Power washing and power mowers

Our dirty house last fall with egg stain near the peak above the
porch. Yes, those are beer cans on the ledge. I was thirsty.

One thing that was absolutely clear to us when we purchased our home was that it desperately needed to be cleaned, inside and out. In my very first blog I wrote about the interior cleaning and vine removal. With winter approaching, we decided to wait to tackle much of the outside. Now, as we have finally warmed, there was no long any reason to delay the inevitable. Our home is solid masonry construction, with a finished concrete or smooth stucco exterior. It hadn't been cleaned in a very long time, if ever. One of the presents left behind by the college students that had rented the home, was a massive stain on the wall below the porch roof. Otherwise, the house was covered in dirt, perhaps a bit of mold, and streaky stains of something slowly oozing down from the overhang.

So, it was clear it needed a power washing, but how to go about it? Certainly operating a power washer is not rocket science, but I didn't own one or the accessories I would need to reach the higher sections of the home. I also didn't have a high enough ladder. Heights don't bother me, but at 6'3" and well proportioned,well into my middle age, I'm not exactly an acrobat anymore. A local resident (Mark) I know had mentioned last year that he had a power washer and would be willing to do the job for me, so I kept that in the back of my mind as I shopped for a power washer. Now here's something about me that always slows my progress when I'm shopping for anything more than a book of stamps: I think about it too much. I start considering the purchase from every angle, taking into account cost, use, durability, warranty, at a minimum. This kind of bogs down the purchase process causing me to miss special sales and other opportunities. So, the bottom line is that as it became time to wash the house, I had none of the things I needed, and nothing was on sale (never pay full price, right?). Then, a couple weeks ago, Mark wanders by and mentions that he's ready to wash the house and wants to know when he should do it. Perfect. I ask him how much and he offered to do it for so little, that I couldn't refuse.

The power wash underway.

Dramatic example of the
cleaning in progress.

So, on an overcast, cool and rainy day, (see here), Mark and his partner showed up with a ladder, a power washer, heavy duty rain gear, Outdoor Clorox, and mildew fighter. The two of them power washed the entire home in around 6 hours, something that I was ill equipped to do, and would have taken much longer had I done it myself.

The cleaning made a remarkable difference and will provide Cindy and I with another decision to be made. Do we just keep the cleaned exterior as it is, or do we paint the house with a high quality paint, covering the remaining stains. Painting would have the added bonus of sealing some of the cracks that have developed over the years. The downside of painting is that we would lose the nice, sparkly exterior of the house, which has tiny quartz crystals embedded. At this point we're inclined to leave it as is, perhaps for this year and see how the house looks, especially after I get to work and trim around the windows and doors. I'll take a picture of the clean house and try to remember to post it on my next blog.

I mentioned power mowers in the title and I suppose I should write a few words about this as well. The farm equipment auction in Whitney Point was kind of a bust. They had literally hundreds of garden tractors in various conditions, and my cousin and I spotted a few good ones. Well, I set a maximum price that I was willing to spend on a no guarantee tractor and the bidding far exceeded my limit. There will be another in the fall, when I understand prices are lower because fewer people want a mower in October. So my decision now is this: Do I wait and push my tiny mower around the north lawn all summer, or do I just walk into a store and buy a new one? Like a wrote above, my decision making process moves at the speed of a glacier, and I could use the exercise, so maybe I'll just think about all summer. One downside of a push mower: There's no place to put your beer.

A final note. Thank you all for the kind comments. I appreciate them and it makes me very happy that you are enjoying my blog. Please excuse the typos and grammatical errors. One thing is clear, I'm a marginal repairman but a far worse proofreader. I'll continue to fix the errors as I find them.