Update on Front Porch

Mike came down on Thursday, June 24th, and got up early on Fri to finish demolishing the concrete and posts off the top of the front porch!! Hurray it is getting done! He really liked the new jack hammer, lighter, smaller and easier to handle! Then Tommy and Cherie came down Friday night and Tommy and the other boys attacked the rest of the porch the early Saturday morning. Dad took off early to check out if we could dump the debris off at a man's house who lives along the road to the Broome Co. Landfill. He said yes!!! Hurray!! Saved us $250 that it would have cost to use the land fill. Tommy was having so much fun with the jack hammer that the boys had to keep begging to get a turn,!! LOL!!! Zach took a turn first while Matt and Dan helped me refill the truck. Sorry, I was so busy keeping the work flowing that no pictures were taken of Tommy and Zach using the jack hammer. :(


Matt had a ball using the jack hammer!!!! What a hard worker he is!!! Thanks Matt!!




At first Dan thought he would not be able to use the jack hammer, but once he did, He couldn't get enough of it!! Thanks Dad for all your help!!






While Zach and I took the debris to be dumped, Matt and Dan shoveled the fine debris under the enclosed portion of the porch. Now the cement foundation is ready to start the renovation for the new porch!! Thanks for all the great help guys!!

Monday, Tommy and Cherie too the Mustang home on a rented car carrier pulled by Cherie's father's vehicle, which was powerful enough to pull it.

The following Saturday, July 3rd, Dad and I got to work shoring up the floor of the enclosed porch and repairing the water damage.

HOW DO YOU SAY CRAMPED WORKING SPACE!!!!

One of the reasons the floor of the enclosed porch was weak was the poor construction method, which was used. The support boards were too long and gave when the floor was stepped on. Also the single cross beam for those long boards was cracked. To add stability to the long boards, we installed 2 cross beams and attached them to each board under the porch. Then, we added a brace to the cracked area of the original cross beam. What a difference!! No more shaking of anything on the porch!!!

After shoring up the floor, we added a new face board, support beams down the sides of the opening, support behind the stucco on the right side and a new foot board on the bottom. Now it is ready for the new steps and landing!!

Saturday, July 10
At first we thought to make the posts the same height as the deck in the back of the house, but the symmetry was all wrong for the height of the enclosed porch. so we pulled the frame out and cut the posts shorter and the front left post was cut completely level with the floor as the original porch was. Much Better!!! Finally we added another post to the right side for a stair rail and the floor support joists. Now for the steps and flooring!!

Saturday, July 17th
I had a blast using the drill to screw in the decorative screws into the recycled plastic flooring!!!! My skills at using power tools is increasing, just not as fast as Tom and probably never will be. LOL!! But that is fine with me. :) It as fun working together on this project!!!

Next step the railing along the steps and around the top, and lattice around the bottom to keep little ones safe on top and out from under the bottom.

Today we got an estimate on insulating the under portion of the enclosed porches, both front and back. It was a reasonable price, so we will pursue it further.