Love Your Neighbor - Part Four

Part four of the old, old porch project begins a whole new level of the process for us and gets REALLY interesting with some pretty challenging feats of tooling and maneuvering and working WAY outside our comfort zone.

So my dear husband had us go to Home Depot and Dunn Lumber ... not kidding ... at least a dozen times and in MOST CASES, these photos depict what we were up against.  I am truly surprised that I did not take more photos of our vehicles loaded up with supplies and in several instances with up to eight feet of pressure-treated wood and composite decking hanging out the rear window.   

There was a particular length of wood that was needed ... ahem ... well, it was needed again because ... ahem ... a mistake was made on the first one.  Anyway, we needed to get a 2x6x20 and the local Home Depot didn't carry that size and the Dunn Lumber was closed for the day.  We contacted the nearest Menards (which was 30 minutes away) and they carried that size wood.  So ... we ladies made the trip out there to obtain the wood that was necessary to continue with the project.  

Let's just say this was whole new territory for us ... and strange territory indeed.  After figuring out how to "order" the piece of wood and to pay for it, we were directed to the lumber yard out back.  We drove up to a booth of sorts manned by a Menards employee.  It felt similar to going through a toll booth, but instead of handing over some money, I handed over the slip of paper that showed what was paid for.  The man said, "I think it's in the wood shed" and pointed out the direction.  

Oh.  I was expecting a little more advisement than that, ... but okay...

So, I drove in to the "wood shed" and "WOW!" there was a whole lot of wood in there.  I just pulled over mid-way through and said we should get out and start looking for where this size wood was located.  

We must have looked ridiculous. Two men, who were also picking up wood from their orders (these were NOT Menards employees), came over and asked if they could help us find something.  They, of course, were able to quickly located the wood that we needed.  Oh, and, of course, it was up high, beyond our reach, so, THANK the LORD these men were there.  

We ladies carried the 20 foot piece of wood over to the vehicle and proceeded to investigate our best option for getting it into it.  I drive a Nissan Armada, which, because of all my little passengers, I figure to be quite a large vehicle.  It's total length is 207.7 inches long, which converts to at 17 feet long.  However, when transporting a 20 foot piece of wood within the inside of the vehicle, resting all the way up to the windshield and hanging out the rear window, we lose about five feet of vehicle length to account for the hood of it (windshield to front bumper).  This means that about 8 feet of wood is hanging out the rear window.  Let me tell you, we were hanging onto that piece of wood for dear life.  Every bump and every turn was edgy and put on pins and needles.  I was so afraid that the wood was going to snap in half!

It didn't!  We made it! And all was well ... until the next trip for wood and composite decking.  OKAY, ... in all honesty, it all worked out and no wood or supply item was damaged in ANY of the various runs we made.  Again, THANK the LORD!

Laying the floor of the porch was exciting!  That is a solid step in building a porch and it was wonderful to be able to stand upon the floor of it and feel the solidness of the supporting structure.  It was a proud moment for sure!

I love that nearly my whole family has been a part of this project ... working together ... for the good of someone else ... which ends up being for our good.

They've been there playing and having fun (especially getting to watch movies and eat snacks) but they've also helped and participated in ways that are hopefully molding them into Servants for the LORD by living out the command: Love Your Neighbor.

It's also a rewarding experience to set goals in a project and then watch as they are reached. 

Each piece of composite decking had to be interlocked using a special locking screw component.  

Some of the locking screws were a bit tricky and we had to take alternative measures to get them into place and functioning the way they should.  

It wasn't that bad ... just a little dirt and wood dust to deal with.

I made it through okay!

Later that day, we tackled the other large tree after deciding that symmetry was important.  [Disclaimer: Symmetry is ALWAYS important to this girl ... as in me.]  Jake was busy with other things at that time so Dawn and I tackled the tree ourselves.  

We DID it!!  That's another thing: I've been so thankful for the ability and strength and motivation that I didn't really think I had, at least not at this age.  

There are always things we think we can't do ... but most of the time we're wrong.

So, Dawn and I kept it going and we tackled some BIG things.  Many of the trees in their yard were in need of trimming and Dawn mentioned to me that she got a nifty tree pruner for Mother's Day and she hadn't tried it yet.  She asked if I wanted to see it ... to which I replied with an emphatic, "OF COURSE!"  (Because we were about to check another "to-do" OFF the list!)

This was really a difficult job at times and definitely required us to work together ... is anybody picking up on the theme of this project yet??

Over the next few days we spent some time cutting up the tree limbs for firewood and/or to make it more easily transportable to the dump.

While we were taking down a forest, everyone else was working hard at building the frame for the roof of the porch.

And I do mean everyone ...

This photo reminds me of the "how many people does it take to change a light bulb?" question ... 

I really like this father-son photo of Nathan and Andrew ...

And then, of course, Brian needed to test out the strength and durability of the design!! 

So far, so good ...