Hurricanes on the (Finished) Porch

When I think of the title of this post, I picture me sitting on my fancy new porch, in a comfy chair, with the breeze from our ceiling fans cooling my skin, while sipping on a tall glass of a strong, delightfully fruity drink while reminiscing about my vacation to New Orleans.  I picture neighbors walking their dogs and saying hello while children ride their bikes up and down the street, yelling about whose house they'll be going to next.

Unfortunately, my last week was nothing at all like what I described above.  If you live anywhere in the US (and probably anywhere overseas) you've most definitely heard about the destruction and devastation that Hurricane Sandy brought to the Northeastern United States, in particular New York City and New Jersey.

It was a doozy (yeah, I really said "doozy") of a storm - I know because I was working throughout, and, for the first time in my life, I was actually a little bit scared by the weather.  Seriously, I don't know how the residents of Florida and all the Caribbean Islands do it year after year - hurricanes are NO JOKE!!!  The flooding alone was devastating enough - but the winds are really what got my attention.  There was one point during the storm that I was inside a building, but could hear debris and roof-top mounted equipment being whipped around by the wind...and actually witnessed something hitting an overhead window panel and break the glass.  We managed to clear an entire floor of people in less than 15 seconds.  Thankfully nobody was hurt, but, there was a point where I wasn't quite sure if I was actually going to survive the storm.  There was another instance when I was in a car trying to locate an electrical substation in a parking lot that was in the process of flooding.  I opened the driver's door to get out of the car and was almost pulled out of the car because the wind whipped the car door open so fast and I wasn't expecting it.  I'm telling you people, it was serious.

There are many people out there who have lost everything they own - their homes, cars, clothes, everything!  If you are wondering where to donate, here's an ABC website with lots of links to organizations that are accepting donations: http://abcnews.go.com/US/hurricane-sandy-victims/story?id=17598687#.UJlTkm-QMuc

Thankfully, I'm one of the lucky ones who only sustained very minor damage to my home and was without power for a few days - my biggest complaint about the storm is having to throw away the melted ice cream that was in my freezer after holding onto it a few days in the vain hope that it would somehow be salvaged by the return of power.

As I've been updating this on a non-regular basis, it turns out that Greg and I did manage to finish our front porch project - literally the Friday before the storm hit (on Sunday).  We even hung up the mailbox and our house number to make our completion official.  We were both a tiny bit worried that the storm was going to damage our front porch masterpiece somehow.  Thankfully, our worries were all unfounded.

Here's a picture of our front porch, taken the Saturday before the storm.  Today, it looks pretty much the same except that the leaves have all blown off the roof and are now in a giant pile in front of our house on the curb.  Someday, when the weather is warmer and the threat of nasty weather is still a few months out on the calendar, I plan to actually enjoy a hurricane on my front porch...and I don't mean the weather kind!

Not So Pretty-ish Pictures

So, here's some pictures of what our house looks like decorated for Halloween and with the belgian block bordering the "gardens."  Please forgive the copious amounts of leaves that are littering the front porch, they cannot be stopped...I know, I've tried!  Not the best quality pictures as they were taken on a grayish morning using our phone cameras, but hopefully you get the idea.  We'll be installing lattice in the gaping holes this weekend...and actually cementing the block into place.  Hopefully we'll get our mailbox and house number installed also.  Then we should be good to go minus filling in that garden to the right of the stairs...see how badly it slopes off?  It needs fill....STAT!

And, now that I'm looking at these, I think mums on both sides of the steps would give it some more symmetry, and make my engineering-oriented brain feel that all is better in the world.  Guess I'll be going to the store to buy some mums tonight!

Enjoy the pics :)

The Benefits of Being a Cheap-o and Other Such Nonsense

This past weekend Greg and I were outside doing some major work on our front porch - or - I should say - in front of our house.  We also did lots of much needed yard work in preparation for the onslaught of falling leaves that consumes our weekends in the fall.  It was a very physically active weekend - and I'm paying the price for it today.  I should have taken a picture of our accomplished work, but, frankly, my arms were too tired to lift a camera last night.  *Side-note: they weren't too tired to lift a few beers, which were delicious - and, besides, I have priorities people!*

On the up side, we started a project that basically cost us nothing to do, but which adds some much needed structure to the front of our house.

Our town did a lot of roadway reconstruction this past summer - which included ripping out all of the Belgian  block curb.  Thankfully, our next door neighbor works for the town, and we found out that the contractor wasn't going to re-use the block, just take them to a construction debris landfill for disposal.  So, being the good environmental stewards we are (and, because we are also *ahem* cheap bastards) we dragged nearly 40 blocks from a nearby street to our house.  And, yes, we did the move using the trunks of our sedans.  Needless to say we had to drive SUPER SLOW to avoid bumper detachment.  But, boy, was it worth it!  Those suckers are expensive!  Some online research shows that each block can be roughly $5 a pop - which, OK, wouldn't have been a HUGE impact to our overall porch renovation budget, but still, saving $200 on anything makes me smile a lot these days.

Anyway, yesterday, we dug out our "flower beds" in front of our porch and re-lined one side with belgian block.  The other side will also be re-lined, but we have to get some dirt to fill in that bed since it's literally too low and needs to be filled in to look appropriately proportioned to the front of the house.

Regardless, the side that is done (the one adjacent to our driveway) looks really great.  Greg really likes it, and has said numerous times that he wants to plant stuff in the garden to make it look more picturesque!  He's right, it will look more presentable with some kind of flowers or something installed - not sure what we're going to do there yet - but Greg wants to plant some mums for the time being just to give our front some color and more curb appeal.  We'll see.  Greg got all the framing for the lattice installed yesterday - a b*tch of a job if you ask me - but we'll be able to install lattice this coming weekend, which will really make our front look more done than it has looked ever.

