So if you've known us for more than twenty minutes, you've heard about our dogs, our trucks, that story when C one time - oh, never mind, and our awesome old house . . . with the 450 square foot porch . . . that we need to replace. And oh-my-goodness, we did! But any good remodel tells a story and of course, what else is my pesky English degree good for but storytelling?
Once upon a time, a couple bought a house. They made it their own, even as the porch deteriorated. In the picture below, the porch doesn't look that bad, but it is from at least two years ago ( I only know this because the adorable C got me a porch swing for my birthday two years ago - then the birds pooped all over it - C hates the birds, but I digress).
See below? Happy couple (yes, I LOVE the pictures that Kami from OrangePeel Photography took!). But the porch and steps are a little ragged. It's not that we're lazy or poor, but it's a 450sf wrap around porch, people! That's half the footage of my house! And the surface then was tongue-and-groove boards - ask someone in the know how much those cost. Really, do. It will blow your mind. Another solution would have been a composite board (T.rex is a big name), but at about $40/board and with this NOT being our forever house, that kind of investment wasn't necessary.
Yes, the boards are painted. Not a good idea in this case. Below, you can see that the corner and front of the house (facing south) took the brunt of what the sun and weather had to offer. The side porch actually fared better, even with constant foot/dog toenail traffic due to being out of direct weather. Oh, and then a friend's dog fell through a weak/rotten spot (he weighs 120lbs and is absolutely fine) and none of our friends over 150lbs were allowed on the front/corner of the porch anymore.
The edges were really bad because the open grain of the wood was left to combat the moisture. The moisture won as you can see. So with what we knew went wrong, we had quite a few ideas on how to improve our rebuild. Luckily, the underpinnings of the porch were all pressure treated lumber in good shape. But still, we're rebuilding with A LOT of materials!
And the pondering before the work begins. We were so glad to have Mom and Dad here for a weekend to help!
Rough shape.
Stay tuned.
Stay tuned.
