Screening our Saturday

 You can't really tell from the picture but we built three ginormous screens and installed them on our front porch.  The openings are about 6 ft x 7 ft so it was quite the experience.  We got a good groove on it though and they look really excellent. (pats self on back)  

The next thing we are doing is putting on a new storm door.  We bought that yesterday at the orange big box store.  We want to be able to lock the screen door because we envision times when the indoor cats will be enjoying this space and we don't want a delivery person to open a door and have an indoor furry suddenly outside.  We found out most storm doors don't have locks unless you want to pay a LOT for them.  I am doing this as frugally as possible so that is not an option.  We found out that we can buy an after market door handle that is lockable and install that ourselves on the door.  It cost like $6.00 and our door way under $200

Today I took off the old door, sanded the framing and patched for painting.  I'll probably paint after work during the week so that we can jump right into door installation next Saturday.  After the door is installed we have two side panels that need plexi glass installed. They are down at eye level for dogs and cats and I don't want screening there because I know if they see a squirrel they will blow through it!  Then there are three small upper screens around the door frame to build and install.  After that, I paint the floor and we will be done!

This is by far the biggest project we have done and we are also sandwiching it around my wife's business work.  She has picked up some extra clients to help off set a whopping dental bill, so time is not always available for us to work together.  Big projects like this need two sets of hands frequently.  I can sand, patch and paint on my own. But I don't think even home improvement experts could build 7 foot screens without two people!