Power washing today

It’s one of the beauty of working in healthcare – working odd hours and weekend. I’m going to have to work this weekend, so I’m spending today working with a contractor to power wash my rental property. I’m posting some befor pictures and will update with after pictures once it’s completed.

Power wash the building is $125

Power wash all 4 decks and front porch is $200

Total power wash $325

Paint and stain all 4 decks and porch $326

Materials is around $300

I hope I’ll be done with the outside this week.

  
  
  

Update at 3:47pm. They’ve only gotten the 4 decks done so far. It’s a sunny day. We aim to get all the decks done so they’ll be ready for painting tomorrow.

Here are some of the pictures after power wash. No paint yet.

  
  

The steps got cleaned also

Update 5/28/16:

After the power washer guy quoted $325 to power wash and $325 to paint, he realized it’s a lot more work than anticipated, so after power wash the house, added power wash the steps ($350 total), he didn’t answer my text or call or email. So I resorted to either do it myself, or pay someone else to do it.

Here are some early pictures. I might have to go over it 1 more coat on heavy traffic area.

I found a guy who buy paints at auction, and he sold me $10/gallon. I bought 10 gallons. This saved me $300 in paint. The only problem is it’s burgundy color. I can’t use it on the front porch, but on the deck, this will do.

I’m contemplating to use it for my deck at home. It’ll be a weekend project for sure.

This week has been unbelievably tough, the AC is broken down at my house, I found a bunch of ants working on the condensation unit. I’ll have to clean that up.

after I replaced the electrical panel, come to find out the dryer didn’t work. So I bought new heating element, sensor, wire and thermometer. I didn’t know which one has failed. So, if I’m in there, I might as well replace them all.

Last year, I had to spend $2900 for a new AC unit, I figured I might as well stay proactive and hire AC company to service. This guy work for Carroll, a big AC company around here, he’d do it after hour for $50/unit. I saw he only spray the solvent onto the copper pipe instead of the spongy aluminum filter. It didn’t look right. Sure enough, 2 hour after that, the AC had stopped producing cool air. I didn’t let him do the other 2 units. He refused to come back to see if he eroded the pipe. What a big jerk! *you know what they say, “if it’s ain’t break, don’t touch it”. I should have just let it go. Change filter and call it good. **lesson learned. I’m sure the solvent is ok on aluminum but on an old copper coil is a no no.

The saga didn’t stop there, now I have to shop for an HVAC guy who can do it at a reasonable price. It’s a pain right now having going through that. I’m working this weekend, so I couldn’t jump in to help with painting and such.

I don’t mind walking around with no AC, it’s the spring, if it get a little bit hot, I have plenty of shade at home, spring breeze is great. If it hot, you’re supposed to sweat, instead, us American are spoiled and just want to sit in the AC house, and never sweat, and blame it on “slow” metabolism. If your body only experience 60-68F year around, it’d think you’re hypernating. I only want the different between indoor and outdoor is 10-20F, beyond that if I go from 100F to 70F, I have to wear a sweater. It’s stupid to wear a sweater in the summer time.

 

Anyway, this post has turning from updating to Landlore Rambling. Haha. I had to do it. It’s been a frustrating week. But I’ll solve one problem at a time.