First a pic of some work I am doing in PoK., then we’ll get to the danger part.

Beginnings of a form for a curved concrete 3 season room.  Of course, the weather didn’t cooperate this week with temps just under 100.  This still needs to be one more row higher, and then connected straight back to the house on both sides.  Should be done with it on Monday, then build the inner forms, which can be much simpler on Tuesday.  Now on to our regularly scheduled disaster.

When I left the house (you know, the house), Tuesday morning on the way to work, carrying a heavy load, my foot slipped on the kind of cracked and crumbling cement covered brick front steps.  That was enough to peel off a layer of the cement, and expose the crumbly loose brick, which over the course of three days and a few UPS deliveries, became extremely unsafe.  Something needed to be done.   I had an idea to quickly replace them with pressure treated lumber, making two simple steps to replace the two cement and brick steps that were there.  I began demolishing the steps around noon or so.  Then we cleaned up the 9 or 10 wheelbarrows full of debris.

The front after we removed the collapsing cement and brick steps.

But the architect disagreed with my plan. (At this point, is anyone surprised?  Other than me, I mean).  Even though these are temporary (around here that can mean two months to 10 years), these steps had to look pretty too.  Enter wonder woman.  At 3pm or so she sketched out a plan and off to the lumberyard we went.   Almost two hours later, after some stops we were back with some lumber, and the fun began.

Wife, cutting some framing lumber for our temporary new front steps.

We finished the framing, and even got temporary treads on them.  Not sure yet if we want to have painted treads or just P/T lumber.  Decide tomm, as the daylight dwindled and we had to clean up and have dinner.  Wonder Woman made that too.  I better watch my step as now that she replaced me as lead carpenter around here, I’m worried about my job security.  Thank goodness I can do laundry and usually clean up after myself.  More pictures another day as we ran out of time tonight.

Disclaimer: The work above is what I did. I’m not claiming this is the way you should do it in your home. Almost every situation is different, and should be treated accordingly. If you are not sure of what you are doing, or not comfortable doing it, the best advice I could give you is to STOP! Get advice from a Pro that you trust, or at least knowledgeable friends or family. You can make expensive mistakes, or worse – you could get hurt. Be safe !