On Wednesday, I came down to help my parents with their back deck. They wanted to tear down the old back porch and put up a new one.
Here is where the new deck is going to go. It will be glassed in like a sunroom. :) This is what John, my dad, mom, and I accomplished on Wednesday evening. We can't work on this for 3 days because the concrete has to set.
Here is the front porch. Mom and I worked on a few steps that were loose on Thursday.
This is what we'd accomplished by Thursday/Friday. Here is the old back porch after we got rid of all the old floor boards.
Friday, Pa came over and helped too. Pa helped me rip up the lower deck and he helped me get the flashing fitted just right. I didn't know how to fit the flashing stuff. :)
While we did that, Dad worked on a spot near the door frame. It had rotted away, so it needed a lot of fixing.
All the lumber.....
A cool table and chairs I found that Iza and Olivia would like to play with next time they are in. :) I need to clean them up. They look really gross right now... don't tell them that though.. ;)
Today, progress has slowed a bit..... Yesterday, my mom, dad, and I worked from 11AM to 5PM in 90 degree temperatures and high humdity. John started helping at about 4 because he had to take care of some school stuff. I left to go visit Paul's family, so my mom and dad continued working till 10PM, so they put in a full day from 11AM to 10PM. I was absolutely exhausted by the time I left. My fingers are so swollen I can't get my rings off... but my parents are tough so they continued working..
At about 10 PM, my dad, mom, and John were on the old back deck which is about 8 feet off the ground fixing a difficult area. Remember that the floor boards have been removed, but a few remain to stand on. Well, my mom was passing up a board to John and my dad, and my dad stepped back on the board my mom was holding by accident and he fell off the porch. He is ok! It just hurt really bad! I can't imagine...
I get home from Paul's parents at 11PM and they decided not to take dad to the ER. He didn't feel like he needed to go. I tell Paul this and he rushes over to my parents house to help. :) Well, John, Paul, and I decided to fix the entire old back deck up on Saturday (Today) for my parents, so we ran out to Walmart to get some school supplies for John's classroom, so that we could work all day on the deck. We couldn't get the supplies he needed, but we did get Jr. cheeseburgers and fries from Wendys! Wow! They were so good! This was at 12AM.
I was achy and tired, but still wired, so I took a fast acting Tylenol PM. However, this didn't affect me, so I wasn't asleep at 2AM when my mom came in my room to say that the ambulance was coming to pick up my dad. He couldn't get out of bed because his back hurt so badly.
The paramedics arrived shortly after that. The back board they put him on was really hard to lay on because his head was strapped in and his neck was stablized with a neck brace. Then, they put him on a stretcher to get him out of the house. They had him strapped in that thing! I couldn't even see his face by the time they had him down the front porch steps.
So.. we all caravaned to the hospital. Once we got to the hospital, my mom went back with my dad, and John, Paul, and I waited in the waiting room. At about 3:30AM, my mom came out and said we could head home because dad was going to be ok. He just hurt his back. So John, Paul, and I headed home.
My mom and dad got home at 6:30AM. My dad was having painful muscle spasms in his back. He had to lay on the back board for an hour at the hospital because they were so busy...Thankfully, the doctor was very sympathetic because he'd had this before, so he gave my dad some very nice medicines. :) I hope he is feeling better right now! I'm glad he didn't have anything broken.
Today, it's 11AM and everyone, but my mom and I are still asleep... I don't know how much we can get done on the back deck today. I'm hoping to get the old back porch finished today! :) I need to go wake up John and Paul..
