Porch Maintenance

Over the weekend we cleaned up the porch. With Halloween quickly approaching, I wanted to get everything in better shape. The decorations should be scary, not the condition of the house! We’ve had a very wet late summer/fall so we had a lot of mildew buildup on the front door, railings and side of the house. We washed it off with a water bleach mixture and a sponge. It was also time for the most important step - another two coats of teak oil on the porch wood floor to protect it for winter.

During the oiling process - dry wood vs. oiled wood

The porch floor after two coats

Not only does the shiny wood look much better, but it's now well protected. We would have liked to have re-painted the porch steps, but last year when I painted them in the fall the tannins from the falling leaves dyed the fresh paint. So we’re just going to have to live with rusty footprints until spring. We'll pretend they're "bloody footprints" for the trick-or-treaters.

Shiny oiled wood on the porch with the stained steps