Thursday, July 24, 2014

Can't Stop Won't Stop

That's the thing about renovating.  It's like getting a tattoo.  Finish one.  Think about another.  Suddenly, it's on your skin.  (Be it ink or demo dust)

For us, it was a case of necessity.  Our porch was falling down.  Not like tomorrow, but pretty soon after that. 

Who Lives Here!?!

Oh yeah.  Falling down for sure.  Even photobomber George thinks it's pretty bad.

We are lucky, as semi-detached homeowners, to not only get along with our shared neighbor, but to take on exterior home improvement projects together.  We replaced our (rare in the Annex) parking pads together in 2006.  And at that time, we decided to build a single staircase with railings, too.  Best decision ever. 

But two major renovations for us, one rotting railing for him and a sagging century-old porch structure that supported a basement dig later...? 

Thank goodness we knew a certain trusted contractor who could help us out. 

So, after I left for summer vacation with our kids, they got to work.

Before
After

Oh. My. God.  We gutted two entire floors of our house and found fewer problems than the front 160 square feet that we call a porch.  Rodent -squirrel- carcasses, urine soaked drywall in the ceiling and rotting chewed up beams (thus the sag). 

Eeeeewwwww. 

And we were hoping to save the roof.  Ha! 

Let's Build A New Porch

This is why I love our contractor and his guys.  They're only interested in doing it right.  One could look at it as 'job creep', but he knows it's our forever house.  And our neighbor's side was in worse falling down shape than anyone could have predicted.  So...a totally brand new porch it is. 

With proper brick pillars that are a) able to hold the weight of the new forever porch and b) in keeping with the neighborhood.  Sold.

Then I came home to Toronto for a weekend. 

Before
After

This is our side.  I can't wait to share the little life-altering upgrades we're making. 

Before
After

View towards the neighbor.  Same upgrades there.  Kid-barricading divider to come.   

Before
During
Then I Left

This is as far as things got while I was home.  Which was perfect timing, because I got to see the progress and make some important decisions about structure, electrical and finishing.  I'm not used to being gone while work continues...but that's why my better half is there.

And thank goodness it's just him instead of this guy.

Site Supervisor

My father would be out there every hour of every day, if he could.  But I brought him back to Wisconsin with the kids and I.  Let those guys do what they do best!!!

Stay tuned for those upgrades, the new porch "look" and pictures of the progress :)

No comments:

Post a Comment