Side wall of back porch finished: Check. (except for removing the doggie door, which will have to come later). Back wall of back porch finished: Check. No caveats. Yay! Other side wall of back porch… well, damn. That there wall is definitely not framed to code. No way, no how. The whole thing had to […]
Once the ceiling panels were gone, swapping out the plates & rotted studs didn’t take that long. The sheathing did, though. I used reclaimed exterior-grade plywood from Second Chance and it was heavy. 1″ might not seem like that much, but a full 8′ sheet of 1″ plywood is pretty much impossible for me to lift. I […]
Once the posts were replaced, all I had to do was remove the moldy sheathing and the studs that had rot problems. But before I could tackle replacing the base and top plates, I had to remove the ceiling panels. First step, take down light fixture. Hmmmmm. The porch light had been connected to the ceiling by […]
Ugh, you guys, I had been dreading working on the back porch for so long. Putting it off because frankly, it was out of my comfort zone – WAY out of my comfort zone. I can’t believe I didn’t get a better “before” picture, but the amount of termite damage rivaled what we found on […]
Because my guys ripped down all the house shingles a little earlier than I’d wanted them to, I needed to get the house covered up again as soon as I could. I got all the sheathing work done on the back and put a nice drip edge along the bottom to prevent the rain splash-up […]
Did I tell you I found a window for free? I knew I needed a new bathroom window because the window that was in the bathroom before, let into the porch. I thought that was a kind of weird arrangement… and really put a crimp in my plans to put the laundry in the porch. […]
So after the construction guys finished replacing joists, the new subfloor didn’t match up with the old. The last time he was here my carpenter pointed out that there was now a big dip in the middle of the bathroom floor – almost a full inch! While it didn’t stand out terribly, there was simply […]
You guys, I am so excited. Look what I scored on my most recent trip to Second Chance. That’s 12 whole boxes (20sf each) of brand-new in-box solid hardwood flooring. Each one of these would retail for around $75-$100 at any big-box store. Guess how much I paid? Never mind, you’ll never guess. Seven dollars each. SEVEN DOLLARS, GUYS. […]
Sunday Josh and I tackled the west side of the addition. So many colors of crappy old second-hand disintegrating asphalt-covered particleboard. Here’s a great idea: let’s take glorified sawdust panels that are already crumbling from moisture damage, wrap them in another layer of mostly waterproof material like a saran wrapped sandwich, and hide the whole mess under […]