I'll be on the porch

It all started when Ali and I fixed the door from our garage to the back porch. It failed to shut properly since we moved in back in 1998 but it was the back porch and we had other other priorities.

The ugliness of the concrete block wall into which the door fit was an annoyance that I lived with, tried temporary fixes and groused about. For years, I had an item on my Christmas list for wall board to cover it up.

Then, earlier this year, on a trip to a local liquor store with Jeff, I saw an entry way paneled with a small mosaic of wooden wine crate panels. "That's it," I said. "That's what we should do with the porch."

In July, I started prepping. Was I putting off my angst over Alison's imminent residency at Purdue by scraping off the hideous brown, square linoleum flooring until I wore a hold in the center of my hand? Yes, of course.

We'd considered the flooring so terrible we didn't care if we spilled paint and glitter and glue from our various art projects when she was so little she didn't know I have no talent with paint or glitter or glue. I had happy flashbacks with every splatter I found as I tore off those squares.

It was another couple of weeks stripping the peeling paint from existing wood and the door, then priming and painting them.

Finally, we were ready to address the wall. I won't bore you with the hours of varnishing, measuring, cutting, re-measuring, re-cutting, sanding, gluing, mixing and matching it took to get us to the finished product. Notoriously impatient, I had Thanksgiving as a deadline for it all to be done.

We went through four tubes of "all weather" Gorilla Glue, two cans of paint stripper and have, of course, leftover primer and paint. I used most of our Goo Gone and probably will need more if we're to keep the floor. Jeff hates my idea of using wine corks as a baseboard, so we have that battle still to come. But miraculously it was a project with little marital discord.

Mostly because I gave Jeff moral support and fetched this and that while he worked out what when where. Our neighbors may tell you there was a fair amount of cursing and muttering. They're probably exaggerating.

More than 130 panels made it onto that wall; some in their original size and some pared down to fit.

The circle is a French oak red wine barrel top we scored on a trip to Casey Brewing and Blending in Glenwood Springs, CO. Seemed fitting that we included it because it blends Jeff's love of craft beer with my wine appreciation. (They age some their beer in wine barrels.) John, our tasting guru was kind enough to sign and date it for us.

Other than the wine barrel lid and my insistence in the spring (long before I saw the wall in that liquor store) that yes, we would find a use for those cool wine crates,  it was Jeff who secured the 170-plus wine panels we had to work with.

Some of the panels came as actual wine crates from local liquor stores. The last-minute donation from John and Chris at Kahn's Fine Wines saved us from the terrible fate of having to use duplicate panels.

Jim at The Wine Shop and the crew at SoBro Spirits contributed crates and panels, as well. Others were sourced by the bargain-hunting, eBay surfer, Captain Reed.

In addition to his procurement skill, Jeff is the master when it came to execution. Mostly because math and I kind of hate each other's guts and it turns out that math skills are key when trying to fit mismatched shapes onto a flat surface.

The Captain and I are at odds over whether to keep the floor as is. I kind of like it. It's old and has character. I can see it on the floor of a wine cellar. We'll get the curtains back up soon and I'll figure out what furniture will go in there. There's no heat or cooling out there, so we won't likely keep wine out there except to serve. There will be a lot of serving...

I'm settling into the idea that Ali doesn't live here anymore. Typing that sentence did make me cry, so maybe I'm not really there yet. It is so weird that she's not here. Sigh. But she's doing so well at Purdue. And she'll be home to visit soon. It's all good. All good.

Man, I might need some wine. Or I'll get started on the floor. Or the furniture. Or a care package for my little Boilermaker. Or actual PR work. Maybe I'll get back to what's going on in Claymont, and you know there's a ton of stuff happening there.

Until winter sets in, I'll be on the porch. Come on by. We'll have some wine.