I’ve had my black lab, Starlord, for almost 5 years now. This dog is normally the coolest animal on the planet. He weighs about 70 pounds and when he stands on his hind legs, he can place his paws over my shoulders. I got him as a puppy and did his dog training right away so he would be well-behaved. I figured I’d have a huge advantage since I do this as a paid service all the time.
Fast forward to last week, I bought an apartment building in downtown Albany so I could list it on Air BnB and get some passive income.
Here’s the building I bought: 10 1st Street, Albany, NY 12210.
The inside of the place was in decent condition. But, the selling point for me was the wooden deck in the backyard. It’s a two-tier, pressure-treated, cedar deck with a set of stairs and a handicap ramp. The wood is a reddish color and has been treated with Woodsman® Water Repellent coating to keep it from being ruined in the rain. Apparently, I was worried about the weather when I should have been worried about the dog. The dog has had some play dates with more aggressive breeds, and I honestly haven’t paid much attention during the “play” time, which was a mistake and why I’m telling you this.
I brought Starlord over to the apartment and left him alone in the backyard while I did some interior cleaning. In two hours, he managed to break one of the steps, chew up the wooden railing, and chew a hole through the wooden deck planks near the door. When I walked outside to check on him, I nearly had a heart attack. What a pain in the butt. So I had to get on Google and start looking for deck contractors. After what seemed like an eternity of searching I found one deck builder in Albany who looked promising. I called a couple other people first and got some ridiculous quotes, so I ended up going with Albany Deck Builders. They charged a couple hundreds bucks to replace the wooden planks and restain the cedar. It basically made the deck look new again, so I was thoroughly impressed. If you need a deck company locally, that’s who I am now happy to recommend.
And in other news, be very careful who you let your pup play with. As a trainer, I should have paid attention to this, but I was oblivious. Aggressive nature can rub off if you’re not careful.