Help From Friends

Before

I have had an ongoing problem with my front door. It's the result of poor design. The roof slopes over the entrance which means all precipitation including snow ends up dumping right in front of the door. I asked a carpenter friend to help out by coming up with a simple solution to extend the overhang to 3 feet in front of the entrance door. He did. It works. Couldn't have done it myself.

After

It took the 3 of us about 7 hours from start to finish. I will need to paint and touch up but that won't happen until after the siding goes up. Cost: about $600.00

What Not To Do

Some time ago, I worked with a friend to lay some tile on my small bathroom floor. It turned out great! Made a big difference. The next day we walked into the bathroom to inspect the finished product. To my horror, it all cracked! Turns out the floor was slightly spongy - not enough to really notice. You can't do that with tile. The floor has to be absolutely rigid. (Makes sense after the fact.) I didn't know. I was catatonic. We had to pull it all out, add support to the floor and relay the tile. I tried to organize the tile to put it back in the original order. Glue got on top of most of the tiles. Not sure how I'm going to get it off. At least its solid now.

I'm now resigned to the idea that I may have to do everything twice. It's painful to think of having to tear down something I just built, but that may be the price I have to pay.