Still working on porches....still

 So here's where we are on the porches. 

 He got all of the ends reinforced....

 And most of the wood decking has been laid.

 Now read carefully.....

first of all.....go to THIS POST about 7-8 pictures down and read the part where it starts out...."The other thing we have actually lost sleep over....."  

Then you will understand this part.

 So, if you look directly down at the corner of the deck in the above pic

 or on the end here, or look in the below pic, you see these three cement beam thingys (pylons?) that go into the ground.  I was here the day they were pouring these.  They are HUGE and long.

 And they are holding this up. 

 That, and these beams which are about to bust...

 If you look closely you can see the cracks and bends in them.  Yes, it is past time to get these porches done. 

 

If the porches go down, this entire end of the house goes down.  

And back to the big beam thingys, well one end settled 3/4 of an inch, as we suspected.  

Did you read the other post mentioned above? It explains it.

 That 3/4 of an inch probably explains this.....

And I've been priming and painting these bases and caps for columns.  One coat of prime, two coats of paint.  I had to move them all inside, because you are supposed to use oil based paint on them.  Well, the paint doesn't dry before the bugs and such get all over them and stick to the paint.  So after the second coat of paint, I had to sand all the bugs off.  Then apply the third coat.  I don't like the way they've turned out, and since I have this many more to go, I took the paint back (the unopened paint) and bought latex.  It's very complicated with the whole column thing. You have to prime the caps with XIM ($20.00 a quart) and then paint them, because they are plastic.  The columns are fiberglass, which require a different primer (cheaper) or you can sand them down.  If you sand the columns down, you can use latex.  If you don't sand them, you have to use oil.  Oil paint sucks.  (that is the blog authors opinion, and not necessarily the opinion of others!)  

Cindy

Prepping for porches

We are preparing to work on the front porches now.

 We've spent a long time....days...weeks actually....trying to find some composite decking that is the color we want for our balconies/porches/decks..whatever you want to call them.  We wanted the old-fashioned gray southern porch color. ( Or is it grEy?  A or E?) And I thought we found it.

 But we also found this wood color composite decking and we liked it too.  But the grey is traditional.  But wood is richer looking....but we want the southern porch look....I've been Pinteresting a lot of Southern Porches....

 Gray/Grey it is....then Saturday morning Dave woke up and said, "I slept on it, and we're going with wood decking.  I read about that decking last night and it's composed of plastic and sawdust, and they discourage you from cutting it.  I have to cut it to make it fit up around the doors.  the warranty is only for ten years, not a lifetime.  Our decking is under roof so the wood won't fade like most......waaah waaaah waaaaah."

 I couldn't believe that he was changing his mind after all of this time we spent looking!  Apparently this decking is 5 times more expensive than wood. 

 And we are wondering now why we didn't think to have the decks poured concrete, like the back one.  We weren't thinking about them at the time, that's why.  First step was to smooth out all of this dirt under the deck.  And to raise the porch level just a tad, on the east side, as it has 'settled' a bit.  Really?  Should we worry about that, since this porch is holding the entire East end of the house up. 

Back to porch prep.....Gather (purchase) supplies....

And to stand a column up, and second, third and fourth guess yourselves on whether it's the right size...too big...too small...how many do we need....

 Let me see.....one, two, three, four....5, 6, 7, 8...

 9, 10, 11, 12...two in the back....

 Do we need any on the sides of the balcony...

 And paint the framing gray (I'm going with A) color.

 And to add some braces to the other end of the deck because it never was done when the deck was framed.  Who knows why...

 And to make a trip out of town to buy more of these because the local supplier is out and won't get any more in until August 1.

 And have the big one when he rings one box of them up as $48.00 and you need.....how many.....let's see....14?...maybe more!  Good grief!

And now....maybe now....we can get started on one of the front porches.

Oh and I might add, that when my Shug unhooked the trailer from the truck, the trailer flew up and this hitch missed his nose a hair....peeps...I'm a little worried about him doing that upper balcony.

I am.

Cindy

Back Porch - Ta Daa! (almost)

 TAA DAAAA!  One done and three to go.  Remember the porch he started on about a month ago?  Well, we had some friends over for dinner, and one of them is in construction, and he pointed out that....

 

the columns were done wrong.  See the top of the column. Even after he finished covering the wood, the top of the column would still have a landing on it.  Which means birds will make nests there all the time.  And guess what...he was right.

 

And to fix it, Dave had to take the entire porch apart.  Everything had to come off again.  So he had to start completely over.  See it now..it's actually hard to see, but there isn't a place for birds to build nests.  I'll see if I can't get a better picture

 when I start painting columns.  Because once I paint the columns....

This porch will be completely finished!

Cindy