Front stoop makeover

James completed a major makeover this summer of our front stoop. As with many other areas of the house, the person who flipped our house took numerous shortcuts in the rehabilitation process and focused on making improvements that looked good but were not necessarily sound. We have been in the house since November of 2010 and already the front porch was in bad shape. The floorboards were rotting, the porch floor was listing, and the roof structure was sinking to the point where the storm door could only open so far before it hit the ceiling. The front step leading to the porch had never been painted and wasn't even attached to the porch. The whole structure was ugly and unsafe.

As James worked his way through the project, he discovered that it was in even worse shape than we thought. There were no footings beneath the porch floor and the columns were merely shells - there were no true columns. It is a wonder that the whole structure hadn't already collapsed. James put in footings, shored up the roof structure and installed actual columns inside the decorative sheathing. He replaced the rotting floorboards with Trex composite decking, which looks amazingly like painted wood, and made a step that is secured to the porch. We were even able to get a Trex color that almost exactly matches the house.

Now the front entrance to our house is both attractive and safe. We neglected to take a before photo bur here is how it looks now:

James put the finishing touch on yesterday, the ceramic house numbers from MacKenzie-Childs:

Next up: working on the side porch, aka The Party Porch.

Knit gifts

Although I am the world's slowest knitter, I have managed to finish a few gifts this summer. First, I wanted to make a little something for my lovely cousin Pam and settled on a scarf. I wanted something that was feminine and lacy, but still warm and functional. I found the Cat's Paw scarf, which according to the designer is an old Shetland pattern. I don't really see a cat's paw, just a very pretty patttern. It was interesting enough to keep my attention, but not so difficult that I couldn’t talk and knit at the same time.

The yarn is Malabrigo Silky Mernio, which looks and feels so luxuriant. It is 51% silk, 49% Merino wool, and 100% luscious. The color is so rich, it seems to shimmer.

Note: The light spots in the photo are from sunlight, not any flaw in the yarn.

In the past few weeks, I have knit not one but two minion hats. When we moved here, the very first friends I made were with a family that waited at the same school bus stop. Back in the fall of 2010, I gave little Julien a candy corn hat that I knit and I found out earlier in the summer that he is still wearing the hat, although it is stretched out and barely fits him anymore. That boy is certainly knitworthy! I told him I would knit him another hat that fits him now, and he asked for a minion hat. A one-eyed minion hat, if you please. When Julien’s older sister found out that I was knitting a minion hat for him, she asked if I could knit one for her, too - a two eyed minion.

Assemble the minions!