No Job is Small

The side porch had long been an eye sore.  The paint was peeling but it made no sense to just cover it up because too  many boards under it would need to be replaced.  This back area of the porch had some shelving and a door in the wall at the end which was sealed up.  A long bar ran through it as if it were used as a coat closet at one point.  The coat closet in the living room actually shared space with this porch.  There was a door separating this area from the the area in the porch that cut in to meet the newer section of the house.  This was roughly at the same point as the fence post.  We used it to store paper towels, extra kitchen chairs, roasting pans that weren't used frequently, etc.  The small garden bed in front of it and the bush were there to hide the fact that the foundation stone was crumbling.  Badly.

This is a side view of the porch wall. I do not know when or why this window was added.  We can surmise that this section of the porch may have been added in 1969 because an intact newspaper was found under the floorboards from back then.  That is an interesting enough story to warrant a separate post.  This section of the porch was in the picture taken of the house in 1975 which is displayed as the profile picture for this blog.  A small piece of newspaper in this front section of the porch dated to 1941.  It may  be possible that this section was built then.  It would certainly seem that portions of this attached structure were built at different times. 

This side section of the porch covers the trap door down to the cellar. It was by far in the worst shape on any porch or piece of the property.  This section had been open at one point but was eventually enlcosed.  A number of factors likely led to the extreme rotting of the wood.  There was no way to remedy the situation except for a nearly complete tear-down.   Prior to tackling this job, we had two trees close to the house removed. We felt they would get in the way of the paint job and also that the perpetual shade did not help the wood rot situation.  If we are going to the expense and trouble of rebuilding, we want the job to last a hundred years!

We had already planned to deal with the porch  by the time the city cited us for it.  Everyone in the neighborhood got some sort of violation of another when the inspectors came through and did a sweep of this section of the city.  This job was put off as long as possible simply because of the scope of it.  It will take many postings to cover the reincarnation of this monstrosity.  It's only a porch, but it is a huge project.

Over the next few weeks, I will cover not only this porch renovation, but give the detail on the other two.  The porches are not original the the house but they are older and they are an integral part to the function of the home.  We tried our best to have them rebuilt or at least refashioned to keep with the intent of the time they were constructed.

To be continued....