He who laths last . . .

. . . Is going to save himself a whole lot of puttying.

When Ref and I first took a really hard look at the porch ceiling almost a year ago, it was hard to overlook the ravages of 120-plus years on the planks.

All those years of scraping, rotting and insects meant it didn't look good -- so he thought we should sand, dig out the rot and then putty and caulk, finally running a finger-bead down the seams.

He had Nate start scraping, sanding and digging. Then Ref went into the hospital. While he was dying, Nate was pulling out shards of old newspapers that had been stuffed into the gaps and painted over. The gaps widened. When Ref died, we inherited the challenge to find a solution to a bigger problem than we'd imagined.

Arnold came up with the idea of new wood over old fractures. Rotten beams have been replaced, and new boxes built for the porch fans. Where the boards themselves are broken, we'll putty or spackle or whatever.

And the big gaps? Cover them with quarter-inch-thick lath, then caulk and paint everything a nice sky blue, which will keep out wasps and birdies. I think it's going to be a brilliant solution.