Freshly Painted Deck at Our House in Land Park

A newly painted deck at our house in Land Park.

Now that we’re not likely to see any more rain in Sacramento until Trick-or-Treating time, it seemed a good idea to paint the deck at our house in Land Park. Not that I would do it myself, mind you. Although, I thoroughly enjoy painting and doing home improvement projects. It’s such a sense of personal satisfaction. Just do not have the time available to allocate to such projects these days. My time is better spent listing and selling homes in Sacramento.

The thing I find interesante is by viewing that history in my rear-view mirror, I understand the processes behind most improvement projects, which can make me highly critical of anybody else’s work. It is why I don’t put a lot of faith in reviews by average homeowners that are submitted to Angie’s List. What do they know if they’ve never done it and don’t know what’s involved? How can they tell if the job was completed correctly? They can’t. Probably not when it comes to painting, either. I doubt their noses are stuck at the seams checking for messy brush strokes or they are running their hands over the walls to check for sanding between coats, like some people obsessed with quality I know. Not saying who.

The guy who painted the deck at our house in Land Park did a marvelous job, I’m thrilled to report. He was referred to me by another fellow Land Park agent in my office at Lyon. This fellow takes pride in his work, and it shows. First, he spent half a day prepping. About 80 percent of any job is the preparation. If you do that part right, your chances of an excellent result skyrocket. He scraped the high spots off. Ran beads of caulk over cracks in the cement to seal them. Scrubbed the old deck within an inch of its life.

You can see the before photo below of when the deck was blue. Who picked that color blue? I’m not saying who that idiot was. The new color is a rusty brick red. I pulled a thread from the umbrella for my handyman to use for comparison purposes. He said he asked two people at Home Depot whether the paint matched, and both of those people, he made a point of mentioning, were women. As though women can spot color variations better than men, I guess. Or, maybe because then he could blame my gender and be closer to getting off the hook if I didn’t like the color.

Really perks up the yard at our house in Land Park. Lends a warm glow to our interior rooms at the back of the house, too. If it wasn’t so danged hot, I’d probably sit out there.

Former blue deck at our house in Land Park.

Newly painted rusty brick red deck at our house in Land Park.