Liar Liar

Ok. I lied.
The weather this weekend was GORG. We totally could have stained the deck (well, maybe not because of a Saturday night shower). But we could have done A TON more than we actually did.
Waking up Saturday morning to the bright blue sky, the singing birds, and a black puppy (who is nearly 4 yrs old, but that will still count as puppy right? I Thought so)  whose bladder was about to explode was just the thing I needed to get me outside.
So we played, and played, and played.

I did manage to get out the hose and the clorox cleaner and sprayed down and scrubbed the deck in preparation for the big stain/paint/seal project. I must say, I wasn't too impressed. This is what I used:

I was disappointed. In the past when I've used these products that attach to the hose they have a small enough spout that the water really comes out turning it into a pressure washer/ cleaner. This is great for siding and windows. But I found that it just didn't clean well. The water pressure was OK, but didn't nearly get all the gunkies and globbies (yes, those are actual words) out of the cracks.  We had some mold that was starting to grow on the spindles of the deck that we had to hand scrub off, but even then I wasn't impressed with it's cleaning power. So after about an hour of us both scrubbing, sweating, and scrubbing some more, we decided to let the stuff sit. We didn't scrub it off. We'll let mother nature do that for us since it's supposed to shower this week. And hopefully the cleaning power will continue to work.

Last year when John and I were planning our wedding, my Dad had a super duper job of cleaning up the yard for our recpetion. The car-port was transformed into the buffet line for food, but to get there a lot of scrubbing and painting needed to take place. He introduced this stuff: to me:

I pink puffy heart me some JoMax. This stuff is the ticket. I should have bought some for our project. It destroys mold, mildew, grime and ickyness from your house. Trust me. I know. I'm the one who buys new cleaners because I think it's fun to clean. Yes, I know how that sounds to most people. Most of you want to gag me. It's been tried. I've come to terms with it as an illness. I get it from my Grandfather on my Dad's side. So at least it runs in the family. Anyways,

Sure the Clorox did a well enough job on the deck. We *probably* won't have to re-prep the deck. But only this week will tell. If it doesn't hold, I'll be on my wagon first thing after work on Thursday to buy some JoMax to get the job done (prepped, dried and ready) so we can get to work on Saturday to *hopefully keepyourfingerscrossed get this project under way*

No, that's not all we got done over the entire weekend, but I've got to save some posts for later in the week right? Check back to see me squeal with delight over another super simple project!

Do you have any tips for our deck project? Maybe you've done one or two? What about your favorite cleaners for certain jobs? I'd love to hear all the dirt! (no pun intended.. well, maybe) :)