Here we have the shabby front porch as it was when we moved in a month ago. The insurance folks told us that we needed to build another handrail on the steps, otherwise they'd cancel our insurance! So, Keith enlisted the help of our friend Willie (his degree is in Philosophy, so naturally, he makes his living as a carpenter), and the fellows spent two days building the railing. Soon, we will borrow a pressure washer from someone and wash the whole porch, then stain it. Any suggestions? I'm thinking RED, but I don't even know what colors stain comes in... We'll probably be back at Lowes tomorrow.

I think the guys did an EXCELENT job. I dug up the hostas that had come up on the right side of the steps and replanted them on the left side, because there was talk of putting the posts in the dirt and anchoring them with concrete. This did not go down, however, and they finally decided to screw the posts into the concrete steps with some kind of special bolts. There was much sawing of timber, quite a bit of hammering, and a few instances of bad language that resulted from faulty measurements, I think. But it all came together beautifully in the end, and now I have several little pieces of pressure treated lumber to play around with. So Yay for Keith and Willie and our new Handrail!