I'm Unsupervised

As much as I want to do things for myself, I know my limits. I need to have my porch redone as it is currently a giant liability. The wood is splintering, the railing is loose, and climbing the stairs without driving your foot through a board is a true accomplishment. The cost of materials is only going up, so I would like to get this done sooner rather than later because I’m afraid the longer I wait the more expensive it will be and I’m not Richy Rich.
This being said I need to find a carpenter. I have called several without hearing back from anyone. I called a contractor that I used last year to fix my houses’ foundation and he has canceled three times to give me an estimate for my porch. Finding someone to even come out and look at my porch is proving to be harder than finding the holy grail.
I am leery about using a neighborhood website to ask for recommendations only because people generally don’t read that word and just promote themselves. I fear this will result in the same outcome of them not showing up or worse they show up, I pay them, and it turns out to be a scam.
Another tactic I am using is walking around my neighborhood to see if there are any contractor signs in front yards. I spoke to a neighbor who recently had work on her house done and she gave me the number of the person she used. He has so far canceled on me twice, but I’m hoping third times the charm with him. The work he did on her house is so nice.
At this point I think it would be faster if I went to carpentry school and fixed it myself.