The Old Girl Can See...

Saturday morning..here we go! This old porch was probably added around the 1950's, probably for heat as this side of the house faces due west. The addition of the second story would have kept a lot of sun out of the upstairs master bedroom and hallway. We found this summer that the addition of attic ventilation probably did way more than this porch ever could have done for air quality and heat control...but that is beside the point. What we are most glad for is that the decorative pieces on the top level are original to the house and will be saved and put back down below where they started. We are going to save the posts as they appear to be the original as well. I also want to save the rails. In a 1950's pic we have on the house, they appear to, at one point have been on the bottom and they looked kind of cute!

By Saturday evening, the first corner was down. This job is proving harder than one might think. The original soffits and facia boards are under this newer porch and we really want to save them as replacement would be quite costly.

Up they go again on Sunday morning...

Charles was feeling his age by the end of the day on Sunday after about 50 trips up and down the scaffolding! In this pic, you can see that another section is down.

And another...with shadows lengthening...

It is down! I swear I can almost hear the old girl saying I can see! Doesn't she look good? There is a lot of work left to be done. The front soffit has come loose from the weight of the porch and we are hoping to just put that up into place. The short piece of the soffit and facia board are destroyed by bugs (wasps or something that made tunnels) and water damage. All the nail holes need to be filled and the entire piece of the decorative edge is gone (kind of like crown molding on the edge up there) and needs to be replaced. Then paint. The lower porch will not come all the way down. Rather, the posts will be put into the right places and the rotten posts will be removed. The tongue in groove will be replaced by roof plywood and then covered with tar paper....it is a long list, but the old girl is ready.

Take a quick look at the before and after...wow! What a change for a weekend!