Patio maintenance

I've always been the type to turn an simple project into an all-day doing.  I can' help it - one task leads to another.  eventually I wind up exhausted and sometimes, but not always, I did a great job and am happy with the result.  No matter the twists and turns I took to get there.

 Today I tackled this hideousness.  A dirty, mildewy patio.  Full of dust, spider webs, leftover leaves and pollen...No wonder we don't hang out here more.

 And this train wreak of a firewood harp.  Still full of an unopened bag of pinon pine and kindling and leaves and oak pollen.  Making a rusty mess of the slab.  That I will spray paint, then store the kindling elsewhere.

 Oh, look...spray paint evidence...well I will do the best I can with that, but it really needs a good power washing.

And a dirty deck that needs some TLC  and repairs.  Some day it WILL get repaired.  Today is not that day.

 I started by moving as much stuff as I could from the patio and deck.  See that storage thingy in the background?  It's all of Hubby's assorted BBQ stuff.  Behind it lives several folding tables.  All of it got washed and jet-sprayed.

 Why not wash all the chairs and tables and loungers you say?  OK!  See what I mean about a project morphing?  I picked up twigs, blew and raked leaves, scrubbed furniture and the underside of the patio roof,  scrubbed and bleached the deck and slab.  It was getting to be mid-90's outside.  So every now and again I chugged water and sprayed myself with the hose.  I also added some brick to a little space to store the hose reel thingy, and jet sprayed the landscape lights.

 When it was dry, I added a pretty new rug, watered my poor sad plants and moved this lavendar out of the direct sun.  I even got a little of the rust stains up.  

 Put all of the furniture back and cranked up the umbrella to dry - 

heck yes, I spray washed that, too!

 Admired my 'clean enough for now' deck, with it's newly cleaned chairs and cushions.

Along the way I noted several other things I need to do out here, but for now, it's too hot to do much more.  The slab was dry in record time!  It will be nice with the breezes blowing through, so maybe we'll actually come out here more often.

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