Today is Sunday?

Thursday was Earth Day. While I was out in the veggie garden - facing The Gang of 50 while they beat Holy Hell out of me - Dwayne was tackling the staircase to our front porch.

To this very moment - neither of us can figure out where the mind was left behind - that being the mind belonging to the person responsible for the original construction of this staircase - before plugging in a saw to get started on this mess.

I mean - funky - is an understated description. Close to Hubby’s choice of words. But I won’t even go there.

Why would anyone decide to chew up the landing area - with a set of steps?

Why would anyone decide to butt something up so close to - a basement door - which is used all the time?  ( Pay close attention to the Azaleas under the staircase ! )

I had to help with getting posts lined up - and putting a little dirt under a couple of them to make the whole thing square before dumping the cement. Other than that - the ever-lovin’ Hero in this house has almost finished putting all the pieces back together - the way they should have been constructed in the first place.

You see more landing here. ( Actually - you can even see where the top steps once sat on the landing. )  The steps from the porch can’t be seen in this view. But they are there. And he’s moved the gate from the porch entrance - to the entrance for the landing from the lower stairs. ( Well - he's gonna get around to that ! )

He still has part of the railing and a few of the pickets to install here. But you begin to see the distance from the house. And you can even see the top steps - if you look closely.

What's really cool - he improvised his own plan for stabilizing the landing while moving it - all by himself - over to the proper place.  He had dismantled the stairs.  But he ended up having to motivate eight 4"x4" posts - not just four - underneath the landing - which also had to be moved over.

I really like the way he managed to fix this mess while still being able to keep the whole thing on the concrete - without robbing more of the yard to pour more slab.

Nope. Those posts will be cut off and made flush with the railing. But I can’t help giving the man props for not taking out my azalea bushes! I mean - c’mon ! How many Rednecks would bother worrying about - some bushes?

And this shot - this shows the huge difference! The gas meter reader's gonna love it.  *snicker*  I remember the two of us standing there looking at the whole structure after taking photos. Dwayne made the statement - “ Look! We can even carry furniture up there, now ! “

Very true. And we can also - shove the pit - the tiller - and all the other equipment through the entry doorway without having to open up the big door. That’s just huge here - especially when the temps hit the single digits during Winter.

The very last thing both of us will be doing to this staircase will be - power washing and sealing. That will leave us with that side of the house and the back porch deck to power-wash and seal during this summer.

After that - fixing the botched job and painting the trim around windows - if we get lucky.

Dunno. Graveyard shift is coming - again.

Hey - They just wrapped up the 2010 NFL Drafting Mayhem!  And we have a bunch of guys being let out to spread their wings around the world of Pro Football.

A great song is never written for only - one specific - crowd.

Soooo - here's something to celebrate all of - those guys playing with eggs on steroids - wrapped in leather.  And only God knows what stories may parallel with that one by the time we make it to the Super Bowl.  Ya' know ?!