Porch Progress & a Very Special Birthday

The last month has been a total blur.  Most of it was spent focused on my surgery & rehabbing my knee = not fun.  We did manage to squeeze in both some work & play though!  There are still a few things on the porch list: filling some holes, painting the floor, painting the window boxes, building the "bar", & hanging up the porch swing to name a few...but it's getting close!

We celebrated Grady's birthday out there & it was perfect!  Below are a few pictures of what the porch looks like right now as well as some shots of the birthday boy.  The green chairs will be moved over to the bar & the porch swing will take their place.

The barn light was a plain Jane gray that I spray-painted a fun sun yellow.  I LOVE it.

New window boxes - soon to be painted.  Color TBD.

Dad getting ready to hang the boxes up.

 

 

I can't believe he's three years old already...

A 'poor man's' pergola & some porch art

Another weekend of rain - of course!  Doesn't mother nature know we're on a strict schedule with this project?!?  We had high hopes of getting the roof off and rebuilt on Saturday, but it didn't stop raining all day.  We got a few dry hours yesterday & were able to take off all of the old tin roof & a lot of the old siding, but we're not nearly as far along as we'd planned.  It sort of resembles a very primitive pergola now.  Haha.  Dad was able to take the afternoon off work today to work on it a little bit, so we'll see how far he gets by the time I'm off work.  Hopefully we can play catch-up tonight & get this project back on track!

Old cedar siding off...getting prepped to re-wire & eventually put up new siding!

Dad working on re-hanging the gutter after we took off the old tin roof.  It's so much brighter without it.

Some art I sketched out the other day to hang in the porch - I can't wait to 'decorate' it.

The list looks pretty similar to where is was last week...with a couple of unexpected additions like re-hanging the whole gutter since it was apparently just resting on the old tin roof:

• Jack up porch.
• Order roofing material.
• Demo lattice & chicken wire & clean off porch.
• Dig post holes.
• Pour cement footers.
• Level out the porch & get the posts put up.
• Tear off all of the old siding.
• Tear off the old roof.
• Re-hang the gutter since it was resting on the old roof.
• Frame everything out.
• Build built-in bar.
• Re-route cable to other side of porch.
• Wire for the new light & outlet.
• Hang new siding.
• Prime & paint all framework.
• Install new roof.
• Paint siding.
• Install new light & outlet.
• Hang up screen.
• Retrofit screen door for existing space.
• Paint screen door.
• Prime & paint porch floor.
• Trim out patio door, window, and all screen panels.
• Purchase & hang porch swing & pallet planter.
• Build, prime, paint new steps up to porch.
• Fill nail holes & touch up all trim work.
• Hunt down three cool chairs & paint them.
• Sew a few throw pillows for the porch swing.
• Plant window boxes.
• Mulch garden around porch.
• Perhaps finish off bottom of porch with lattice?

26 days & counting!

Set in Ce-ment!

The four post holes (footers) are now filled with cement!  That means we can really dig in to the porch project once the weather clears up.  Darn rain!  Each day lost is making me more & more nervous that we aren't going to get it done by Grady's party on June 2nd...

As of this morning our list looks like this:

• Jack up porch.
• Order roofing material.
• Demo lattice & chicken wire & clean off porch.
• Dig post holes.
• Pour cement footers.
• Level out the porch & get the posts put up.
• Tear off all of the old siding.
• Frame everything out.
• Build built-in bar.
• Re-route cable to other side of porch.
• Wire for the new light & outlet.
• Hang new siding.
• Prime & paint all framework.
• Install new roof.
• Paint siding.
• Install new light & outlet.
• Hang up screen.
• Retrofit screen door for existing space.
• Paint screen door.
• Prime & paint porch floor.
• Trim out patio door, window, and all screen panels.
• Purchase & hang porch swing & pallet planter.
• Build, prime, paint new steps up to porch.
• Fill nail holes & touch up all trim work.
• Hunt down three cool chairs & paint them.
• Sew a few throw pillows for the porch swing.
• Plant window boxes.
• Mulch garden around porch.
• Perhaps finish off bottom of porch with lattice?

32 days to go...yikes!

In other news, my mom was a champ & came over after she was done with work & surprised Grady & I by staining his swing set with some old deck stain that we had on hand.  The gray part on the bottom is what the whole thing looked like before.  Now I just have to figure out what we're going to do about the canopy that ripped over winter...whether I'm going to make a new fabric one or maybe put a metal or wood roof on it?

Getting jacked up & demolishing things.

Little by little progress is being made on the good 'ol porch.  This week dad, Grady, and I have spent our nights demoing, digging, & jacking things up.  (Like, literally using a jack to raise the porch.)  Grady's new favorite phrase is "you have to break it before you fix it, mom".  Hopefully he doesn't think that applies to everything!  :)

Here are a couple of quick shots of the newly raised and now cleaned off porch and the little helper man...just seconds before he pinched his finger in that jack - ouch!  All of the lattice & chicken wire is gone & it seems SO much brighter...I never realized that the lattice blocked that much light!  We've got two and a half holes out of four dug for the footers & are hoping to finish the rest tonight & pour cement by the weekend (although the forecast for tomorrow says rain and Saturday says snow...what?!?).

