But it <should> be back up and ever so much better in a few weeks. As some of you know, I am in the middle of a 2/3 house re-build, including the entire second floor. But the front porch, which is where I drive my trailer full of wood onto for winter use, is getting demoloshed tomorrow and re-built into something (h0pefully better) with modern construction. The porch is ancient (1940's) but because the entire floor structure was bad (rotted, collapsing) when I bought the house, I re-built the floor but included a couple of multi- plate bearing girders capable of bearing just about anything on four wheels; I replaced the west end of the porch with three doors, two in a bi-fold configuration and the third as a walk- thru door. So basically, I load my trailer with nearly one cord of wood and drive it up onto the porch for winter; the woodstove is ~10 feet from the front door, which opens onto the porch so I can get firewood in my underwear and load the stove, rain or shine, snowing or not, all winter long. But the porch itself is old and tired and we got a pretty good price from a local contractor for a complete rebuild (outside of the floor, which is sound and strong enough to carry a Ford Expedition). So yesterday and today, we (my wife and I) cut down all the vegetation around the porch and <mostly> cleaned it out getting ready for the contractor. Normally we go from the summer mode of porch (my wife likes to lounge out there, and it is set up with a table and chairs, etc. for summer use) to 'winter' use by cleaning it out and putting a trailer full of firewood splits there. But this time, it is clean and waiting to be removed and a new porch built in its place. So this is the raw porch, with the west side (drive way side) doors removed, ready for the dumpster: We have contracted for an entire porch R&R, along with a side- entrance covering station (a roof with two walls, as it was before this whole thing started), along with a sidewalk roof extending all the way down to and melding into the porch roof. We expect it to be roughed- in w/in the next month, when it will go back into 'winter mode duty', bearing firewood in the trailer. We may forge ahead and side the entire building late this year, depending on prices and contractor availability. If that happens, the outside should be predominantly finished and the neighbors will breathe a gigaintic sigh of relief <grin>. Brian
Great project! That's some major surgery...having just added on a wood stove alcove and 3-story chimney chase, I know what a disruption that construction brings to the household...you're smarter than I am since you're not doing it yourself!
Well, we are splitting what we do with what we farm out. The really heavy labor was farmed such as cutting off and disposing of the 2nd floor, the rough- in of the new structure, etc. But we have done all the inside framing, wiring, sub- floor, etc., and that is MORE than enough. The current plan is to also do all the finish work in both bathrooms while farming out the drywall and plaster, insulation and so forth; it is just not cost- effective to do those things ourselves, we are not set up for it and frankly, that is work for much younger people.... and more of them Brian
Four guys carried my old woodstove off the porch and onto the 'garbage truck' (basically a 20' box van body); it was truly impressive. I manned a corner but really, I do not believe for an instant that I was doing my share. The 'trash guy' (who was hauling it away as well as carrying one corner) kept looking inside for the firebrick. <chuckle> I guess he just did not believe that the raw, steel stove weighed that much. Then again, he has probably never carried a 10+ cu. ft. stove before either. But yeah, the younger, stronger and MUCH faster pups did a tremendous amount of work today. Porch is all gone, site is clean and tidy, and there are two covers on the house / porch floor for the coming storm! The other huge upside to hiring people to do things is that they actually finish. If we were doing that, the roof would not have all the shingles off it yet. Those guys really moved on this thing! Brian
The crew is making good progress. As of end of business today, the front roof is up, complete and sheathed. Both sides are started and should be finished tomorrow. We had a slight oppsie with the wiring coming down from the soffit: somehow, the three cables ended up in three different frame bays, one of which is NOT touching any wall: They pulled that rafter out, slid the FIOS fiber optic over to the same side with the COX cable and all is well. We cheated just a little bit and left the east side, the short hip side, fly 'free'. But it is only 24", and then it was reinforced with a pair of 2 X 6" lookouts: From inside: Note that those tails will be cut off and only the portion supporting the 2 X 10" ridge rafter means anything. The front is sheathed, as is the west corner hip: The east ridge (hip) rafter is in and a couple of side- rafters are in also: These folks did a fantastic job of framing. This is what the inside of the porch structure looks like with hurricane tie downs in place, all joists and rafters in place, all hanging on the front bearer beam: The front of the porch is now free of any scabs or any temporary supports and is fully supported by the permenent uprights. They are 4 X 4's with vinyl covering the upper (exposed) portion, which is in place in this photo: Same but from the east side: Tomorrow they should finish the framing and maybe the sheathing. Then it will be time for short walls on the front and east side, fascia and roof shingles. Time to trim and finish the ceilings inside also but not quite sure how we are going to do that- leaning toward vinyl sheeting and a simple flat ceiling wrapped around the building. Electrician is coming back on Sat. to remove the (new) SEU cable and replace it with PVC pipe and wiring inside that. <sigh> I was hoping to sneak the service cable through the roof, exactly like it was done before but between the carpenter putting a face plate for the rafters behind it (and spacing it away from the wall) and putting a rafter directly over it, there is not much chance of 'sneaking' it by anymore. So I will just cave in and do the right thing and have it replaced with rigid pipe and THHN wires. Brian
Bravo!! I will never forget the pics of your truck (or trailer) backed in the old porch Same here, as close to the door as possible.
