I know why so many of us of the older generation sell our houses and move into condos. It seems like we always have some repairs that need to be made or maintenance that needs to be done . Just this year, we’ve replaced the fence, replaced some hardscape (with more demo to come in the fall) and once again, we have more deck repair to do.

My ex-husband built the deck during one of his manic phases about thirty-plus years ago.  The deck was built off the dining room and the roof was made of white fiberglass panels. I liked it because it provided great light in the dining room. When I had my roof reshingled, I told the roofer I  wanted the same fiberglass panels on the deck roof, he said he couldn’t do that because the deck wasn’t square.  I had to settle for sheet-type roofing. It wasn’t ideal as it totally blocked the light coming into the dining room, but I  didn’t have other options.

I’ve written about replacing deck boards. Back about fifteen years ago, I decided I wanted the deck to look more like a regular floor, so I had the Great Hunter put a plywood underlayment down and then I covered that with peel-and-stick tile. Bad idea. Since the deck is only screened, the rain got under the tiles and rotted quite a few of the boards. All that work had to be undone and the rotted boards replaced and all the boards sanded and stained.

After I retired, I spent about a week painting the exterior of the deck white. It was something I had wanted to do for a very long time and it turned out great.

Last year, the Great Hunter again replaced several deck boards and the “facer” board. I’ve been battling end rot on the boards and hopefully, I’ve found a fix using “Wood Restore” and wood putty. It’s worked fairly well in some places and not so well in others.

This summer, rescreening the deck was on the agenda. The cats have crawled up the screen causing rips and pulling some of it down; add to that the raccoon chewing its way through the screen to get to the bird seed.  ( Lesson learned, I no longer keep it on the deck). Unfortunately, rescreening entails removing all the posts and the boards that cover the deck posts but several of them needed to be replaced anyway.

We are two-thirds of the way done and we haven’t killed each other yet. As I’ve mentioned before, the Great Hunter and I are often not on the same page when it comes to making repairs. But throughout the years, he’s learned that “happy wife, happy life” is definitely the way to go.

The Great Hunter is off bow hunting this weekend so I’ll get the painting and water sealing done in the next couple of days. Next week I’m going to see my bonus granddaughter’s graduation from Army AIT, but sometime in the next couple of weeks, we’ll get the last side done before the “real” hunting season comes around.