washed up.

Phase 1 of cleaning up our fence, back deck and front porch is complete. This is long overdue and much needed - thank god for a three day weekend to finally get down to work on it! On Friday, we woke up at 5:30 am and we're up at Home Depot by 5:55 because renting power-washers is first come, first serve and we take that kind of competition very seriously.

We rented the power washer and had it in the car by about 6:09 - and then we drove back home and went back to sleep for an hour since it would not have been neighborly to start power-washing at 6:30 in the morning!

We started around 8:30 in the morning and basically power-washed for 6 hours straight. It is actually kind of enjoyable work and addictive since you can literally see the results of your work as you go. To give you a sense - here are some before and afters...

The Fence Before...

Side-by-Side...

After...

The Front Porch Before...

 During...

After...

 Here is a side by side of the before and after...

And finally, our back deck (I only took after pictures)...

Amazing, right? The next step is getting some stain and protectant on these beauties asap -- but the rain has been getting in the way - so we are just waiting for some hot, dry days to finish it all off. I will be sure to post the final pictures!