Love Our New Porch Floor

It's been a month since I posted, and we've been enjoying 2021 so far. After our remodel was finished in 2019, we had a few projects to finish on our own. Last fall, I finished one of those by painting our back wall and shed. That left one big project to complete, which was reflooring our front porch. The floor that was on the porch when we bought the park model was old outdoor carpeting. It was impossible to keep clean with the sand and dust that blows around in the desert. You could vacuum until you were covered in sand and dust yourself, and it just didn't come clean. We were so sick of it that last year we actually pulled up the carpet to expose the subfloor underneath, and covered it with the outdoor mat we use with our fifth wheel.

Here's the best picture I have of the before with the carpet. It was much worse than the picture shows.

After looking at what other people had done with their porch floors and talking to friends who had redone theirs, we decided to replace the carpet with composite decking, better known as Trex. Home Depot has another brand which is considerably less expensive than Trex, so that's what we ordered. 

The most important step was making sure the boards underneath were flat all the way across to prevent the top boards from getting a wavy look. Our friend Dave, who redid his bigger porch floor a few years ago gave us lots of good advice. Before we knew it, he was dropping off lots of tools and saws and was helping Kevin with the entire project. He was such a great help.

They spent about 5 hours making sure the boards underneath were flat. They had to shim up some of the sections and grind down others. Here they are working hard!

They also put in a couple of 2 x 6 boards to reinforce what was there. Dave is a retired engineer, and he was making sure this porch would last forever :)

The next day we spent about 4 more hours putting down the actual boards. We ordered 18 sixteen foot boards. It doesn't look like much, but that's $700 worth of product laying there. We got it about half finished before it was time to quit for the day because we all had a golf scramble to get to. Can't forget to have some fun!!

The final day our friend Syd came to help, too. He has a construction background, so we were in very good hands. My job was to drill the pilot holes for the screws and cleanup. The guys did the measuring, cutting and screwing down of the boards. It was tricky getting it measured and cut correctly around the bay window, but the guys were pros. Kevin and I both said if we would have hired someone, it wouldn't have been as good a job as Dave and Syd did. It's wonderful to have such great friends. I don't know how we'll ever be able to repay them!!!

So now the last step is putting the railings back up. Today is supposed to be rainy and there is a wind advisory, so that step will have to wait until tomorrow. I absolutely love how the new floor looks, and it will be so easy to keep clean. Thanks guys!!!!

We continue to keep busy playing golf. We actually bought an annual membership this year since we've been playing more. We figure it will pay for itself in about 5 months. Anything more than that will be a bonus.

Due to Covid, we've been keeping our bubble of friends pretty small. We play golf with this group quite often. I golf with these lovely ladies, Cynthia, Carolyn and Kim at least once a week.

On Sundays we golf with Rick and Cynthia and play a game called Bingo, Bango, Bongo. It's the girls as a team against each of the guys individually to give us a fighting chance. There is a payout for first one on the green, closest to the pin, and first ball in the hole. We play for dimes, so no one is going to get rich, but it's lots of fun!! So far, the girls have been doing pretty well.

On Friday evenings we get together with a group from our neighborhood for potluck dinners, rotating at whose house it is at. Last Friday Cynthia hosted at her house with a raclette party. I'd never heard of this, but she had these two grills that you could grill food on the top layer and broil on the lower level. Each of us brought prechopped items to share. You cook your own food in front of you and dip in sauces. It took some time, but it was fun and we all managed to get plenty to eat!!

Kevin does not like getting his picture taken. Somehow, Cynthia always gets a great smile out of him!

Our resort has been trying very hard to have functions in a safe manner. In January they started having Wednesday evening outdoor music at the pool with Pepe, one of the favorite entertainers here at the resort. A group of us went. Masks were required when dancing, going to the bar or walking around. We took them off at the table to drink.

Yuma had been in a long dry spell with no measurable rain since last March. We made up for that last week with over 2 inches in 2 days. The annual rainfall is only a little over 3 inches. It's raining again right now, but we aren't supposed to have that much. I'm not going to complain since both our kids are under winter weather advisories today with lots of snow expected.

We did have an amazing sunset during the last rainfall. This is the view from our backyard.

The foothills were glowing looking out our front window.

We hope everyone is doing well. I am so hopeful that this Covid crisis will be over fairly soon with vaccines making their way around the country and world.

Stay safe!!