This One Was in Our Favor!

Since buying our house in June, we have done lots of projects which led to lots of  other projects. You know how that goes....you tear one thing apart to make it better and something else needs done.

Well this past weekend, we went to camp, something we have not had as much time to do this summer. On the way home, we passed a house in the country with some items for sale in the front yard. Luckily this caught Ken's eye because I missed it entirely.

"They had a vinyl railing in the front yard for sale. I wonder how that would look on our porch?" Ken said to me after we passed it. "I wonder if it would fit?"

"Let's go back and look at it. It can't hurt," I say.

The railing was taken off the deck of this home by its new owners. They wanted to open it up so they could just step off the deck into their back yard. We sized it up, checked it out, guesstimated whether it would work on our porch. We figured we would have to cut it down and piece it in. There were two pieces of this white railing.

The owner came out and Ken asked how much he wanted for them. "How about $20.00?" he offered.

We about jumped out of our skin at that price. "We'll take it," Ken said. "We have to go home and get the truck but if we find it won't work and we have not returned in the next couple days, just keep the money and put it back up for sale."

We went back immediately after getting home and unloading our camping stuff. When we got home, we took one section to the porch and tried it out. It was a bit long for the first section we tried. It fit perfectly into the second section. We pulled the second railing out and tried it and it too fit perfectly. We couldn't believe our luck! For $20 we have a railing across the front of our porch.


Last night we went to Home Depot to get some end caps that were missing from the railing. Before we left, Ken measured a short section on the side of the porch to see how much more railing we were going to need to complete the job. He told me to write down 68 inches. At Home Depot we see a section of railing above the end caps. The size is, you guessed it, 68 inches. Perfect!! We also bought some white paint and had the paint department match it to the white of the end cap. I will paint the wooden posts on the porch before Ken installs the railing and all will look new.

So for a little over $100 we now have a new porch. Not really but it will look like a new porch.

Here it is now (picture from winter when it was for sale). I'll show the finished product after we get it all done.