Thanks for the kind words and well- wishes folks, I appreciate it! Well, the electricians just left after putting in a new service drop.... after they removed the 'old' service drop they put in six weeks ago.... :-( The carpenter put a 2 X 10" plate up against the house and spaced the power drop wire (SEU) out a bit too far 'sneak' the wire through the new roof, so I had the SEU cable taken out and PVC pipe and wires put back in. And the entire service is loose and hanging from the weather-head so now the house can be stripped and sided and the service can just be moved around to allow getting behind it. When all is done, and the house is being sided, we will put in a vinyl meter trough plate on the house and then anchor the entire service (the PVC pipe, the meter trough) permanently. The way it is now is safe and can stay like it is as long as needed and I should not have to install any more electrical services. Will post some photos later. Brian
Been a while but finally, after several set- backs, we are again making progress with new contractors. Just could not get what I wanted from the last one so we parted ways and the project stopped. One of the main points of contention was that I wanted a 'not too steep' roof over the entrance-way on the side door but got a church steeple instead. :-( Looked like this: A big, blue, lighted cross and we could have revival meetings in there. I have nothing against churches or revival meetings, I just do not want to live in one. New contractor seems like a great guy, been here about 2 weeks and is making wonderful progress, this time doing what we actually want. To be fair, I also changed the design in order to soften that peak further by making it asymmetrical and extending it to the south (right in the photos) and projecting out a foot to cover the actual place where we walk up and onto the sidewalk before turning left and entering the side door. New guys also fixed the last guy's amusing (NOT!) faux pas with the electrical service being bent around a nailer plate on the house This is what it looks like as of today, 15 Feb 2018: Will keep updated as we progress.... if we progress of course. Brian
Good to hear progress has resumed and you found a contractor willing to work with you. How you making out with wood?
Amazingly well compared to how I thought I would be doing a month ago. This unusual warm spell has really slowed down the burning here, just as the previous unusually cold snap really tore through some firewood. So I have some seasoned oak left, and am burning very well seasoned silver maple right now; lousy firewood in that it does not contain much energy but I do not need a lot of stove output when it is in the 40's / 50's outside. We are not done with winter but we are past half- way and honestly been running on oil a LOT more since the work re- started on the porch and my trailer of firewood is in the backyard..... right next to the wood stacks. :-( So far, these are great guys: competent, thoughtful, very helpful (not just building but truly helpful on a project level) and as a treat, both seem to be great folks. My intent is to have them side the entire house and then move inside for more 'woodpecking' as long as we can continue to find a meeting ground on time available, other projects they have and price. Frankly, this is not great work and I realize that but then again, building new houses is always really tight on money. These guys are not the cheapest but that too is a plus IMO: I cannot take any more of the bargain- basement contractors. But these guys are not outrageous either, and I expect all of us (me as the customer, them as the contractor / carpenters, the materials suppliers, etc.) to get a fair and just business deal throughout without anyone taking advantage or being taken advantage of; good business leaves everyone better off without anyone having to put Band- aids over the wounds.... at least IMO and that is what I shoot for. So at this point, color me and Andrea 'happy campers' with this turn of the project and looking forward to having this association go quite a bit further- if they gots da' time, I gots da' work. Brian
Much better entry way porch covering as opposed to the steeple . That steep pitch completely skewed the architectural lines of the new porch slope and whole house for that matter. And the electrical service cluster was not ever going to sit well with you so glad you got that lined out also. You're going to have a great looking place in no time. Keep up the good work and thanks for sharing the great pics.
