Well, I think the porch might actually get done despite everything. Mr Rainman, Mr Professional and I spent all of Friday working on getting the outside edge boards cut and installed. This did not go smoothly or well. Mr Rainman also worked on laying in some gravel footings under the fascia boards so we can start installing block to fill the gap. We don’t want the dogs crawling under the porch and digging holes. Honestly, we don’t want any animal doing this so the only way to stop this is to limit access. We were able to find blocks fairly reasonably at the end of the outdoor yard season so it was $600 for block.

We took off all of the sheet metal around the pillars and raised up the wooden casing. The pillars will need to be painted with Kilz before we reinstall the sheet metal. We had to start counting boards, it turned out that I did not order enough edging. So then we had to start to figure out how to use the pieces as efficiently as possible to get the job done. We went to a double measure rule and finally after I hollered and ranted for a wrong cut then started doing the cutting myself and promptly screwed it up again we went to a two person independent measure on space then board before anyone could cut anything. This managed to stop the mistakes but we only managed to get the outside boards installed all day. We had to take up the wow in the front using a string line and it just went on and on. It was so frustrating and so necessary to make it look good.

Saturday Mr Rainman and Mr Professional laid out all of the decking and got it cut to fit the entire porch. Yep, I did not order enough decking either. Now in my defense we used the TREX deck estimator tool online. But I did not insert exact measurements and the calculator does not add 10%. You must add 10%, because there will be mistakes. I now have to order three 16’ boards, it should take a couple of weeks for them to get here.

I worked on getting power from under the house to under the deck. I had to make another trip to town to get a waterproof box. When I crawled under the house I found a bunch of loose wires I had not nailed up. I think I had plans for that but they got waylaid and no one voluntarily crawls under the house. I spent some time nailing up all of the electrical wires and then nailed up the new wire to the deck. I had 7 breakers off to make sure that I did not have to crawl back out. Once I get the right breaker figured out I will mark the panel so we know exactly what breaker controls the front porch. After talking to Annmarie I am going to install two separate outlets on the porch, one on the outside far edge by the crawl space entrance and the other on one of the pillars so you can charge your electrical device while sitting on the porch. We needed power for the lights that will be installed on the stairs. We are getting old and need to be able to see the stairs.

Mr Rainman had to leave early to go home and do some dog catching. Mr Professional pulled Mr I Need a Belt Bad from cutting thistles in the orchard to helping him install decking then install insulation against the house. I finished up the insulation after he left and we cleaned up. On Sunday Mr Professional finished the entire deck install. I had hung some of the cross piece substructures too low so he had to cut and lower some of the boards to make the deck solid. It looks and feels great!