The Project That Took Forever (it seemed)

The patio table & chairs. We always seem to start projects that take forever. Note: I don't like painting chairs w/slats.

We have a patio table set that was given to us by a dear Aunt. Well, she actually gave us money, rather than leaving it in her will & we bought the table & chairs. That was about 10 years ago. It's a hard wood but not teak. We've oiled it w/linseed oil a couple of times but it sits on our City House patio that gets direct summer sun. So, it was getting to be pretty dried out. The chairs & table base are in pretty good shape but the table top is suffering. We decided to paint the whole set & try to get a few more years out of the top.

First, we needed to pressure wash the patio, which we do every year. We always have to wait for the oak trees to finish dropping leaves & those little wormy things before putting patio plants back out & washing. Since we hadn't put the patio plants back out, it was a bit easier than in year's past.  This was done June 3rd. Note: It's now August & we still don't have the patio plants back out.

Here is a picture of the table before:

A couple of weeks later we started the process of painting the table & chairs.

First we have to prime:

We paint in a shaded area of our yard but it still gets hot. So, we broke out the fans to help keep us cool. This was on the 2nd coat two weeks later.

How redneck is that?

And here is the finished product (along w/ acorns already starting to drip in August - 2 months too soon):

We added a fancy umbrella we got on sale at World Market. We're taking bets that it lasts for 6 months, if we're lucky.

Here's to hoping for at least 2 more years on the table top. After that husband will build a new one to go on top. Oh joy, more priming & painting.