You Can Do Magic: Part Two

Day two of the staining process is now complete. This is the porch this morning after drying for about 20 hours. It got a lot lighter than I thought it would.

I got two coats of stain on both the porch and the stairs today. I ended up choosing "Redwood" to match the little patch of siding that you see to the left of the front door in the photo below. I couldn't find a stain that matched the house, so I tried to at least match that little patch. Here is the porch after two coats of stain, which I am leaving overnight and then plan to hit one more time to even it out.

I'm not crazy about the color, but I'm not sure that I can do much better. I'm hoping that once I get the planters and rug back on the porch, it will look better.

The stairs after two coats of stain:

I'm planning to paint that horizontal line that looks gray at the base of the porch tomorrow when I do the touch up work on the porch floor with the red paint. I noticed a few spots after I took this picture that I missed, but in general, it looks pretty good.

Again, I don't love the color, but I only have to live with it for another year or so. The whole idea here is to neutralize the treated lumber surfaces so that they blend in more with the rest of the house for when we put it on the market.

Stay tuned for the painting of the back porch floor (again) and the third coat of stain on the front porch tomorrow. For now, most of my body is "Redwood" in color and I am headed for the shower to become a white girl again.