Picked up my life safety permit this morning. It was fairly painless compared to the average trip to the city.

While I was there I asked the girl about their online system. They advertise that you can set up and account and schedule inspections online. I did this a while back but I could never see my permits. They have a search function almost identical to the one on the portion of the site where you don't need to sign in only I couldn't get it to work.

I told her this and she told me she had to set up the permit to be seen by that part of the site. I told her I didn't see anything that indicated that fact. She said there was nothing that indicated that fact.

Got the inspection scheduled for tomorrow. Can't wait.

Hope it goes according to plan, bud.

Thanks digger

Woot!

Eddie was my guy again. He was primarily concerned with the smoke detectors. His first question was, were they recent.

Well, yes an no.

When I originally wired the house I had them located at certain spots. The rough wiring inspector made me move them. So I did. Then, a second inspector came and made me move them again. So I did. They finally passed.

Since I never got a final inspection, I never actually put the smoke detectors in - until recently when I suspected they would be looking at it.

Eddie wasn't really enthused about the location but I told him the story and he seemed to take pity on me.

Anyways, that's all he looked at and he's gonna close it out.

I am happy.

When I did my first remodel I don't recall having any issues with the city paper pushers, but I do remember a ton of grief from the inspectors. Sort of the same sort of thing. One would tell me one thing and another would tell me something different.

So far, none of that. Not sure why. Eddie seemed to know that was going on with my quest. Maybe he's taken pity. Maybe he's just in a hurry.

I was able to pick his brain about the front porch framing. He said he really doesn't care if the bottom step sits on the ground as long as it is treated wood. I think I know how to do the rest properly.

The permit still hasn't cleared, though so I have a bit more wait.

Do you have a waiting permit? I do not think you do.
You might also need a waiting list permit as well.

So go collect the applications for a waiting permit and a waiting list permit and onc eyou have completed those - you will need to renew your application permit for 2014 because even filling in an application requires a permit.

Today I prepped the deck for staining. It was unbelievably harder than I anticipated.

First I used the garden power nozzle to dislodge stuff from between the planks. There was pretty much anything you can think of, sticks, leaves, nails, wood, bark. I spent half the time with a screwdriver dislodging stuff.

Then I took areas and mopped with the bleach mixture and followed up with the power washer. It was a lot slower than I thought. Getting the sides of boards was pretty slow going.

The power washer sort of spread gunk around so when I was done I went over it again with the power nozzle.

I thinks it's pretty clean.

I'm exhausted and my back is killing me from bending over all day.

I'll take pics tomorrow when it is dry.

pic of clean deck

Stain day tomorrow.

Cleaned up pretty good. Was that just bleach and water?

Can't complain with that result.

Thanks.

Yeah, bleach and water. The power washer got a workout though. 1 pass wasn't always enough. Some of that stuff was really caked on.

What sort of colour stain are you thinking of using?

It's called Kona Brown. It has sort of a red tint, though. I can't find a pic on the internet. I wanted something with a little red in it. I think that will look ok with the silver/grey house paint.

This paint/stain selection is really hard. I can never imagine what it is going to look like from the sample picture at the store/on the can. And stain is even worse because you can't get small sample jars like you can paint.

They had this particular one on a piece of decking on display and it seemed ok. I'm crossing my fingers cause I've committed on this one.

You'll see it tomorrow!

Have you considered the fact that after you have stained the decktop - that you might feel the urge to stain your fence as a result of it?
(I can see a well weather worn fence in the background of the shot above)

Not my fence. Somehow I've been able to train my subconscious to ignore that eyesore since it is, well, not my fence. I've covered a considerable portion of it with bamboo. I'll make a detailed fence post some time in the future. There's more issues than just that one.

It just occurred to me when I saw it in the background there might be a visual discontinuity there.

I have a plan.

Well, I thought I could finish the staining today but I ran out of energy, stain (twice), sunlight and WIM.

It is really slow going because of the deck (plank) sides. Both sides of each board need to be stained and it's really difficult to get a brush in there. It takes just the right angle and holding your mouth right. Really slows down the process. I thought maybe I could get away with not messing with the sides but it is really noticeable if you don't get it covered.

After about 2 hours I realized I wasn't getting it all done at the pace I was going. I was also running out of stain. So I ran to Lowe's to get a sprayer. The sprayer really wasted stain but I could live with that if it got things done a lot faster. It didn't. About 5 minutes in the nozzle stopped up and it quit spraying. So, I cleared it and in about a minute it clogged again. So, back to the brush.

By the end of the day I had a method. Go over one side of the board with a small brush. Do this on a larger area. Then turn around and get the other side and the top with 2 brushes. Really tedious but it got it done.

I got a little more than half done but tomorrow should go faster.

I'm really pleased with how it turned out so far, though. I like the color.

Here's a pic.



Now, off to Lowe's to get more stain. I think by the time I'm done I'll go through about 8 gallons.

Looks great. I'm jealous of the mature lot. We're in a 5 year old subdivision so the only trees taller than 10' are a ways back behind the house (we back onto a river that's managed by a conservation authority).

Well done, sir.
I cannot wait to see what it looks like as a whole.

What colour do you think it will age or weather into?

Thanks

Yeah, there's good and bad. It's always shady and they do look great. But I have leaves to pick up literally year around. I have quite a few different types of trees that all drop leaves different times of the year. The oak tree in the front yard is dropping them right now.

Those two trees you see in the pic are cedar elms. Really old cedar elms. They are fairly brittle trees and with the drought here they occasionally break off large limbs in the wind. I had one limb the size of a normal tree break off of one of those a few years ago. I have no doubt one is going to crunch my garage some day.

Thanks digger. I suspect it will get a bit darker but I really don't know.

When ever I've stained decks I used a roller. Attach it to a broom handle and you can really get a lot done in a hurry.

yeah, it's the area between the boards that I'm sort of obsessing about

Finished!

Well, I still have some cleanup to do but another day.

I'm really really happy with how it turned out. And, I'm glad I took the time to get to those hard to reach places. It would have bugged me if I didn't.

Here's some pics and me having my inaugural stained deck beer!