pleasedHere's a good example of the ongoing progress. Lisa painted the lower two steps with the test quart a few weeks ago, but did the top last Wednesday starting to use the three gallons we bought on my last trip home. The color matches, the only difference being that the lower steps have had time to get dusty. She's also started on the much more painstaking part of painting the trellis to the right. You can see how little of the old paint remains on the main deck itself.
Although things stay preserved in the desert much better than in rainy Oregon, we still need to get paint on this porch before next winter to preserve the wood. Besides, it looks much better and more lived-in this way. That's one reason Lisa started with the steps that face the road: for casual passers-by, they can see that there are people living here and taking care of the property again, after it sat vacant for the better part of a year.