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Well we had a short reprieve from rain today so Ryan and I got started on our porch project, replacing the supports under the porch so we can raise it up a little (it was really tilted on one side).  It did rain a bit but it was a light rain.

By lunch we had braved the jacking up/replacing supports and gotten the back corner and side done – it was nerve racking!  We also put in some reinforcements along the way.

After lunch (and another trip to home depot) we moved onto the front corner – this was pretty nerve racking because there was some pretty extensive carpenter ant damage in the corner, so we put a few more supports in than what was there originally.  The side is still not level but it’s much better than before.

As we moved on to the front of the porch, we didn’t plan to raise it up much in the front, just replace any supports that needed it.  However as we removed the wood we found TONS of carpenter ant damage – the wood is just rotting away.

Here are some pictures of the damage:

Now we have a little more work than originally planned.  First off we bought some ant/termite killer and sprayed the porch down.  Then we’ll have to replace the completely rotted wood and reinforce a lot more of the porch than we planned.  Unfortunately it’s raining again right now and supposed to rain again tomorrow.

So while we hoped to be done with the reinforcements today and on to putting in the new decking we bought – we now have another day to spend working on the underside of the porch.  Maybe by Friday we can start putting the decking on 🙁

It’s going to be a long week if we also want to get to working on the siding/window panels!  We got the wood to get started on them but now we just need the time.  I guess we needed 2 weeks off instead of just 1!

Today marks year 2 being married, and how did we celebrate?  Well we worked on the house just like last year!  This year however we’re on the other side of the house.

We took a good load of aluminum siding over to the recycle place finally, we didn’t get a ton for it but we had 200lbs that we got rid of from our basement at least.  We still have more (plus what’s actually on the house still).

Then we went over to the lumber yard and bought some wood for doing the siding/window panels as well as some new decking that will match the old. Although we’re playing with the idea of replacing the whole deck eventually.

Finally back home to start working on the porch.   With all the rain the side of the house is too wet to start working on siding, we’ll probably put that off until thursday when it’s supposed to get sunny and hopefully all dried out.

This porch project is a bit more than we had planned for.  We knew we needed to jack up the porch a bit and replace the supports which are sagging on the outside of the porch. This is what we uncovered:

The corner post is hollow and resting on the deck boards.  So now we need to support the porch roof while we get the deck boards out of there and put in new wood.  It’s never easy!  Some of these supports are not looking great either so we may reinforce them a bit as we go along.  We bought new cement blocks (that’s what’s supporting the porch) so we can put in a few more supports where it’s sagging.

Going to be a LONG hard project – ugg!  But it’s raining again so we’re going to call it a day and get a nice dinner for our anniversary and play some Starcraft with PJ hopefully later!

Well looks like the start of our vacation is going to be a bit rainy – not great for working on the siding for the house!

I did get the front door (sidelight and frame) sanded and stained yesterday.   I’ll do a coat of urethane a day and it should be done quite soon and all protected.

When ryan got home we relaxed and watched Emma since both of us got less sleep than normal the night before.

Of course it’s raining again today but we’re going to go try to recycle our aluminum siding finally!