Rebuilding the 2nd floor porch

Well it's been another month since I last posted again... Things have been quite busy. Since the last post I've finished up the Airstream and then sold it, and then bought a boat.

That doesn't mean that there hasn't been any work done on the house though. I finally finished up the privacy fence in the back yard but I forgot to upload the pictures to my server so I cant get to them here at work. I'll post a few pictures in my next post. This last area (about 175') was the hardest to do because there are a lot of large old trees right along the property line and of course a 6' chain-link fence right up against where I put the privacy fence.

I know I was supposed to make some follow-up posts on all the other work done but I wasn't happy with the pictures and still haven't gotten around to taking more.

The other big project I've been working on is the second floor porch. This has been an eyesore since day one. We ripped the roof off last month and that helped but the deck was in really bad shape not to mention that it wasn't centered on the house and altered the pitch of the porch roof in front of it.

So this weekend I got to work. First I tore off the old plywood decking. This was pretty tough since they used about 5000 nails to hold it all down. Once the plywood was up there was of course another floor underneath it. this floor was old tongue & groove board:

I pulled up all the board and found another layer underneath. Under all the rotted leaves and dirt is a layer of tin followed by 1x6 boards.

I measured back to the point where I wanted the new deck to end then cut the tin off at that point:

Then I pulled off all the 1x6 boards in the same area:

I then removed the tin, 1x6's and joists from the left side of where the new deck will be:

The next morning I removed the siding from the front of the house and installed the roof trusses:

In the above picture you'll notice the 2x6 floor joists in front of where the deck is, these joists are holding up the deck but they need to be removed to restore the original pitch of the roof. What I did was to run pressure treated 2x6's alongside the old 2x4 ceiling joists then nailed 2x4 support braces between the 2x6 floor joists and the 2x6 pressure treated joists. I was then able to cut down the 2x6's to the length of the deck:

Then I ran the roof trusses in front of the deck:

Then I installed 3/4 plywood sheathing:


Yesterday afternoon I laid the felt down:


We've decided that the new deck is too wide so this afternoon I'm going to shorten it by 2 feet on either side. This shouldn't take too long to do then I can start laying the shingles. I also need to add beadboard to the exposed sides of the roof and of course add aluminum flashing to everything. Once all that is done I need to put down some type of weatherproofing for the deck then install 1x6 decking over it. Then I can install the railing.

Progress!! Painting the house

After a long break we have finally resumed work on the house. We are making our final push towards completing it once and for all.

Saturday morning I rented a 4000psi pressure washer and pressure washed the entire house. Surprisingly it only took about 4 hours. The house was really dirty and there was a lot of peeling paint.

After pressure washing we went and bought the paint, we had the colors we wanted picked out for about 2 weeks now. The colors we chose were Homestead Resort Pale Olive for the main color and Churchill white something or other for the trim. It has a slight yellow tint to it. Both are from the Historic Preservation collection from Valspar.

Here is a before picture of the house:

Here are a few shots after pressure washing:


On Saturday afternoon we were able to paint the front first floor of the house. I decided not to use the paint gun for the front of the house simply because of overspray and having to put drop cloths down. Instead I'm using a 4" brush.

This is a good before and after shot:


Sunday we painted the front second floor in between the storms and the race but we were able to finish the entire front of the house. The area above the porch was a bit difficult to get at first because the porch roof is a hip roof so I couldnt put a ladder on it.

I solved the problem by duct tapping a 4" brush at a 45 degree angle to the end of an extension pole. It really worked great, I was able to paint the area almost as fast as if I were painting with the brush alone. I've begun painting all the higher up places with this instead of having to constantly move a ladder.


Here is the front of the house all painted:


I will be removing the second floor porch roof sometime this week and then I'll finish painting the fascia and soffit in that area.

We're not quite sure what to do with the first floor porch paint-wise. I hate that the brick is painted, because of that I'll probably paint it with a brick red color. I saw a color at Lowes a while back that is very close to brick color. The railings are painted a very light cream color right now. We're not sure if we should paint the porch columns and fascia that color or with our trim color that is on the rest of the house. Suggestions...?

I'm going to have to rent scaffolding for the sides of the house. I have an extension ladder but I get really nervous on the thing that high up.

Oh, and for those of you who may not have noticed the new link in the sidebar we just bought a 1969 Airstream Sovereign 31'. I'll be restoring it soon. Here is a link to the blog I'll be keeping of the restoration: http://69airstream.blogspot.com/