Back-Door Friends

My grandmother always used to say that there are two kinds of friends: front-door friends and back- door friends.  Front-door friends are those acquaintances who you know and like, but they never come unannounced and you must have the house clean before you let them in. Back-door friends, however, are like relatives.  You are comfortable if they come through the back door and find dirty dishes sitting in the sink.  You can tell them anything, and they forgive your flaws because they love you.  We are having a guest later in the week, and I am so glad that I can consider my guest and friend, Bonnie, a back-door friend.  For what we did today, she will need to be open-minded and forgiving!

The day dawned sunny and bright, so we went outside to consider our options with the front sidewalk. Steve had offered to go with Rick to drop off the broken up concrete at the concrete recycling center, and I was glad to let him do so.  When they returned, Steve picked up the sledgehammer and helped Rick break up the rest of the sidewalk.  Somehow, they managed to get the rest of it in the back of the truck, so that, too, immediately went to the recycling center.

Steve (left) and Rick load the last of the big pieces of the old
sidewalk onto the end of the truck.

Stepping stones and lots of dirt now indicate where the
sidewalk used to be.

While they were gone, I picked up the little chunks of concrete and then tried to dig a hole 7" deep to see how difficult it would be to excavate the sidewalk area for a base of gravel in preparation for pavers.  The soil is dry and loose, so taking out the dirt will not be that difficult when we get to that point.  We have to do something before we leave because what we have right now will be a muddy swamp with the summer rains.  The removal of the remaining sidewalk took the rest of the morning.

Thank you, thank you, thank you, Steve, for all of your help.  We could not have completed all that we did today had you not done the muscle work of breaking up the rest of the sidewalk this morning.

At lunch, we discussed getting a truckload of ground concrete and concrete dust that we could use as a base.  The materials are very inexpensive, but the labor will be intense.

"You know," I said to my darling husband, "We really can't do anything until we tile the porch." This was said simply as a matter of fact. The next thing I know, we are looking online to see what grit of sandpaper we would need to rough up the existing tile on the porch so the Thin-set will stick. Although web sites suggested 80, we were soon on our way to Lowe's to buy some 60 grit paper for the orbital sander.  When we came home, he immediately started to roughen up the front porch.

Okay, now I ask you: how would you interpret those actions?  I took them to mean that he wanted to prep and then tile the porch this afternoon.  So I started to stage all of the materials, tools, and saws that we would need to get the job done.  HE says that he was just sanding the porch, and the next thing he knew his slave-driver wife was setting up all of the equipment and pushing him to tile the porch!

The top of the porch, complete with spacers, now holds
sandy-colored tile.

At any rate, we were soon mixing Thin-set and laying the first row of tile. We chose to put the full tiles at the front of the porch rather than trying to split the remaining distance on the porch between the front and back.  Doing so would have left a small strip at the front of the porch, and I was afraid that a thin strip in front would crack since that is where people usually step first when stepping on a porch.  Additionally, by putting on the tile, we unify the old porch and the concrete slab we poured to span the full width of the new double doors.

Tomorrow we'll cover the front with bullnose tile,
covering the red tile as we update Gladys' look.

The results are now a wonderful porch dressed in a sandy-hued tile that fits the Florida look. We ran out of mixed Thin-set and time before we could get the bullnose front and side on, so the rest of the 1960's red tile will be covered tomorrow.  Grout will come later tomorrow afternoon, and then we will be ready to make some decisions on the sidewalk.

For now, we will have to enter the house either through the garage or through the laundry room or Florida room, both of which are accessible through doors in the back of the house.  Were we crazy to do this with a guest coming?  Perhaps, but I think that Bonnie is a good enough friend that she will not minding coming into Gladys through the back door.