Our Latest Project

This is our backyard, or WAS how our backyard used to look.  I hang my laundry back here, and the kids use this space to run and play with the dog.  The blackness on the walls and floor are actually an alge or fungus type of growth.

 When it's dry it's completely safe to walk on, not at all slippery, but when it's wet, it's dangerous.  (Also not great if you drop fresh, clean, wet laundry when you're hanging it - goes back into the washer.)  A couple of weeks ago, our youngest was out there when it was wet, and slipped and fell, bruising her elbows and staining her shirt with the dark sliminess.  

 I had been wanting to do something about it, but hadn't figured out how to clean that stuff off short of pouring bleach over the whole area and scrubbing it with a scrub brush.  I got the idea that a pressure washer might work, and a colleague loaned us his to give it a try.

 Josh showing Mitchell how to use the pressure washer.

 The side of the house - BEFORE (this was the worst part).

 Making progress.

It worked like a charm!  The difference between clean and not clean!  It worked SO well, we decided to take advantage of such a clean floor and painted it too!  We used anti-fungal paint, hoping to stop it before it started growing again!

 The kids and pup enjoying the clean surface - finally!

 Looking towards the back door - more work to do.  Also a more true representation of the color.

 

 The roller frames we were able to purchase here were very poor quality, so we super glued the part where the metal joined the plastic in hopes that it would not be wobbly quite as quickly.  Randomlythe super glue DID NOT dry in one of the frames and ran out onto Josh's foot, gluing his toe to his flip flop - FOR REAL.  

 He actually had to tear away part of his flip flop to get his foot out.  Took a couple of days to wear off!

We worked all day one Saturday on just this floor area, from cleaning to painting.  We finished the paint job after dark (and touched up the next morning!).  With the floor done, we moved to cleaning the walls.  (Again not a true color representation as the sun is shining on the surface.)

We finished a couple of days later, working afternoons or evenings.  Here the floor is wet (the paint is not shiny, it's matte - it looks shiny 'cause it's raining as I'm taking the pic), but you can see clean walls now, ready for a paint job.  We'll wait for a bit to do that as we're waiting to re-contract the house.  I'm thinking a Mediterranean color scheme, maybe playing off that red door.  I wasn't crazy about the color Josh had chosen to begin with but now I love it.  Another great feature besides it being clean is that we can walk out there barefoot at noon and it's not too hot!  When it was black it wasn't possible!  

We love to sit out there at night, enjoying the stars and the occasional breeze too. We hope to make this into an area our family will use a lot.  I'm looking for plans to have someone make us a portable fire pit (they don't exist here), one we can use for a grill too (they don't have those here either).