Staining Complete...nearly

This weekend was all about trimming the hedges, fertilizing the lawn and staining, staining, and staining. I'm nearly done. I just have one more gate to stain and that will be it! I stared at the gate for a long time to see if I wanted to stain it at all because it still looks pristine...sorry no pics. In the end, I'll stain it again, just so that it will weather the same color, but seeing how the front gate didn't need to really be re-stained after nearly 5 years just reiterated to me that hand staining does make a difference.

The rest of my fence was sprayed and it seemed to have lasted only 4 years. This year, I decided on a whim that I would hand stain my entire fence. Quite honestly, I thought, even before I began, that I would be giving up mid-way, but nope, I kept chugging a long. The only thing that prevented me from finishing this weekend was rain.

Here's the before.

and the after

I love the darker color. You'll have to excuse that one bright piece above the door. The pool builder broke that piece and replaced it with the wrong color stain. I may re-stain that piece with an even darker stain to try to match it.

I thought getting pricked by my rose bushes while I was staining was bad, but it was nothing like getting stuck with my palm tree needles.

It was a good thing I trimmed them before I started. It could have been worse.

Finishing up the last panel will have to wait until this weekend since rain is predicted to come for the next few days. Here's the run down of what I spent. The stain was a whopping $40 a gallon, but it was supposed to be the best out there. I used up 6 gallons and with my 10% off coupon, the final cost was $216 for the stain. I spent $4.91 on a stain brush which brings my total with tax to $239.14 for materials. I spent approximately 3 days staining (technically 2 full days and 2 half days). Last summer, I received a quote for $580 to stain my fence so staining it by hand saves me about $340 and at the very least lasts 2 years longer which by itself is worth it.

I am so happy I got one thing off my list. What's more to come? I have to clear out some of our dead plants that didn't make it through the drout, mulch the flower beds, plant some begonias, stain the swing set, build a clubhouse for my boys, separate my plants that have multiplied, and so much more.

I hope to tackle most of these projects if not all, before the summer heat catches up to us. At least, I got one major task nearly checked off my list. I am ec-sta-tic!

Staining Workout

Do you ever wake up in the morning with a project in your head and have to execute it right away? Well, that is what happened to me this morning. I'm home with the kids this week for Spring Break. When I woke up this morning, I decided that I wanted to stain the fence. I know what you are thinking, what?? But low and behold, at six in the morning, I was ready to hop in my car to Lowe's.

I did the calculations last year and it doesn't save me all that much money if I hire someone to do it. However, if I do hire someone to re-stain my fence and use their stain, it will have to be redone in 3 years. That's what I have noticed around the neighborhood. The areas that were sprayed by my hubby still looked pretty good after 4 years. The front fence where I hand stained is still looking great, coming on to the fifth year now so I believe that hand staining and using a great quality stain really does make a difference.

My whole ulterior motive was to also get a nice workout while re-staining the fence by hand. It's been a nice, cool, and breezy week so when better than now.

Four more months and it will be five years since we last stained our fence. Here's what it looked like this morning when I woke up.

I decided upon this stain, but in oak brown color.

After an hour of staining, this is where I'm at. The left side hasn't been re-stained yet. When it dries, it will be a little bit lighter. I stopped staining because I thought I felt rain drops.

After I cleaned everything and put away my paint brush, the sun decided to come out and shine. Oh well. I will continue to stain tomorrow. Until then, let me unzoom my lens to show you where I am at. My fence is incomplete.

Long long way to go. Should I get tired of it, I'll whip out my spray gun, but until then, I'm liking the way it turned out so I'll keep chugging along. Until then, wish me luck. I'll keep you posted, but may be a while before I finish it all up, unless I can solicit some help ;)