Thanks and glad to hear at least someone else agrees that that steeple looking- thing was a gigantic miss- step. The electrical feed OVER the nailer was not going to fly either with the electrical or building inspectors. Wiring conduits should not penetrate anywhere through a roof other than an edge and especially can not penetrate away from the edge and then bend back to that edge. But the part that made me angry was that the contractor slid that nailer behind the existing electrical service, about 4 feet below the service attachment to the house but then claimed he could not cut that said nailer becuase it is 'illegal for him to work within ten feet of an electrical service'. Funny how the law changed in the middle of the day like that. We have been at this, on and off, since 2015 when heavy snow loads damaged the roof structure. Some time ago a friend of ours pointed out that a strain like this could and has ruined more than one marriage. Fortunately for us, our marriage was ruined years and years ago so no worries there. But it certainly has been a strain and both of us and we have learned to lower our expectations: we are now simply hoping to mostly finish this project before we die..... that is mostly a joke but not entirely. Of course I am not complaining because we are in good health and doing fine overall while there are others far, far less fortunate than we so I will not even pretend this situation we have is even a significant problem in the grand scheme of things. And, on the bright side of things, it should be a huge improvement to the house that we can hopefully use and enjoy for a bit of time yet. Brian
Well, a little progress, a little regress. Got the porch done- finished, inside and out other than the siding (and any last strips of roofing, etc. that will go in with the siding, J-channel, etc.). The guys did a great job and they will be back mid- May to begin siding the entire house. They had some other work to do first but again, I am happy with them and their work so more than willing to wait the six weeks they needed. New design on the entranceway; got rid of that ridiculous looking pointy- spire roof and went with an assymetrical design to knock the angle way down, as well as extending the other side (left side looking at it) further out as was originally intended. I was wary of it because it IS assymetrical but now that it is done, we are thrilled with the way it came out, how it looks and what the carpenters did. On their own, they included a thinner, partial return on the bottom of the triangle and I think that really adds to the overall look too: Now, the entire interior, soffits and facias are done so other than siding, and painting the T-111 inside the porch sub- walls, and adding the doors on the west side,which I will do at a later time, it is finished. The header over the inside of the west side of the porch is where the doors will go. From the west side: From the southwest, showing some of the inside ceiling / soffits and fascia: From the south, or the street view: Now remember that little bit of regression I mentioned..... well, it seems I was walking down the new stairs when a 'sudden gust of gravity' came along. OK, I was walking backwards down the stairs, video recording the new hatches at the top of the stairs and gravity remained pretty constant if I am honest. But let me tell you folks, when you reach back with your next foot to put down on the landing but you are still one step up the stairs, it sometimes does not end well...... Fortunately, I did not break the video device (whew!) and the stone floor, steel door, and wooden end- table were there to break my fall. With a stiff constitution and clean living, I was able to shrug it all off..... almost.... except the left wrist. The pain was a little bit much and it was not very mobile the next day so I went off to a "Doc in a box" and had them take a look. Lucky for me, it was not broken, it was broken in four places! Also lucky for me, instead of wearing a silly cast for months, all I needed was a little screwing, which I thought was OK but it turned out to be nothing like I was envisioning (Easy Boys!). So last Tues., off to the hospital for a genuine titanium alloy screw put in my schaphoid bone to bind the three pieces together. Also required a small bone graft. I am supposed to be getting a "bone simulator", which I thought might be like Woody Allen's orgasmatron but alas, it is something I strap onto my wrist and it stimulates the bones to knit..... <sigh> But the staff was great and we actually had a pretty good time although the anethsthetist was resistant to my humor (took four jokes to get him to chuckle; he rather liked the 'old man' jokes involving bodily fluid) and so I am back home, knitting. Not stimulating yet but knitting. Though this is one of the very slowest knitting bones in the whole body so maybe not knitting very fast. I complimented the surgeron on an outstanding job of centering the screw, aligning the bones, and burying the entire screw head sub- flush. We cut a deal where he will give me the identical screw (Boys!) but in my palm rather than installed- I want a souvineer of this little debacle: My son and D-I-L were kind enough to send me a little something for this event. For normal people, it would be a 'Get well soon' card or some such nonsense but I raised my kids right and they found the humor in this situation and so send along the perfect gift I think..... So, in summation: porch done, ready for siding. Me not done, I need several more visits and perhaps a very disappointing version of a 'bone simulator'. The good news is that this whole medical episode, along with a couple of other diagnostic tests and evaluations, will kick me well over the max. limit for 'out of pocket expense' for the calendar year. Yea me! $18,000 for health insurance, a $2,250 deductible and the rest is free, all FREE I tells ya'! Please understand, I am not complaining, I had simply outstanding care through all of this and I am grateful such services are available, I am merely whining a tad, most likely due to the disappointment in the reality vs. the image of the 'bone simulator'...... Brian (glad to be living in a first- world country where truly superb medical care is available even to us peons.....)
