The fun of home remodeling

With a house that turned 115 years old this year, it is inevitable that there will be the need for repairs and remodeling. This year we ended up going (relatively) big on that front.

For years we mulled over what to do with our enclosed three-season porch. It had windows in it from the 1940s or earlier. The foundation was sinking and the fact that it sits (sat) at the front of our home made the rest of the large, white rectangular house look rather shitty.

This year, though, we pulled the trigger and  started assembling the materials we would need to basically tear down all but the roof of the old porch and rebuild it from the ground up. I scored a truckload of clearance vinyl windows from Menards. My parents had a truckload of 2x4s, 2x6s and plywood from a temporary wall liner they had built many years ago in their machine shed to store a bumper crop of corn. The rest, though, came from an extensive and ever-changing plan and a few trips to Menards. Another truckload of insulation, plywood, a door and dimensional lumber would build the bulk of the structure.

After an entire day of digging by hand and swinging sledgehammers inside relatively confined holes we were ready to pour the concrete pads on which the 6x6 posts would sit and provide the support for the new structure.

Next up was removing the existing walls and floor while propping up the existing roof at the same time. The construction of the new floor went surprisingly fast and so did boxing in the underside of the new floor joists with treated plywood so the new floor could be insulated. Along with these steps came wiring for an exterior light on the front of the new porch and running yet more wire for the eventual installation of electric baseboard heat.

Insulation went into the existing ceiling and the 1940s-era beadboard went back up. The home's first housewrap went on making this new piece of construction the best built piece of the house yet. Windows were installed and made weatherproof on the exterior. Vapor barrier went on after I insulated the walls and next up was the drywall.

On the exterior we installed new Cedar siding and sleek new trim harkening back to the simplicity of the original house built in 1899. I even went the extra mile and matched the existing wood drip cap installed above the rim board on the original house making the new porch look like a well-maintained original piece of the house.

The lengthiest portion of this project, though, has been painting. This 20-foot tall two-story home has a ton of surface area and trim. Using a total of three colors maintains the character but makes painting a straight up pain in the ass. While the wife tackles what she can from the ground and using a step ladder or two, I perilously cling to my trusty extension ladder and paint the upper story of the home's siding, soffits and window trim. And with changing the colors from white (siding) and blue and red/pink (window trim), much of the house requires two coats of paint. Having already gone through 13 gallons of paint and a trip to Menards for another gallon or two, the paint alone is costing us a small fortune.

With most of the garage left to paint, the two way-too-high-up dormers, hardwood floors to install and stain, a ton of interior window trim to cut, paint and install and new front steps to build; this project seems to have no end. I look forward to working on projects like this because it's not a part of my day job but I am looking forward to seeing the end of this one because after two-plus months, I just want to experience some summer weather that doesn't involve me on a ladder until 9 PM every night of the week.

Reverb10: Make

December 6 – Make. What was the last thing you made? What materials did you use? Is there something you want to make, but you need to clear some time for it? (Author: Gretchen Rubin)

Building and creating things with my own two hands is something I love to do. (At least that's what I get out of today's prompt) It keeps me from being technology fatigued in my daily life as a graphic designer and keeps me tied to my roots growing up on the family farm. In 2008 I built a rather impressive swing/play set for my then six month old daughter using a large truck load of lumber, a circular saw and two drills. The amazing thing is that it only took me about twelve hours of my own time and some help from my next door neighbor to move the large tower in to place.

My next project -- in terms of construction -- is to reconstruct my 111 year-old home's front porch. It looks to have been added in the late 1940s or early 1950s -- around the same time as the rear addition of the house and is showing its age. I hope to make it a more livable space as it is currently only usable from late April through early October. It sat mostly unused for the first few years of owning the house but has since become my daughter's favorite place to play while still indoors. At two years old, her toys have become a fixture in the porch -- sharing space with some porch-worthy furniture.

I want this space to be an almost four-season space. New, better-insulated windows, insulation in the ceiling, walls and floor; not to mention a better, more solid foundation, inviting front steps and a period-appropriate front door. It is the one thing most lacking about the home's exterior and I can envision actually using it. Whether it's playing there more often with my daughter, working on the laptop as birds chirp just outside the windows or watching snow fall as we sit, as a family, playing some simple board game. This project will be my largest yet but I know it will happen in the next two years. That's my goal and my goals happen.

Work as a vacation

Sometimes, after a particularly grueling weekend, working the old 9 to 5 (or, in my case, around 8 to whenever) can seem refreshing, almost like a vacation. This entire week will seem that way. Those who know me more personally than most readers here know that I have been contemplating the bathroom remodeling project since April when we bought literally a truckload of tile. As of Saturday, November 17th, it became very real that we were going to actually do the remodeling project as we gutted the bathroom down to the ramshackled studs and haggard lath that backed the plaster.

We found plenty of surprises behind those walls that had remained untouched for almost 110 years and some rather interesting approaches to construction which included studs which were nothing more that two-foot chunks of wood stacked on each other and electrical wiring which didn't actually make a complete circuit but mysteriously worked until we added the second switch for the light/fan combination which turned out to be the straw which broke the camel's back.

Friday morning, though, things started to be put back together. We started with four hours of electrical wiring. All told, I now hate the very insulation I put in my attic only two years ago because it's dusty and is a pain to move when adding more electrical wiring.

Sure, it sounds boring on the outside but I am amazed at the shear amounts of dust that come from cutting cement backer board and I can't wait for more dust from the impending drywall mudding and sanding that I'll be getting done this week so we can paint next weekend and install tile the following weekend which will allow us to get back to life as normal as possible. I know I can't wait and I have a feeling that the missus is even more eager than I am.