface of the balcony floor. It's covered with Ducan decking, a vinyl sheet material. At the beginning of the summer the floor needs to be scrubbed up well. The vinyl decking has little bumps and divots in it, to give it texture, but they tend to fill up with dirt, and there's always lots of dirt flying around here--a combination of farmers tilling fields and winds from the west.
Once in a while it also needs to have a coating of "Refresh"--a kind of vinyl paint, as far as I can figure out. It gives a good, fresh new surface to the decking.
So at 10:30 a.m. I started the scrubbing process: first wash with the power washer, then fill a bucket with "The Duke" a very strong cleaner (diluted 1- 10 with water), applied with a scrubbing brush. Fortunately I have one with a "stand up" handle, so this doesn't need to be done on hands and knees. But, OH, it's hard work! It needs and really good, stiff scrubbing to loosen all the dirt. And then that all gets power washed off, twice to get get rid of the cleaner. That took until 1:00 p.m. And then I was "washed up" myself--pretty well finished!
The Dear One very sweetly offered that we could either order take-out for dinner (2 p.m.) or go out to a local restaurant. We did go out to Harvest House, where we ordered our favourites: his: lasagne, mine: chicken quesadilla. Well, that was a treat, and perhaps, a deserved treat. It was nice for both of us.
After eating he bought some broccoli for today's stir fry and went to get the mail, and I went to the Fabric Nook for some flannel for the latest quilt, the "raggy quilt" that I showed last time. We came home and I relaxed with my library book for a few hours.
By 5:30 I thought maybe I could manage some more, and I mixed up the "ReFresh"--the kind of paint for the vinyl decking, and got to work again. You're not supposed to use it when it's over 30ºC, and I'm pretty sure the decking itself was too hot, but I started anyway. By 7:45 the painting was complete and I was "knackered." I can't use a long handle with my paint roller because a handle broke off once in it. I have to try to remove that bit so that I can screw in a handle, but just haven't done it yet or figured out if that's even possible. So this was accomplished down on my hands and knees, and sometimes just squatting when my knees hurt too much from the bumpy surface.
Then I was really finished for the day. It was hard to stand up straight! I took another shower, poured myself a cold drink and "zoned out" until bedtime. Fortunately I had a good 8 hours of sleep and, amazingly, today I don't feel any worse for the wear. But I have taken a day off.
A friend dropped by for some help with her knitting and we had a nice visit. Then I spent some time trying to figure out just how long it's been since I "refresh" the decking. I think it's been three years. Should be good for another three or four now.
Once in a while it also needs to have a coating of "Refresh"--a kind of vinyl paint, as far as I can figure out. It gives a good, fresh new surface to the decking.
So at 10:30 a.m. I started the scrubbing process: first wash with the power washer, then fill a bucket with "The Duke" a very strong cleaner (diluted 1- 10 with water), applied with a scrubbing brush. Fortunately I have one with a "stand up" handle, so this doesn't need to be done on hands and knees. But, OH, it's hard work! It needs and really good, stiff scrubbing to loosen all the dirt. And then that all gets power washed off, twice to get get rid of the cleaner. That took until 1:00 p.m. And then I was "washed up" myself--pretty well finished!
The Dear One very sweetly offered that we could either order take-out for dinner (2 p.m.) or go out to a local restaurant. We did go out to Harvest House, where we ordered our favourites: his: lasagne, mine: chicken quesadilla. Well, that was a treat, and perhaps, a deserved treat. It was nice for both of us.
After eating he bought some broccoli for today's stir fry and went to get the mail, and I went to the Fabric Nook for some flannel for the latest quilt, the "raggy quilt" that I showed last time. We came home and I relaxed with my library book for a few hours.
By 5:30 I thought maybe I could manage some more, and I mixed up the "ReFresh"--the kind of paint for the vinyl decking, and got to work again. You're not supposed to use it when it's over 30ºC, and I'm pretty sure the decking itself was too hot, but I started anyway. By 7:45 the painting was complete and I was "knackered." I can't use a long handle with my paint roller because a handle broke off once in it. I have to try to remove that bit so that I can screw in a handle, but just haven't done it yet or figured out if that's even possible. So this was accomplished down on my hands and knees, and sometimes just squatting when my knees hurt too much from the bumpy surface.
Then I was really finished for the day. It was hard to stand up straight! I took another shower, poured myself a cold drink and "zoned out" until bedtime. Fortunately I had a good 8 hours of sleep and, amazingly, today I don't feel any worse for the wear. But I have taken a day off.
A friend dropped by for some help with her knitting and we had a nice visit. Then I spent some time trying to figure out just how long it's been since I "refresh" the decking. I think it's been three years. Should be good for another three or four now.
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