We also have some mums sitting on our steps and all our porch furniture is sitting outside, and we're more or less decorated for Halloween.  Our neighbor (the same one who works for the town) told us yesterday that our house is starting to look like it belongs in Better Homes and Gardens.  Which I was totally flattered by.  I LOVE that magazine, and actually get a lot of really great inspiration on everything from decorations to recipes in there - and I can't wait to start mining it for garden ideas!

It was a pretty productive weekend, but, like I said, I'm paying the price.  My back is literally groaning every time I get up and out of my chair, and my arms are kind of shaky from all the block lifting and moving.  I'll have to get a picture up here soon so that I can enjoy the fruits of my labor and share them with you!

Railings! We have RAILINGS!!!

And gutters - we have them too!  All new and improved -- with gutter guards to keep all the pesky leaves and falling debris out so that we don't have to clean them out so often.  Take THAT oak trees!

Light at the End of the Tunnel

The front of our house is FINALLY starting to look somewhat normal.  It's been a long road, but at least we're progressing!  Here's a view of the front from this past Saturday evening.  It was still a bit warm outside, and, since we had connected the fans, Greg and I decided to pull out our camp chairs and enjoy a beer on our porch, with the slight breeze of the fans cooling down our overworked and very weary selves.

And, this is an up-close picture of Greg, enjoying his much deserved beer.  Isn't he cute???

On Sunday we did a lot of work, but the house didn't look much different - we had to sand and paint the PVC trim on the interior part of the porch (which took forever, but looks much better now in person than it did on Saturday).  We also had to re-hang the shutters on the second floor because, although not noticeable in the above picture, the shutter on the right side was actually a bit crooked, and had to come all the way down to be put back up again (hooray for doing work twice - ugh!).  I also had to touch-up paint the shutters downstairs, because some parts got chipped during the installation process.  

We decided how we're going to trim the columns and got one base moulding cut to size, but we didn't install it yet.  So, we still have to get that done, then install the railings, then add lattice in frames below the porch to finish off our project.  I'm sure it will all take longer than I'd like it to, but I'm really happy that our house is finally starting to look cute.  Maybe by Halloween we'll be ready for Trick or Treaters without worrying that they will hurt themselves on construction debris to get to our front door.  Fingers crossed everyone!!!

I See a White Door and I Want to Paint it...RED!!!!

So, a few weeks ago, I posted a picture of our completed decking and skirting.  Since then, I got a chance to paint our shutters and our door to give our house a bit more curb appeal.

Before:

Notice the dingy, boring door that oh so nonchalantly blends right in with the columns.

Porchity-Porch-Porch PoRcH PORCH!!!!

Ahhh...I haven't talked about how we're doing with our porch renovation since June.  That's almost a lifetime in renovation years!  We are getting very close to the end/final touches part of the work - which is actually my favorite time since I finally get to see how things will really look.  I have some pictures from roughly 2-3 weeks ago, and since then even we've completed more stuff.  Here's where we were around the middle of August:

We got the decking laid down and the columns wrapped in white.  We also took down the old siding.  In the below pics, you'll see the new siding mostly complete (although there's still some upper siding work to be done.)

Porch Progress

Lots has happened on our front porch since my last post related to our renovation.  Greg and I have spent pretty much every weekend working on the dang thing, but at least we're making progress.  Totally worth it, right??

Here's a picture from last weekend, sometime on Saturday evening when we had finished installing roughly 60% of the deck joists (notice the nicely re-faced and re-supported piers that the framing is resting on -- those were a bear and took a lot of time, making it look like we had made no progress for several weeks).  Also, you can't see it too well here, but we also re-surfaced the exterior concrete foundation wall that is below the porch, and also replaced the window that lets us see out under the porch from our laundry room area.

Renovation Nation

Since we bought our house in 2009, the front has looked kind of like the picture below.  OK, so we re-did the roof, and it's a bit darker now.  We've also gotten rid of most of the small bushes around the front, and the large tree limb hanging down across the front yard was cut down to let in some sunshine.

Even with these minor changes, the front of our house leaves a lot to be desired.  Honestly, I have never been a fan of our screened in porch.  Some people (ie. my in-laws and my grandmother) seemed pretty fond of it - and tried convincing me more than once to consider keeping it intact.  But the awkwardly large roman-esque columns seemed very out of place for our small, relatively simple bungalow-style house, and if I was taking those down, I was definitely NOT going to keep the screen.  Yes, it can be argued that screens are good for deterring critters, but really, all it did for me the past three years was make hanging Christmas lights on the house a challenge (which I won by simply cutting an access hole in the screen, therefore rendering the critter shield pretty much useless).  But I digress (as usual).

Ever since we moved in I've been telling Greg that we need to renovate the front completely, open up the porch, and give our home a little bit of curb appeal.

Longest Day...Ever

Today is moving slower than molasses being poured from a jar in the middle of January.  So...left to my own devices, I have started looking at tons of webpages to find inspiration for my house.  Specifically the kitchen.  Which isn't horrible, but needs some little touches to make it more like something we would have chosen had we actually designed and installed stuff ourselves.  Basically, it needs some lots of pizzazz.  Here's some pictures of what it looked like when we bought the house:

This is what you saw when you walked into the kitchen from the dining room.
Take note of the awesome border, window treatments, green laminate counters, and sweet clock.

And this is the view from standing with your back to the window.
The border really stands out in this picture.  And makes me so grateful for the work we've done so far!