Fall

 

     Drill renail couple bad siding splits, replace missing front room wood grain linoleum temporarily patched siding piece (bare wood showing lower right), nickel job putty knife scrape reduce street side garage wall eye sore factor.  Might slobber with paint if appropriate materials materialize though garage requires major reworking.

Garage door only padlock secured remove nonfunctional old timey knob/striker

rudimentarily install keyed entry set,

striker plate, door stop molding further secure age/rot marginalized entry.

     Move on: disconnect front porch floor/walls from house, east porch wall first.

Remove recent renovation trim, weak 'handy board' composition siding find porch wall unsecured to house this side.

Replace siding/trim nail UNDER handy board siding - nails through composition material often damage siding upon removal -

result appears as prior.

Similar west wall endeavor allows removal single nail securing porch wall to house, imperceptible siding/trim replaced.  Rather than crawl under porch via west side entry to separate porch floor/house,

drill/saw both ends two composition boards next to house,

back out flooring screws.  Of course some strip.  Break one weak composition board attempting to pry over screws, drill hole next to stripped screw wonder bar pry board sideways break screws into holes,

up come reusable inconsequentially holed whole boards.  Remove dozen 3-1/2" flooring screws securing porch floor to house - free to raise here now.

Support board ends where sawn short of wall, broken piece doesn't align with joist - else might break under weight - replace minimally nailed.  Looks/functions almost as before.

Believe will rebuild floor foundation top level making it one step lower than door.

     Next logical step: separate back porch floor, walls from house.  Reticent turning back porch area construction zone open house looming go ahead anyway.  Pull/'lumberyard' stack floor Good Friday afternoon, remove multiple scabbed joist/ground supports leave collection cement blocks/slabs.

Yes: backyard tree root beelining under house.  It and friends will pass - apparently couldn't resist house interior power wash water.

My weight breaks one of only four original 16' 2x6 joists - pretty light construction.

Saturday work focused don't photograph 'til rotten supporting nothing west side back corner exterior siding/framing (rotten, breaks away behind stoop) removed, separate firewood/keepers, denail, 'lumberyard' stack (floor top shelf next to ceiling boards, siding below) good stuff,

wheelbarrow firewood to front porch, post supports corner.

String/nail plumb bob locate/level cement block on cement pad corner support; T 2x6/broken joist 2x6, 2x12 split foot; 20 ton jack roof from stoop; install post leave future stoop manipulation room.

Floor entirely gone, back wall final deconstruction piece.

Temporary stack blocks/brick back steps.  Sunday am first thing fall face to dirt negotiating - bruised wrist only harm done.  So it goes!  Experimental pallet landing soon.

New configuration more headroom.

Sunday am remove back wall siding,

from east stoop jack roof (orange 20 ton jack atop scrap braced 2x6), framing encouraged falls away.

Vertically locate/level 12"x12"x6" slab found under porch back wall center, corner support; T 2x6/broken joist 2x6, 2x12 cap/foot; raise roof; install post.

Views out back sink window,

back door expansive/open old porch gone.

The way it'll look for a while.  Trapped steel unconnected washer drain (below left of hose) pulled right out of the ground.  Move couple half ton stoops back door adjacent all need done! 

Gorgeous spring evening bike ride to clan Easter ham bake - full spring day!  Further planting awaits waxing moon, dry few days water kale, beet, kohlrabi, radish, lettuce, mustard, rutabaga, turnip seedlings.  Rogue wind levels gate again: beef 'er up, put 'er back to work.  Test ancient monolith persuasion skills (?!) soon:  it'll be here.  Peace. 

Back End

     Detailed record primarily reminds huge effort Swett Lodge requires encouraging second thought should another gargantuan task appeal.  Get fix the place up kicks though: find myself thinking another property manageable - careful!
     Curious, string level line back door molding to front.  Surprised it's no worse: floor drops off three inches six feet from front door rises one inch near stove, stays two inches low to back door.

String level line middle bedroom east wall to west front room wall: from center (hall door) drops one inch to both outside walls.

Middle bedroom mop board area so rotten nail taught string holding board to window sill.

Expect much greater than found one inch floor drop west front corner to hall door with 1-1/2" dip midway along line.  Seems outer walls rotted/settled fairly evenly, mid beams even more.  Floor system analysis soon to come.

   
    Glue/TP 25' each second radish batch/neighbor donated cylindrical beet seed tapes,

plant in row bedded next to carrot row/mound.

Strawberries - same neighbor donation - happy under eave garlic interplanted radishes coming along front of 'em where gnarly stump ruled.

 

Hang gossamer thread pea trellis extensions.  Eat mustard greens soon.  BIG garden news this week: red Russian kale up!

     Front porch roof stays, want to disconnect porch floor/walls from house raise prior.  Back few screws out intending to remove wall adjacent faux wood (recent porch renovation) floor plank, find porch walls built on top of floor - discontinue project 'til another time.  After consideration believe will cut floor plank shy of walls either end, pull one/two planks, remove porch floor/house fasteners; remove exterior porch siding - leave strengthening wall interior plywood intact, take out wall/house fasteners rather than deconstruct/rebuild everything porch at this point.

     

     On to back porch.  First job: remove old electrical setup

results in batch of discardable electrical gear except for flex conduit/fittings, second box from left black 220V outlet attached - will become water heater shutoff;

glimpse of Swett Lodge past.  Been some interesting colors - pink, ivory, yellow, green - believe rich yellow under boxes was primer.

Think porch initially appeared like this: three white posts (two natural colored posts not original retained for safety), no glass, sill 4" lower, corner trim (lately removed) - of course no moss/aging.  Replacement setup will be original porch reminiscent sans walls with new lower floor configuration.

Remove stub wall next to old electrical setup, interior back wall siding.  White board nailed into stub wall pocket covering revealed stud space.  

 Porch ceiling (east)

(west) next objective.  Remove gable end siding, back wall below ceiling siding piece (east)

(west) reveal 4x6 bottom stringer supports porch roof which will allow temporarily keep leak free porch roof post supported both ends while remove/rework walls/floor under cover (intended to hang tarp).

 

Ceiling, exterior gable end siding removed (east);

(west) - 4x6 roof bottom stringer visible.

High quality (NOT) original workmanship evident in original porch framing - near rafter scabbed, far one married and these are less than 10' 2x4s - reminiscent of something a cheapo like myself might do!   :)

Remove west wall interior siding - always  clean up end of day not knowing when return visit will happen,

 relocate braided cloth protected wired lamp to side wall - if good here

$.50 ReStore over sprayed glass scraped clean lamp finalize later,

moisture protect electrical connections, ceases back porch work probably 'til after planned open house during Char Walters May third week visit.

 

Neighbor donates ostensibly fire wood dimensional lumber bunch sticker/stack in case of need 

Lumber yard filling.  Not sure why one wouldn't recycle: small amount of time (denail, wire brush, sweep each board) saving back porch ceiling nets valuable 8 16' - (photo top right) black wire from rafters supporting this end - & shorter top shelf stack pieces paint one side pretty good shape tongue & groove car siding.  Might make nice wainscoting some where or ???  Rarely have to cut pieces - take tape measure to 'lumberyard' locate appropriate sized board.

     Expect to continue disconnecting front porch walls/floor from house next, seed to get in: spring's here, feeling plenty to do.   Peace