I'm sorry...

Wow, two months since my last post. What happened?

Let's see, I got bounced off my horse (but you knew that if you read the last post), I messed up my shoulder muscles by getting overly ambitious with yard projects, horse sliced open the bridge of her nose and got 8 stitches, survived hell-week-of-meetings at work, parents came to visit and deliver my new toy...

...made it through Super Big Project/Event at work, and now I'm on to painting the fence. All 504 linear feet of it, and because both sides are getting attention, really its 1,008 feet.

Ah, the fence. Since the day I first looked at this place I've been wanting to do something with the fence. And I honestly mean the day I first looked at the place, because I climbed the fence to check out the pasture while waiting for my Realtor, and the board broke. I replaced it during Grand Remodeling Project 1.0, but at the time all I did was put primer on the new board. The rest of the fence was peeling pretty good. Fast forward three years and tons of mildew later, and I am finally checking this item off my to-do list.

Not that this is by any means a simple project. I spent many a summer growing up scraping and painting board fences, and it usually took most of the summer to do it. So I've been planning my strategy for a while. My brother asked why I didn't tackle the house first. Truth is, I want to play with my new toy on something simple that people won't pay much attention to.

Yes, a new toy. I bought a paint sprayer. I've been researching sprayers for at least a year. I figure between the fence and the house exterior, not to mention the other interior remodeling projects that need to be done, it would be better in the long run if I bought a sprayer. I could have rented one, but by the time I add up the rental costs it would have cost the same as buying a new unit. It arrived on Saturday, and I spent Sunday evening gleefully unpacking it and watching the instructional DVD (because we all know women actually do read the instructions!).

I spent over 9 hours this weekend power washing the fence to strip off the loose paint and blast away the mildew and algae. And after 9 hours, I only got 570 feet or so prepped. Monday morning I had to return it, so it will be a few more days before I can attempt to finish the rest. See, I said this would be a big job!

Yesterday I dropped $600 on 20 gallons of primer and paint. And that was with a 40% off coupon.

This is far from over.