Apparently I forgot the fiasco from the first time I stripped, washed, sanded, and stained the deck. I figured this time should be no problem right? I mean, I just did all that other crap four years ago. WRONG!
As bits of wood and stain were blasted free by 1400 psi the realization came that I was back where I was when we first moved into the house. On top of that, it was starting to get "fuzzy" (if you've every washed a deck you know exactly what I'm talking about). At this point I knew that the whole damn thing would need to be sanded so I began to power wash with reckless abandon. And I have to say that with reckless abandon is the only way one should power wash.
Great, I have a newly washed deck. The gray is mostly gone, the lose stain and wood is gone, nothing left to do but sand it and stain it. Then it rained for a month. Seriously, the deck wasn't dry enough to sand for a month. I'm not just talking little showers here and there, I'm talking torrential wrath of God rain. The kind that makes you start to wonder if you don't need to start gathering animals. The good news is that I already have the cats covered. The bad news is that neither one of them is capable of reproducing and I'm not entirely convinced it would be a good thing if they could.
But this isn't about the cats is it? Finally, a beautiful weekend came. I pulled out the sander, clamped the sheet in, and started sanding. Slowly, PAINFULLY slowly, I began to make progress sanding the rails smooth. After going through about 8 sheets and barely even putting a dent in this task I finally admitted that it wasn't working. A quick check online and I was able to find out that most people are using random orbit sanders with 80 grit sandpaper. Somehow, I figured out to use 80 grit on my own.
Off to the store for a new sander. After some research online and some good, old-fashioned in-store hemming and hawing I chose the Milwaukee 6021-21 5 in. Random Orbit Sander (yeah, that's my new toy in the picture). The difference was evident immediately. As I settled into a groove of faster, more effective sanding I contemplated how many different metaphors could be drawn between this project and the projects that I work on as a software developer.
Lesson 1: Do Your Research
Had I done just a few minutes of poking around online I would have saved myself wasted time using an ineffective tool.
Lesson 2: Update Your Tools
Even though the tool that I already owned would do the job eventually, by simply spending a little money and updating to the proper tool I was accomplish the task more quickly and with better results.
Although these are very common sense lessons that you can find pretty much anywhere you look, I feel like it's worth remembering and pointing out to myself not only as I attempt to accomplish a myriad of projects around the home but also day-by-day at work.
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