PORCH PROJECT - basic functionality restored

Today the first batch of surface boards went on. Here is another useful feature of the sawhorses. After I marked all these boards for cutting, I stowed them in the sawhorses so I was able to pull them out without having to go walk over and pick them up somewhere. That saw surprised me when I unplugged it and the round grounding prong from the plug just fell out. The other prongs are kind of bent up from being pulled this way and that over the years so I will see if I can find a replacement plug for it next time I go to Home Depot. That transparent face guard lying on the ground by the front sawhorse, a gift from my tool patron Barron, is what I wear when I saw. I always work with earplugs in whether I am using noisy machines or not.

The first board had to be cut to fit around the corner post. The first one I did was a little better than this but I realized I had cut it so the bad side of the board was up, with tiny writing dot-printed on it at a couple of spots and I knew if that was the first thing I saw every time I stepped on the porch I would not like it. If you peer closely you may see down in the crack that I put two long screws into the side of the end section in the hope that it would decrease the risk that it would split off some day.

I used plastic shims as spacers to keep the boards roughly the same distance apart, and marked the spots for the screws before pre-drilling so it is pretty consistent in appearance. I realized after the first board was on I probably should have gotten the special deck screws that are the same color as the boards instead of the grey outdoor kind, but what the hell. Nobody will notice but me. I am not 100% satisfied with that step, but I am going to go with it. I do like the fact that it is shorter than the width of the concrete step so you can step up on it from both the front and side. The far end of the step, by the door, has a piece of pressure treated 2x4 under it, because the porch has a two inch slope, good design work on the part of the original builder, meant to let the rain roll off away from the house. With gaps between the boards that is fairly moot now, but not much rain gets in there any way. Just don't drop your pocket change because I am the guy who will have to crawl in there and get it.
The front door is back in use again. I used up all the boards I had, and tomorrow I need to get caught up on some other work - bake bread, grind peanut butter, sharpen the push mower, make limeade, etc. I am pretty sore and tired just from toting, hammering, and generally working for hours and then riding my bike to the health club. I just flopped down in the sauna for a while, then bathed and shaved. That's what my life is like.