Bright, Shiny and Just Like New

It's amazing how you don't really appreciate something until it is spruced up.  Take the railing on our front porch for example. It's an ordinary, wrought iron railing.  It is on both sides of our 8 step porch and helps us get up and down the stairs with ease.  Nothing to get excited about.  Just an ordinary railing.

Until now.

Take a few days of sanding, a few coats of pain and some serious amounts of sweat and you get yourself a bright, shiny, new fancy pants wrought iron railing!

Look at the shine on that puppy!

So why did we ~ meaning Ed ~ decide to spend 3 weeknights sanding this sucker and a weekend painting it?  Well, we were heading off the Little Rocky Run HOA Architectural Review Board.  You see, they go around the neighborhood and look for things to bug you about.  Whether it is too many toys on the front lawn or a broken screen door or mold on the siding, they look for it. Then they send you a letter telling you that have X amount of time to fix it or you will get fined.  Nice, right? :)

Well, we are proud to say that in the almost 2 years of living here, we have yet to receive such a letter.  We have been working hard to not only maintain the place, but actually make some improvements.  But our wrought iron railing, you see, was the weak link.  After years of being out in the elements with no attention it was starting to look sad.  Not only was it dull and flakey, but it was also rusting in some areas.  So Ed put on his painting finest, and got to work.  Unfortunately, I don't have any "during" photos, but really it is the end result that matters.  Look at this baby:

Ed did a fantastic job. Not only is this puppy totally sealed up, it looks pretty. And really, that is all that matters.  My favorite part about the job ~ the "Wet Paint" notices so that no one would mess up the masterpeice.

So take THAT Architectural Review Board! And I mean it in the nicest possible way. :)