Week 50 -- Home Improvement Project

Jordan enjoyed tearing off the old screens.

     The heading says "Week 50" and it would be accurate if we had done this project in 2011, when we first retired, or even early in 2012.
     After saying for two years that we were going to re-screen our back porch, we finally did it in August 2013!!
     With Brando and Juan in Costa Rica and Colombia for 3 weeks, Grandson Jordan spent days at our house while his Mama was working. He enjoyed kicking out the old screens and pulling them off.
     We decided to do it up right. We took off all the old trim holding the old screens in place. We then power washed all the dirt, spider webs and mold off the old porch before trying to paint. Then came the big job -- putting in a new ceiling fan.

Before painting, we power washed the wood frame.

      A friend put one on our porch years ago but humidity wilted the blades and it no longer worked. We had bought one for, like, 10 bucks at a charity silent auction awhile back, and me, with no electrical skills or ability to follow the incomplete instructions, tackled the job. Cheryl stopped painting and took Jordan to the library or somewhere so I could curse without young ears near by.
     God must have been with me because when I was finished trying to match colored wires and insert the right amount of screws into available holes, the fan worked!! Yeah!!

The master handyman nears the end of the project.

      Jordan and one of his friends went with me to Home Depot to buy screen and molding for trim. We measured and the boys actually cut the molding in half (from 16 feet lengths to 8 feet lengths) so we could hault them in Juan's van.
     We painted, cut screen and used the staple gun to hang the screen. They say you are supposed to measure twice and cut once, but I thought I would try the opposite with some 2x4 boards at the bottom of the screen panels. We had to cut twice because I only measured once. It was a minor delay?!
     Eventually, we finished with just one or two boards of any length left over. Cheryl washed down the concrete floor and, voila, we had a much more comfortable back porch minus flying insects,

Cheryl is a lady of leisure on our 'new' back porch.

butterflies and wayward birds.
     It was so nice that on Saturday we even ate lunch on the porch. We are looking forward to spending more time on the porch this fall and again next spring.
     But, take a good look at these photos because we will never, ever re-screen this porch or hang another ceiling fan again.