Did I say I needed a new project?

Our front porch pillars have been looking really sad lately. I hope they haven't looked like this for a long time--I've just recently been telling myself we need to replace the "post skirts" (you can tell I've just done a project, 'cause I know the jargon now!) soon. I didn't know what materials to use to prevent weathering to this extent in the future, or if this was just what we would have to do every 5 years. Then I found some great "Tuf Board" which is made from PVC and seemed to be to perfect solution to our problem. The only real problem I had with moving forward was--how was I going to cut the board? (Just a small problem...) And what if the posts aren't exactly square? What do I do if that happens? We don't really know what we are doing!We don't have any of those awesome carpentry tools. And to top it all off we've never done any projects like this--you know, where there's potential for bodily injury if you don't know what you're doing?

Jeff found an awesome neighbor to help us out. Rus Young was such a big help! As I removed the "skirts" I found that two of our posts had some serious rot problems. I hadn't even thought about that! (See..in my mind I'd do this straight forward, simple project and everything will be good.) Rus helped me figure out how to fix the rot problem without replacing the whole post. He even brought over his table saw and nail gun to help me do the job right. We (and when I say "we" I mean "he") ended up cutting off the rotted portions of the posts and replacing them with some "Tuf Board." Hopefully that will ensure that this problem never happens again! Then the kids helped me sand, putty, sand again, wash, and paint the posts. It was tricky to let Lindsay paint without causing a real disaster. We were able to convince her to use "clear paint" (water) on her post. Everyone really got into it and helped out a lot.

Three mornings and two nights later, (We tried to work in the cool of the morning or evenings.) we have nice new posts! Weather and sprinkler resistant--we hope! It was a little hectic to keep this project going along with all the other summer activities, but we think it was worth it! It's nice to know you can do things like this, with a little (or a lot in my case) help from our friends! Next project--sanding and repainting the porch chairs! But we'll wait until after Girl's Camp next week! Check out our handy work!

"I love it when a plan comes together!" Now that those posts are done--we're enjoying the journey a little bit more! Actually it was a fun project, I just wish I didn't have other things going on at the same time. I'm sure you all can relate! But isn't that all part of the journey?