Oh, gosh, I’ve had a busy weekend. You see, my husband spent his summer building us a beautiful new sundeck. In the process, our yard turned into a construction zone. Usually, he or I (or a son if they’re home) “blow/s” the driveway with the leaf blower following the municipality’s annual spring street cleaning. But this year, because my mother-in-law passed away and then My Liege began the deconstruction of the old sundeck, we didn’t get around to cleaning the driveway. Therefore, it was a huge mess. Not just your typical leftover winter gravel, dust and grime, but grime and dirt and gunk and sawdust and composite-board dust and you-name-it was all over half of the driveway (it’s a two-ended beast) and also in a little patio/courtyard area where My Liege had set up his “workshop.” Clever moi, I thought I could just blow the courtyard clean of the grime encrusting the…not concrete, but whatever you call it when it looks like rocks. There’s a name for it. They create it by washing off the top layer of cement or concrete or whatever. I’m too worn out to try and remember what it’s called.
At any rate, I thought that the leaf blower would get rid of the grim in the courtyard. But it couldn’t get rid of it all. I spent 3.5 solid hours in the hot sun (with a break to suck back four mini yogurts), blowing the courtyard and both sides of the driveway, then scooping the waste into a garbage can for My Liege to take to the dump next time he goes. Except I…didn’t realize there was a hole in the bottom of the garbage can. So God knows what will happen when M.L. tries to move it into the back of his pick-up. For now, it’s sitting under a maple tree with a tarp over it, because it’s going to rain tomorrow, and wood on top of the tarp to hold it down.
During this whole process, I had to move leftover construction stuff out of the carport and then put it back IN the carport, because (1) I don’t know where it goes and (2) it’s going to rain tomorrow, the weather man says, and he’s pretty darn sure. So that created more back-breaking work.
I collapsed on the couch and then woke up this morning uncertain if I wanted to give the courtyard a second attempt…this time with my new pressure washer!
The day wore on, and I did everything I could think of NOT to get out the new pressure washer and see if I could get it to work. Considering I was the one who put it together, there was no guarantee it would do anything. So I bathed the dog, did the laundry, washed the floor, did some computer work, then finally realized that if I did not test out my new pressure washer today, before the rain comes, I’m just postponing the construction clean-up (which no one but me volunteered me for; not sure how that happened).
As it turns out, I put the blasted thing together properly, but if I turned on the outside water full force, the hose would blast off the pressure washer at undetermined intervals. I am rather proud that it only took two blast-offs for me to recognize the problem. But I created a huge mess in the interim. Once I started washing the AGGREGATE, that’s what it’s called!! Once I started washing the aggregate, one thing led to another and I washed the vinyl siding in that area of the house, too. And, all right, took a bit of white paint off the door frame. That wasn’t my fault. I think a chipmunk had gotten there ahead of me.
So now the courtyard looks wonderbar! And this week, once the sun comes out again, I will proceed to wash the rest of the house and the new sundeck. It was on my job list, anyway. And this time, the pressure won’t get to me. I am almost certain I have the machine figured out.
Oh…you know how I spent yesterday cleaning the driveway? Well, of course today the leaves started falling off the trees. The driveway will need blowing again before the first snowfall. I knew that when I decided to do the job yesterday. But I just couldn’t stand the construction mess anymore.
What’s your least favorite autumn clean-up job? (I assume no one reading this is nuts enough to have a most fav, but if you do, fire away).