Beers on the porch.

In my little world, there's nothing better than sitting on the porch while having a few beers.

I now have a porch. To have beers on.

 I sat there for an hour or so yesterday when David was finished with the grass.

It was nice.  We waved to passersby and talked about our plans for the landscaping in the future.

We also found and agreed on a porch design.  While it will be a little different from the original, it will fit the house nicely.

With Spring arriving in the Upper Peninsula, it brought with it, not only paying jobs taking my boys away from the old house most days, but also normal everyday chores like mowing and such.

Some days it seems progress on the old house is pretty slow.

But the other day I arrived home from work to find a newly stoned chimney.

I couldn't keep my eyes off of it for quite awhile.

It made me smile, indeed.

While popular opinion was to leave the chimney as is, when we discussed it with a friend of ours who is a mason who repaired the chimney in the past, it was his opinion that it needed something. 

A soft chimney would be better repaired before installation of a steel roof.

He told the boys they regret it if they didn't do it now rather than later.

So they agreed.  And I got the chimney I wanted.

They got the back deck started as well.  I was hoping to make it bigger. But for now, this is it.

In the future, we agreed to wrap it around the back of the house to create a "patio" for summer time outdoor entertainment.  I can't have the world right up front, I suppose.

The main roof is ready for steel.  Our rolls of steel coil have arrived, and they have already began making trim.  The siding will be put on above the porch roof before the steel will be installed there.

I can already see it.  I'm excited for next week.