We’re back to work after a break for Christmas – working on the back porch area.
Here is a photo of the back porch from December 4. You can see the bare wood under the eaves and on the porch ceiling. The walls are a mixture of old board-and-baton, new siding, and tyvek.
In the next couple of weeks, we put the new (lower) back door in, added the cap/curb around the bottoms of the columns, installed the hardware needed to hang a porch swing sometime in the future, and installed exterior plywood over the ceiling.
This next photo is the back porch on December 19 – just before we stopped work for the holidays. Since returning to the back of the house, we’ve got the curb/cap applied around the bottom of the columns, the eaves boxed (all but the left most side) and vents are installed, the three beams wrapped (all but the inside of the long one on the front of the porch) Paul got the two columns against the house wrapped with 1x stock, and Chet and I applied the siding from the deck level up about ten courses. I stopped where the cuts started to get tricky, but I’ll have to tackle that soon!
Paul Jr was here over the last THREE days (Dec 31, Jan 1, and Jan 2) because we don’t need no stinkin’ holidays around here!And as if Paul’s help wasn’t enough, Aunt Miriam offered to take the girls Sunday, Sunday Night, and Monday so that we could work without interruption (and the girls could have more fun). We gratefully agreed to her generous offer and tried to work hard enough to have deserved it!After two and a half days of work, we now look like this! The inside wrap for the long beam is on, the four columns on the front of the porch are wrapped, Paul has the 1×8 trim mitred around the tops of all the columns, Paul has the plinth blocks made and applied to three of the four columns, I’ve got the siding applied to the sides 
of the lower door, and Chet has relocated and replaced the porch light.
I’m very happy with how it is turning out. We all think there is a little too much white right now, but we’ll see how it looks once all the siding is on. Now that the light is moved, we can continue installing the siding up the wall.
And look! Here is a photo from Jan 2, 2011. This is what the porch looked like a year ago today!
Here is a close up of the three columns Paul worked on today – he got the 1×8 wrap around all four columns and got the plinths up at the column / beam joint. We wasted about 1.5 hrs today trying to build these plinths out of the wrong material. I finally found a scrap of 2×8 redwood that we ripped to the right size for the plinths. Typical time-consuming detour. My fault for not having the right materials on hand.
You can also see the new light a little bit – you can see that it sits on a rectangular block. I made these blocks for the electrical outlets, and was trying to figure out how to make one big enough for the light out of materials on hand. I finally noticed the 2×8 redwood castoffs and 2×8-ish yellow cypress scraps in the basement. We used the cypress scrap to make a nice solid block for the light to sit against. When we get the siding up there, we’ll cut the siding in around the block and it will all look very tidy.
Joe visited on Saturday. He’s doing great and it was nice to see him. He worked on his bike a little and then pitched in doing some prep work on the house – priming screw holes.
He even let the girls “help” him out for a little bit. It was great having his help and even better to hear that he loves his job at Home Depot and is still doing well.
Its been a nice long weekend with lots of family around. Mom and Dad are here for a funeral, so we have their company most days. The girls love visiting them in the RV (it’s *warm* in there and Tata has *cookies* !!)
I like having family drifting in and out. Makes me wish we saw everyone much more often. Mom and Dad will be here till Sunday and then they take off to keep an appointment down south.
