Beverly was just as excited as I was with the way it turned out! Yessssss!
Everybody has that one wildcard neighbor. I help mine when I can, and about a year ago I was helping him move lawn mowers around in his garage, and asked him about a huge stack of six foot trex pieces that i noticed. He said “yea man, whenever you want, come by and grab it, just let me know.” A few months later it was time, so I did the calculations and figured it would cost about $130 to replace the rotten, nasty plywood and carpet porch deck with new trex boards. I went over to ask Mr. Wildcard if he still had the stack, he said I could just have them, so I gave him $120 for them, because it was fair and I know he and his family could use some income.
So, I got to measuring and cuttin’, had to replace, ohh about the entire little porch foundation, and mounted a few extra beams for support. I had drawn up a few different pattern options for Beverly and she picked the cool one (obviously). I worked with the pattern, one piece at a time, splicing boards with end cuts beneath the surface, and eventually ended up with a pretty cool porch. I ended up trimming it out with PVC trim boards and replaced the handrails with Shuo-sugi-ban 2×4’s and white painted 4×4 posts. Fun stuff!