The Front Porch Project.

Sigh.

We have concrete front steps (two sets of steps, really) from the front door to the sidewalk, with a eight-foot section of flat(ish) pavement between the sets of steps. I say "flatish" because there's a bit of a slope; flat it is not.

Some previous owner of the house had the bright idea to paint the steps bright red. Some later owner of the house - I think it's the people from whom we bought the house, as the color matches the basement floor and the garage floor - covered up the red with a more tasteful gray.

It looks like hell now, with the gray flaking off and showing the red underneath, so my current house project is to prepare and paint the steps. Gray again; it's not a bad color.

The prep work's a killer, however. Scraping, sanding, recaulking some areas, and this afternoon's adventure, mixing up quick-set cement and patching where the old concrete has disappeared.

They are looking better, even if, to the casual observer, they still look like hell. Everything I do now, though, will make the paint layer look all that much more pleasing.