Use Flexbox for excerpt layout

css/excerpt.css

@@ -1,4 +1,7 @@
 .excerpt {
+  display: flex;
+  flex-flow: column nowrap;
+  flex-grow: 1;
   border-bottom: 1px solid var(--color-light-grey);
   margin-bottom: var(--space-sm);
   padding-bottom: var(--space-sm);
@@ -17,6 +20,10 @@
   margin-bottom: var(--space-xs);
 }
 
+.excerpt__body {
+  flex-grow: 1;
+}
+
 @media (--viewport-md) {
   .excerpt__head,
   .excerpt__body,

css/page.css

@@ -87,17 +87,14 @@
     grid-template-rows: 32px 162px 1fr;
   }
 
-  .page__content--2col {
-    display: grid;
-    grid-template-columns: 1fr 1fr;
-    grid-gap: var(--space-md);
-  }
-
-  .page__content-item {
+  .page__columns {
     display: flex;
+    flex-flow: row wrap;
   }
 
-  .page__content-item--full-width {
-    grid-column: 1 / -1;
+  .page__cell {
+    display: flex;
+    flex-flow: column nowrap;
+    flex: 1 0 50%;
   }
 }

theme/front-page.php

@@ -3,10 +3,9 @@
   <section class="page__logo">
     <?php get_template_part('partials/logo') ?>
   </section>
-  <section class="page__content page__content--2col">
-    <div class="page__content-item page__content-item--full-width">
+  <section class="page__content">
     <h2 class="title">Latest articles</h2>
-    </div>
+    <div class="page__columns">
     <?php
       $posts = get_posts(array(
         numberposts => 4,
@@ -17,19 +16,23 @@
         $month = date('F', $date);
         $day = date('jS', $date);
         $date = get_the_date('jS F, Y', $post->ID).' at '.get_the_date('H:i', $post->ID);
+        $content = (strlen($post->post_excerpt) === 0) ?
+          strip_tags(substr($post->post_content, 0, 200)).'...' :
+          $post->post_excerpt;
         $excerpt = array(
           title => $post->post_title,
           url => get_permalink($post->ID),
-          content => $post->post_excerpt,
+          content => $content,
           author => get_the_author_meta('nickname', $post->post_author),
           comments => $post->comment_count,
           date => $date,
         );
-        echo '<div class="page__content-item">';
+        echo '<div class="page__cell">';
         get_template_part('partials/excerpt');
         echo '</div>';
       }
     ?>
+    </div>
   </section>
   <section class="page__banner">
     <?php get_template_part('partials/banner') ?>