I Got New Steps

I think it's probably clear to anyone who has been reading here for awhile that we do not live in a luxurious home. I mean, it's great for our family, but it's not really a normal house. What it is, in fact, is a 1972 single-wide trailer with owner-built additions from the 90s. It's old, with some very, um, unique elements.

We--by which I mean A.--have fixed or replaced some things over the past several years, but it's always an ongoing project.

The most recent phase of our very slow remodeling was the front-door steps. They were pretty bad, just a too-high concrete slab with some cinder blocks underneath, the whole thing covered in nasty old white carpet.

After removing the carpet.

I asked A. if he could put new steps there that weren't quite so steep. He decided to do this with brick, as brick is flatter and more regular than the irregular stones he usually builds walls with.

He kept the existing concrete, which saves quite a bit of time and materials. He just covered them over with bricks. This also had the benefit of raising the height of the step under the door to much closer to the actual door level.

After A. had laid out all the bricks and started putting the mortar in the cracks, Poppy asked if she could help. Mortaring isn't heavy work, nor is it particularly difficult, so he showed her what to do and left her to it.

She did almost all of the mortaring herself. It took her about five hours, and she did a very good job.

Mini mason at work. Ah, to be eight years old and flexible enough to squat like that.

And now we have very nice brick steps that are sort of comical leading up to our not-very-nice trailer.

The lower concrete platform on the side at the right is where the dogs like to lie at night, so as to guard the door. Since we had taken their comfy disgusting carpet away, I bought them an actual dog mat for right there. They were suspicious of it, but seem to be gradually getting used to it.

These steps are much more comfortable for me with my shorter legs to get up and down, as well as looking much better, and I'm very happy with them. Yay, A.