While I was off gallivanting around the flea market on Sunday, the husband was hard at work on the front porch. The thing is a mess and needs some serious structural care. We took out work permits nearly two years ago when we started ripping it apart and they’ll be expiring this July.

What needs to be done, you ask? Um, well, I guess the whole thing is getting rebuilt. New foundation needs to be poured, the columns were collapsing due to foundation and wood rot, floor joists should be repaired and leveled and did I mention wood rot? New deck flooring. The staircase and bannister will be replaced, the shingles will be taken down and ballusters will be put in to open up the area. Then we’re going to screen off the area on the side so the pets can participate in the fun.

All this before we paint the exterior of the house by autumn. Think we’re delusional to expect it will get done this year? Yeah, you’re right. Who am I trying to kid?

What hubby did this weekend was more demolition and some temporary support of the roof so it doesn’t collapse. Our house looks lovely from the street right about now.

But our real handy work was on the back porch! See, I don’t trust the cats to stay outside on their own for too long without adult supervision. One of them eventually chews his way through the fence in system. Plus there’s the matter of all those birds, snakes and rodents I’ve had to save.

We’ll be ripping up the floor in the “cat den” and they’ll all need a place to stay for at least a week (or a year, considering how long it takes us to do things). The kitchen isn’t quite enough space, but it does lead out to the back porch. So we made a temporary safe haven for them while the work is being done.

The original idea was chicken wire. But then I came up with the lattice screen figuring it would be easier to install and look less prisonish. When we got to Home Depot and saw the plastic shit that we didn’t have to paint….well the rest is White Trash history!

Our lovely WT porch enclosure goes really well with our lifestyle, including the front porch, 3 cars in the driveway, dog poop in the yard and piles of broken furniture in the dilapidated garage. Yee-haw! Y’all come back now, y’hear?