Porch Painting Progress

Lately, we've had a renewed zeal for home improvement (ha!) and some cooperative weather, so we've been tackling some of those outdoor projects we've otherwise put off for too long. In particular, we've paid a lot of attention to our porches. If you'll recall, we reconstructed both our back porch and our front porch last year. Our contractor used treated lumber for all of our new framing, so we had to wait a bit for the wood to cure before painting. After staring at raw, unfinished wood for a year, we decided* enough was enough and it was time to pretty things up a bit.

*Okay, by "we" I mean "Kendra." She seriously kicked me in my butt to get back aboard the home improvement bandwagon. I have spent the last year content with the current state of the Country Estate, which I would describe as thoroughly adequate. She, on the other hand, is always planning the next move--which is not a bad thing--and has no contentment with "thoroughly adequate." I've had my come-to-Jesus moment, though, and am back to work and fired up to get things done around the house. Until Mizzou football season starts, anyway.

While we haven't quite finished the painting on the porches, we are making solid progress. Some of the painting on the back porch will have to wait to accommodate our new garden, but we should knock out the bulk of it by next weekend. Here is a shot of the stairs and decking leading down to the patio:


Everything in white is newly painted. Okay, I know that doesn't look like much, but it is a pain to paint those damn spindles, and I'm glad that job is done. We will be painting the steps and floor a red color to match our front porch, which, by the way, now looks like this:


I just realized we didn't get a good "before" shot of the front porch, but let me tell you--there is a huge difference between now and then. Most of the stone columns you see in the picture above were buckling out, causing major structural issues. Due to this issue--or perhaps causing it--there was a giant hole in the ground under the porch, which I'm sure just pooled water, causing more movement, and further destabilizing the area. I'm no structural engineer, but that's my theory and it makes sense to me. To remedy the situation, our contractor propped up the porch roof with lumber, and then tore out the rest of the porch structure. He cleaned and re-laid the stones, rebuilt the frame under the floor (which was pretty well rotted and bounced when you tried to walk on it), and replaced/reused the old floorboards. He also filled in the hole under the porch to get water away from the house. The result is a porch that is structurally sound, safe to walk on, and pleasing (we think) to look at. Last week, after the powerwashing, we were able to finish painting the raw wood. Now, all that's left is to put on some lattice around the bottom and plant a few shrubs. We're crossing our fingers to get that finished by the end of July.

An Unexpected Christmas Gift

I posted last week about the winter storm that hit Missouri. This past weekend, we were hit with another round of ice and snow. Undeterred, we managed to make the trek up to Lathrop and work on the kitchen. That, however, is the subject of another day; this post concerns the generosity of new friends.

Earlier in the week, I received an email from our new insurance agent, Aaron Greer. Aaron is about my age, and is one of the few people Kendra and I know in Lathrop (along with our neighbors to the north, Rachel and Emma, who introduced themselves a couple weeks ago--but now I'm getting sidetracked). Apart from getting us a good price on our auto and home policy, Aaron is someone I've grown to rely on for letting me know the ins and outs of the Lathrop community.

Anyway, Aaron sent me an email to let me know that the ice storm hadn't caused too much damage to the trees at the country estate. He did mention that one tree did have some broken limbs. I replied that I hoped it was the ugly, drooping tree by the porch; Kendra and I had planned to have that cut down anyway. I went about my merry way the rest of the week, and didn't think much of the conversation--other than to realize how fortunate it is to have someone keeping on eye on our place.

Then, when Kendra and I arrived at the house on Saturday, we saw a pickup truck in the yard, and a man with a chainsaw doing violent things to the hated tree blocking the front porch.


That's Aaron on the right, dressed appropriately for the weather and the work at hand; and that's me on the left, dressed like a damn city boy.

After a couple hours work in the freezing temperatures, Aaron got the tree down and graciously hauled off the remains. Kendra and I were thrilled to have one of our "problems" eliminated by the generosity of someone who has known us for less than three months. The kindness of those in small towns was one of the reasons prompting our move in the first place, and it was nice to have that decision validated, at least in a small way.

Here is a "before" shot; notice the tree on the left side of the frame:
The tree doesn't look terribly intrusive in the photo, but it looked 100x worse in real life. It was ugly, it blocked the view from the porch, and it did not frame the house well from the street. Here is the house after the removal of the offending tree:

Much better, at least in our opinions.

So Aaron, if you are reading this, thanks again. We owe you big time.

Porch Problems

One of the big issues with the house is the front porch--it looks like it could collpase at any minute. The condition of the porch was flagged during our inspection. We foregoed (forewent? What's the right word here?) having a structural engineer inspect before buying because...well, I can't remember why. Because we are cheap? Because it was a calculated risk? Because we wanted the house anyway, I guess.

After we closed, our biggest concern was that the front porch was a symptom of a bigger structural problem. If we just needed to rebuild the porch, we were prepared to handle that. But, if it turned out that the porch was falling off because the whole freakin' front of the house was falling, too, then we'd have some problems. Our worst-case scenario involved us driving up to the house and seeing something like this:

On Sunday, we had an engineer come to inspect the house. Thankfully, it looks like the porch itself is the only issue. It will be a complete rebuild, but that is something that we were planning on anyway. The rest of the house looks to be structurally sound, with only some minor repair needed to the foundation. And, since the inspection was done by a family member, the price was right (thanks Mike).