Years ago (around the mid 1990’s) when my dad was landscaping their yard, he built a bridge that he painted white with black spindles. I’m sure he repainted it a few times over the years. Mom thought that it was time for the bridge to be painted again. They have a lot of trees in the yard, so the bridge is not too visible from the highway.
My dad was adamant his painting bridge days were over. My mom asked me if we would paint the bridge for father’s day or my dad’s birthday. I enlisted my brother Corey to help. I hate painting, but for mom and dad, I’ll suck it up and participate.
Before the painting took place, my brother said he was going to inspect the bridge and make sure it wasn’t rotten. If it was rotten, he said we would not be painting the bridge. First hurdle down, he inspected and the bridge looked good. Next, we had to decide on a color. He didn’t like the white. I didn’t either, although I said painting it white had to be way easier than a whole new color. He suggested Terra Cotta (a brown-red). Mom and I thought that would be great. Dad didn’t care; he was just happy he didn’t have to paint. We sent Mom to get the paint.
Corey pressure-washed it. The bridge was all ready to go, but we needed to wait for it to dry out with the pressure washing and all the rain we’ve had. Then we had a couple hot weeks in there, so we had to wait for a 70-some degree day. It finally came. The day we painted the bridge was Corey’s third week owning Valley Bodywerx in Zumbro Falls, and the busiest day. Dad had a change of heart, and was ready to paint, so I skipped out of work early and started painting with dad. Corey arrived about a half hour after we started, and within two hours and a few fiascos later…including bugs, a couple little kids who insisted on helping paint, Dad deciding to mow right by the bridge as we continued to paint, Mom breaking through her rubber gloves, and there has got to be a few more things I can’t think of at the moment…the bridge was painted and good to go!
Stay tuned for next month’s topic: Daily--Dishes/Laundry/Cleanup—Clear the surfaces
There’s so much to do, so little time. Bye for now!
