"I can see clearly now, the rails are gone...

...I can see all obstacles in my way."

I am so excited that for the first time in 10 years, we can see off our front porch with an unobstructed view. The rails were/are needed to meet code when building a home. And, I enjoyed having them when the kids were small because I didn't want them to fall off the porch. Now, I feel quite confident in their ability to avoid the edge or jump off carefully. (If/when we ever try to sell our home, we will probably have to put up some sort of rail to meet the requirements, but for now, we are going to enjoy not having them. And, if we do put rails back on, they will be shorter, which will still meet code, but will not impede the view quite as much.) This is the first step in our front porch overhaul. We were talking about how awful the rails looked and how they needed to be repainted along with the columns and the porch itself. Then we started talking about taking off the rails and seeing if we liked the look. Well, we do like the look. In fact, we LOVE it! I couldn't stop singing that song in my head the whole time I sat on our comfortable swing and looked at everything in the yard: I can see clearly now, the rails are gone (sung to the tune of: I can see clearly now, the rain is gone.) :) We have a lot of puttying and sanding and painting to do, but I am excited about our new look and our unimpeded view!! And, I am so thankful to have a handy husband who can tackle any project we want to do around the house!