Welcome Home

When we first moved into this house more than three years ago, I was thrilled by my new front porch. It's a big porch with room for a rocker and a lovely view of the green neighborhood. But the house is more than 80 years old, and I quickly came to discover that some of the porch floorboards were in dubious condition. A number of previous efforts to patch the weak spots had now reached the end of their usefulness. A substantial renovation was in order and planned for the summer of 2006.

Renovation was placed on hold when I found myself a single parent. For a time, I found daily life more than enough to occupy my free time. But this spring, as the weak spots grew more pressing (literally), and as my father persuaded me that someone could get hurt on my porch, the renovations began.

There are no before pictures, but the porch was so worn at the top of the steps that I was reluctant to stand on it for long. The first step was to remove the worst of the broken boards and assess the situation.
A temporary cover was put in place. It says a great deal about the poor condition of the floor that the temporary cover was already a massive improvement, if not particularly nice to look at.
Once we determined the extent of the damage and that the foundation remained secure, my carpenter and I developed a plan: about one-third of the boards would be replaced by new mahogany lumber. The pillars would be jacked up and the front joist replaced. The side railing that faced to the west would be removed and replaced as was the floor joist below that; the eastern railing would be repaired. The work was spread over a few weekends in the late spring, but M the carpenter was an exacting repairman and his work was simply first-rate.

It was my job to sand the new boards and the older section for a full-scale painting of the porch. Both the new and old sections received two coatings of porch paint. I also took on the task of painting the new railings. JT helped out with some of the tough spots that could only be painted from the flowerbed (perfect for a short workforce). I gave the paint plenty of time to cure and was blessed by some first-rate dry summer weather.

This past weekend, I finished the last of the touch-up painting and bought some new flower baskets to hang out front. The old rocker is back on the porch; I may re-finish it this fall. I still want to find a nice big outdoor rug to help protect the new flooring. But these are small projects that are easy to manage; the hard work is done. In the meantime, I've earned the right to have a long set in the old rocker and enjoy the view from my new front porch.
Meetings for school start today and soon enough we'll be in the thick of things. The refurbished porch will be a welcoming place when I come home each afternoon, encouraging a little relaxation at the end of the day. I am generally house proud. And this porch, which features a good deal of labor from my hands, really makes my heart soar.