This past weekend was a really fun weekend for me. My friend Lori, who lives in the Houston area, came to town and spent my birthday with me, and I didn’t give a single thought to home projects the entire time she was here other than showing her what I’ve accomplished since she was here last year and telling her about upcoming projects like the storage unit. Otherwise, I had a three-day complete project break and that was exactly what I needed. My weekend, including my birthday on Sunday, was full of conversations, meeting my girlfriend, lots of laughter, lots of good food and of course birthday cake.
I didn’t tell her I would do this, but I want to take a second to tell you a little about Lori. She and I have been friends for almost 30 years. We met at church here in Waco when we were both in our twenties, and she was on staff at Campus Crusade for Christ at Baylor University at the time. She has since founded her own ministry, Lori Joiner Ministries, where she focuses on discipling women in their faith in Jesus. She has written several books and is also a great speaker. So if you are in Texas and your church is looking for a speaker for a women’s retreat, women’s conference, college women’s event, etc., I would strongly recommend that you pass along Lori’s information to the organizers of your event. You won’t regret it! She is so funny and such a gifted speaker and teacher, and I know that the women of your church would be incredibly blessed to have her speak at your event.
Anyway, my birthday weekend was just perfect and it was the break I needed. After saying goodbye to Lori on the way home yesterday, I decided to take the rest of the day off and prepare for the final step of my outdoor projects that I want to complete before I start working on the storage closet. Here is the plan:
Finish the baseboard on the porch.
Right now the porch baseboard looks like this…
I have all my faux concrete “bricks” ready and ready to go. I just need to glue these to the base area, then I need to apply mortar in between and then prime and paint the bricks to match the rest of the house.
Last week ended with a bad result as my plan for the glue I wanted to use didn’t work out and I decided to use mortar instead of glue. I’ve never used grout before, but I think it will work better than glue in the long run. If you recall, one problem I ran into with my previous plans for covering the base area was that the corner of the porch isn’t at a perfect 90 degree angle, so I ended up having trouble wrapping anything around that corner properly.
This is the problem I had with the last PVC sheet option I tried. Since this corner is not square, I couldn’t hold the PVC panels in place. When I pushed these boards to the corner so that they held in place, they obviously looked crooked and completely messed up the pattern. So if I use mortar, not only can I use it to attach the bricks to the concrete, but I can also build out the corner to make it square and plumb. Using grout is a little out of my comfort zone as I’ve never done it before, but I’m willing to try something new.
Complete the replacement of the baseboards
After installing, priming and painting the bricks, I need to replace the rotted skirting boards with the new PVC moldings. I started removing the old boards a few weeks ago (before I built the side steps to the studio door), but I gave up when I couldn’t get that side board off.
But now I need to find a way to take the board off so it can be replaced.
Paint the porch boards
I’ve decided I’m done with the stains and oils for the porch, so I’m going to paint it this time. I will be using the same non-slip porch and patio paint that I used on the side steps to my studio…
I plan on using the same color paint on these porch boards which are looking very worn and old at the moment.
Install new lights
A few years ago I added ribbon lighting around the front porch and it looked really beautiful.
But I made a pretty big mistake when making this project. I just relied on the sticky backing of the light tape to hold the lights in place and didn’t attach the little wire clips that came with the lights. With all the humidity we have, the sticky glue wasn’t enough to hold the lights in place, so they eventually fell off. I have new ribbon lights that I want to install and this time I’m using the cable clips to hold them in place.
I also have new, larger lights that I want to install on both sides of the door. These smaller lights are used in my workshop.
And finally…
Finish painting the new bedroom door
I still want to do a lot of caulking on that door to see if I can hide some of the quirkiness in that area. This is the uneven room in our house and it is clearly visible from the outside, especially when the door in this area is installed level in a very uneven area. So before I go to work I want to at least completely caulk and paint this door.
The steps to this door will have to wait until the weather gets cooler. So I’m going to get it sealed and painted first, then go in during the hottest part of the summer to work on the storage room, and then I can go back outside when it starts to cool down and hopefully finish the steps up to that door.
So that’s the plan for the next few weeks, and these are the projects I really want to complete outside before I go inside and start working on the storage room. Obviously I didn’t reach my goal of completing my outdoor projects before my birthday, but that’s okay. This was a pretty arbitrary deadline that I set for myself, so I’m not too upset that it’s going to take a little longer. However, I am VERY excited to get started on the storage space. But I also don’t want to leave these outdoor projects unfinished. I think if I can finish these few it will be a good stopping point for now and then I can pick up where I left off when the weather cools down.
I feel rested after my long, fun-filled weekend. And I feel a new sense of determination. I’m ready to get started again!
