Front Porch

This past week, Raul took some vacation time and we worked on the front porch. We really knocked this out especially since from about 10am to 6pm we were inside the house with Matthew. When it's 100 + degrees outside you just don't work and hey, it was vacation. We took lots of naps when Matthew did. 

Before...not much to look at

The main posts going in

The floor joists

The floor of the porch all screwed in

Framing out for the roof

The Roof installed

 From the front door

 First side of the railing going in

Here is where we are at. This weekend we will get the final balusters and finish that up. I'm sure as we progress we'll get lattice to put on the bottom and for the risers of the stairs to keep the chickens, dogs, and kids from crawling under.

We plan to do something similar to the following picture only using some really fancy blue tequila bottles we have. It will make sitting out there at night when the boys are in bed and enjoying a drink if we can keep the mosquitos off.

It was a great week and it is amazing to finish a project from start to finish by yourself rather than hiring it out to someone else. I've always based life on the concept of "you don't appreciate things, unless you have to work for them"...let me tell you...my biceps are killing me and my hands have blisters on them from drill and another project that we have been working on and will blog about another day. There is just a wonderful satisfaction of having done it yourself. Then sitting back and relaxing looking at all the hard work you've done. It's just awesome. 

When we finish this weekend I will update with a complete picture (of the balusters...not necessarily the lattice).