Kara and I started our first major home improvement project on Saturday... sanding and resealing our deck. We spent 7 hours on Saturday, 10 hours on Sunday, and we’re STILL working on it! Sanding the deck floor was simple with the floor sander that I rented. But we also wanted to sand down all of the rails, and here is where the majority of our time has been spent. Fortunately our neighbor, Ed, came up with a good idea for dealing with the little rails. Instead of sanding each one, we took them down and ran them through his planer. We finished up the rest of the rails last night, and now we just need to do some touchup sanding on the floor, sand parts of the stairs, sand the corners of the little rails, replace some rotting floor boards, seal the whole thing, and put the little rails back up. In other words, we’re not even close to being done...
Welcome to the world of home ownership! I did my own deck once 2 years ago. I didn't have to do any major sanding like you, but I did have to pressure wash it, apply cleaner to it, rinse it, bleach it, rinse it, let it dry, sand rough spots, spray/brush on the new stain/sealer, let it dry, and put on a second coat.
Talk about rinse, repeat, and repeat and repeat!!!
Then, I must have had a small stroke or something, cause the following week I offered to do the deck on my in-laws' house, too.
But once it's done, it seem to be all worth it.
If I was you I just would have sold the house and moved in with people who do all the hard house work for me.
Is this what I have to look forward to!?! I believe I have made a grave mistake. By the way, how is ol' Ed?