Decking debacle - update

Well, I suppose I was being a bit naive, but I had this picture of the belt sander doing a perfect, even job on the deck, and the whole process taking about 20 minutes.

Naturally that wasn't even remotely accurate, with the sanding being quite a bit of work and not as even as I would have liked. It is done now though, and this morning we put the first coat of new oil on top.

I am hoping it doesn't look too wierd (currently it is a bit two tone, as in some places the sander brought out more of the original wood colour than others), in THEORY it should all even out as the oil returns the wood to the darker colour, but since it is me doing it, I am pretty confident that something will go horribly wrong.

Either way, short of hiring a professional to redo the whole thing, something neither of us really want to pay for when we won't get to reap the benefits, we are stuck with it as is. It will get a few more coats (carefully rubbed in of course, with any excess being wiped off) and then fingers crossed we will be back to square one!