Saturday, July 28, 2012

We are checking this off

The screen door is fixed, refinished, and installed! I got to use epoxy filler for the first time (there was one pretty rotten part). Ken used his handy doweling jig to add a piece to the bottom since the door was a couple of inches short. We're freakin' done! Onward.


The only trouble is it lets in so much light we keep spazzing out when we walk by, thinking the door is open and cats/dog are going to escape!

Tuesday, July 10, 2012

So close I could screen!

Not a typo. So, the whole point of the rear overhang-porch thingy (see below) was not to:
  1. Avoid creating the "deathtrap ice stairs", as a dear friend calls them;
  2. Keep the rain off our heads while fumbling for keys with armloads of groceries; or, 
  3. Keep squirrels from chewing through the jammed-in foam pieces to take up residence in the attic. 
No, the real reason we tore off the old rickety overhang and went to all this trouble is to install a $15 screen door we nabbed at an auction a couple of summers ago.

See, when we moved in, there was an aluminum storm door (blech) that was cut down to about 5'8" and a board was screwed to the jamb above, because the old overhang didn't allow a full-height door to open. We got rid of that door and replaced it with a wooden one (yard sale) that we also cut down. We installed a rubber stair tread where that board was, because at least it would flap instead of whack Ken in the head.

This is before. After removing the aluminum door, but before any other work. Yuck, yuck.

Then the $5 yard sale door disintegrated. And we cut the overhang off. And there everything sat. No opening the back door to get a breeze, or to holler to the other person in the yard about anything, or to let the cats sit and meditate about the back yard.

During deck-building. Bye, bye, overhang!
Fast forward to today. The overhang is almost done. We have to caulk a bit and touch up paint, and wait for a piece of replacement vintage-style gutter, but she's together, complete with loads of trim traced from the old rafter tails to make the overhang look organic to the house.


And now we have to fix the auction screen door (it wasn't perfect, you know, but it did come with both a glass pane and a screen pane, and it was once a super-nice door).


Perhaps by the end of the week we can have that summer breeze...

p.s., I just found an old photo of the way, way before - like when we moved in. Geez, that back side of the house was hideous! Some days I can't believe we even bought this place in that condition.

Sunday, July 1, 2012

Just in time

We got the overhang's structure re-styled (it needed some bungalow deliciousness, photos to follow when it looks a little more finished), and Ken put on some shingles we got on clearance. They are close enough, since we will need to re-shingle the whole roof next year.

Just minutes after we got off the ladders and cleaned up, it thundered and started pouring. Here's the view of the successful new roof from the upstairs bathroom! A thing of beauty, mis-matched shingles and all.