1. You really can stain a large deck in one afternoon if you're willing to smother your inner perfectionist with a pillow and concentrate on completely covering the decking, and not worrying about what else is getting stained.
2. A 12" stain spreader does not fit easily into a 9" wide paint tray. You have to dip it one side at a time.
3. Extra-large paint trays are ridiculously expensive- 10 times what a disposable 9" paint tray costs.
4. No matter how carefully you swept beforehand, you will still find leaves and acorns on the deck while staining.
5. Watching humans stain decks is wonderful cat entertainment.
6. A highly motivated cat can pry open a sliding screen door so as as to inspect your staining more closely.
7. When you turn around and spot the more timid of the two (indoor) cats, curiously exploring the deck, catch him, and pitch his fluffy butt unceremoniously back inside, you should also check on the whereabouts of the bolder cat.
8. When a handsome black and white gentleman cat is having a Big Adventure in the vicinity of deck staining, he will not be spotted until after he has paced over a section of freshly stained deck.
9. Cleaning deck stain off a cat's paws with alcohol is not fun for either the cat or the human.
10. When a gentleman cat is thwarted in the pursuit of a Big Adventure, and then subjected to Terrible Indignities (having his paws cleaned with alcohol) he will naturally feel that he deserves a restorative snack in compensation. And be rather miffed when instead his human departs to continue staining the deck.
11. No matter how carefully you calculated, you will run out of stain because an extremely weathered deck will soak up more stain than you think it will.
12. As much as you may dislike ugly big box stores, having a hardware superstore three blocks from your house is darned useful at times.
13. As grateful as a person may be to finish staining a deck; it does not make the prospect of starting the pool closing tomorrow any more appealing...
LOL! I hate to laugh at another's misfortunes, but I could just TOTALLY picture the whole thing. I think the humans deserve a restorative cocktail after all of that!
ReplyDeleteWow - that's a big job - and I bet the kitties just wanted to help!
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like cats and little dogs have much in common when it comes these types of adventures. I hope the pool closing go smoothly.
ReplyDelete"Here, kitty-kitty!" Heh, heh, heh!
ReplyDeleteHope the pool-closing went well.
excellent! made me laugh. and thank you for stopping by my blog. I really appreciate the support.
ReplyDeleteThis was my past two weekends trying to conquer my deck, minus the black and white cat tangent... Thanks for the chuckle, it does put it all into perspective! I just paid someone to close the pool so I could do the deck. Kudos to you for going both.
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