Construction

Well this is day four of the grand porch repair. The siding has come off, well two layers of siding, then sheathing,and then the structure was rebuilt underneath, and now the siding is being put back on.

Unfortunately, the renovation I really want to do, replacing the siding, has yet to be done. This house needs a new dress like Little Orphan Annie had a new look when adopted. Our Orphan Annie has been spruced up everywhere, but is awaiting a new dress. The new dress will make the biggest difference in the appearance of the house when compared to all the other renovations we have done. So I can't wait for this boring old house dressed in cruddy 1940 shingling to be made over with a new look. Unfortunately that is a long way in the future, if at all.  It does get tiresome, same old, same old, work work work.

So the wind up of this renovation is that in order to screen the porch the whole porch and corner of the house is being rebuilt, or repaired. The porch roof had to be jacked up to take out the corner post. It then had to be supported while the post was out. This is a HUGE 58 foot long porch, granted this side is only 25 feet or so long, but it is the corner and it is weight bearing. It is so weight bearing that while it was being alternately supported with lolly columns and side braces. The side braces were attached to the ground with a huge steel pike, about four feet long and an inch in diameter, that acted like a humongous tent peg. It looked just like the huge pegs that hold up a circus tent. So  while supporting and bracing the roof, the "steel peg" holding the brace to the ground bent to a 30% angle. It was pretty sobering to think that whole thing could have crashed down if the peg bent much further. Actually it was more than that, it was frightening.

In the process of this work the structure moved around quite a bit. The porch roof tore off of the building. The building wood was so rotten it could no longer support the porch and its roof, the roof separated from the building and had to be lifted up and away to replace the rotten wood.  This is what caused the fissure visible in the photos where you can see the roof line visible next to the raw original siding underneath. Eventually the porch had to be drawn back into the house so it could be attached to the repaired wood. I'm not doing this work, I am recording it and I find it humbling. Oh this is way too heavy in many ways, as I said sobering. And the worst part is...this is just the beginning and there is no screening on this porch yet...this is only the first post!
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