The Porch Crew

What do you do with a houseful of burly men with energy and nothing to do? Give them a project!
My parents have a back porch that has been used for lots of things: barbecues, food storage in the cold months, wind chime concerts, and
birthday parties:


yep, that's Great-Grammy.

And there's Papa, overseeing the fun...

This spring Danna bought a little bistro set she wanted to put on her back porch to change it up a bit. I told her I would help her paint it and we would get it fixed up when I came to visit this summer. The guys had bigger plans and asked her if she would like to make some real changes to her porch. She thought about it for a little while then said she'd like to take down the back half-wall to open it up and extend the staircase.
Enter Eric.
He got his crew of ruffians and put them to work. There was some discussion that some of the "help" was less help and more work, but he was tolerant and they all broke a sweat. There were approximately 387 trips to Home Depot made in a 4-day period, nail guns burnt out, cement poured, and a dumpster filled with lumber and trash.

What my mom thought would just be a little change for her porch ended up being dramatic!
Here she is impersonating Scarlett O'Hara...

And here she is with her sons/work crew:



Back row: Dave, Jason, Danna, Mike--Front row: Eric the mastermind

After the construction crew left my mom and I set to work on beautifying the place. Stained the stairs, painted the floor and the pergola, put in the new furniture. Had some help putting together the new bench:

The porch has an entirely different look now--and as I type this, the house is being painted so it will look even better! There is a beautiful view of the hills behind the house, she can see the horses from her bench, and the chimes are still ringing.

Ruby decided it's her new favorite room.

I'm thinking we should print up some business cards and hire ourselves out. Something like Porch Awakenings.... We're free, of course. Except for the massive amounts of coffee we drink.