A Ramping We Will Go

We've been given a gift....A "Christmas in March", if you will. Here's a picture journal of the Ramp Raising.....



DAY ONE: MONDAY

This is Randy and Cathy. They work for Delphi Corp. which is a manufacturing company located in the county seat where we live. Believe it or not, part of their job is to do volunteer work! So they got together with the Volunteer Center for our county, and they ended up at our place. Here, they're sizing up the situation to see where the footing posts should go.






Before they could start, they had to prep the entrance. We had some stepping stones as a walkway (didn't personally care for them--they came with the house) that they took up, and some metal stair rails that had to come down first.





Here, they're putting in the 4x4 post footings. They other gentleman with Randy and Cathy is Ed. Ed actually works for the Volunteer Center and helps organize the various projects. I guess you'd call him the supervisor. Almost all the posts were cemented in. Once the footings were in, they let them set overnight.






DAY TWO: TUESDAY

The next day they started by framing in the support joists. Another helper came this day--Gary. He also works for Delphi. They "piggybacked" the joists on the existing cement stairs. This helped make sure that the deck was flush with the existing porch.





Here's Gary laying down the decking for the extension. The ramp has three parts to it: the extension, the new stairs, and the ramp itself. The extension was so that the ramp could travel down sideways, parallel to the house (which is where we park the van). At the end of the extension is a new set of stairs so that you could still access the house without having to use the ramp.






The completed extension.








Randy was the resident skill saw operator. He is very meticulous and always tried to make sure that the boards fit just right. Ed made sure to constantly rib him for his perfectionism......which kept things light and enjoyable (at poor Randy's expense!). I sure did appreciate his attention to detail though. His handiwork shows all over the project!







Here, Gary and Cathy are decking the ramp. Cathy spent a good amount of time on her knees, which must've been quite a "pain". Gary had a hard time doing that part, due to "old knees", but Cathy jumped right on it. After finishing all the deck work, the crew called it a day.




DAY THREE: WEDNESDAY

Today, Wednesday, they came to finish up all the loose ends. At this point, the ramp was usable, but the stairs were not in, and the handrail still needed to be put up. But first, Randy needed to cut all the 4x4 posts down to size.





Once the posts were the right size, the handrails could be attached. The kids really enjoyed watching! Cathy was not only really good a using a power drill, but she sings a mean "Skitterma-rincky-dinky-dink" too!







The finishing touches on the stairs.....






And now we have a new ramp!

All our thanks to Ed, Gary, Cathy, Randy, and those who donated funds to the Volunteer Center.....

People like you help make the hard days a little easier!