And just for fun, a before shot for comparison.  You can't see much difference yet, but there is progress being made.  I just realized how much the bushes have grown (overgrown) since we moved in four years ago...yikes!  Might have to do something about that...

Oh, I also made a slight change to my plans...I think I'm going to have dad build me a porch swing instead of the Adirondack chairs for the porch.  How fun would that be?  I think I'll still paint it yellow, & maybe add a cushion in blue ticking and a few bright pillows.  Something like this maybe?

Over the river & through the prairie...and through the prairie...and through the prairie...to grandma's house we go!

We made the trip down to Omaha again this Easter...although the drive is usually h-e-double hockey sticks-ish (that's heLL-ish for those of you not from the tundra), this time it was even worse on me after my rec volleyball injury last Monday. The PT thinks it's my ACL, but I don't technically see the doctor until next Monday, so we'll see what he says. Yuck.  No matter how long the drive, it's so much fun for Grady once we get down there. He LOVES his cousin Greyson, and enjoys running around with the bigger kids, staying up well past his "bed time", and getting spoiled by Grandma and Grandpa Starzl.

Before we left on Friday we colored eggs at home - Grady is a super serious egg dyer. Although he loves doing it, he rarely smiles until he's all done and showing them off! He was the same way last year...a serious face on him at all times. Funny kid.

We got to Omaha at midnight on Friday and crashed for the night pretty much immediately.  On Saturday, Grady's cousins, great grandparents, and aunts came over to visit and color some more eggs.  Sunday morning, we packed up the car and headed to Amy's house in David City for lunch, an Easter egg hunt, and an entertaining game of "spoons"...which I didn't partake in because of my injury.  (If you saw how this family plays spoons, you'd understand why I didn't play - "spoons" is a contact sport for the Nixon's...no lie!)  Here are a few photos of the little man enjoying the holiday weekend...

 

 

I hope you all had a wonderful Easter holiday!  Grady surprisingly did remember that Jesus died on the cross and that "they rolled a big rock in front"...but he was more impressed (and amused) that the Easter bunny on "Hop" pooped out jelly beans.  :)

the {not so pretty} porch

There's a long and narrow (think 6x14') porch off the back of our house that started out as a hodge podge of things when we moved in, and hasn't been touched much since then.  There are two different tin roofs that have several holes and dents in them, there was one wire "trellis" that I ripped out last summer, and one lattice wall.  There also used to be a speckled gray and black outdoor carpet on it, but that went away last summer too.  Oh, and the front of it sags slightly.  It's a real beauty (see image below).

Disclaimer: This is also before the new roof that we put on in the fall of 2009...this is what the front of the house looked like at the time this picture was taken...yikes!  And on an even scarier note, it used to have pink exterior doors!

 This is what it looks like now, after removing the awnings, shingling, and getting a new front door...

 And this is a Photoshop rendering of what I'm hoping it will look like by the end of the summer: new gray paint color, yellow doors, and new window boxes.  Better, no?!

Anywhoo...back to the back of the house.

This is what I'm toying around with for a layout.  (This sketch is not to scale...just a quick doodle.)  We're planning on creating a screened porch that we can use for eating, entertaining, and relaxation free from mosquitos!)  There's an ugly A/C unit and all of our utilities meters to the south of the porch that I'm planning on hiding with a vertical planter made from an old pallet.  The plan is to build a small bar directly across from the patio doors that will be able to sit all three of us comfortably, and also be used as a buffet when we have guests over.

To the north will be a small sitting/reading/coffee (beer) sipping area with a cute striped rug and a couple of gleaming yellow Adirondacks that I'm hoping to con my dad into building me for my birthday!  I also hope to reuse the "window" boxes that are currently on the porch.

We'll have to tear off the mismatched roof and replace it with a brand new seamless metal roof, replace the siding with some vertical panels, put a new light in, and paint, paint, paint.  I'm thinking that I'll paint the floor a teal-ish color similar to what's on the house now as a little tribute to what will soon be covered in a warm gray.  Here's the mood board I created as inspiration...

1. Pallet Planter Plans from here.
2. Adirondack chairs (hopefully) built by my handy dad.
3. Floor color (inspired by my house and this lovely porch).
4. Bar inspired by a picture on this site. Although I can't find the direct link anymore.
5. Metal roof that I'll get at Menards - probably in "burnished slate".
6. White frame and trim with black door, inspired by this porch. Originally from BH&G.
7. Dash & Albert striped rug, sold here.
8. Totally awesome and inexpensive barn light ($25!) but not sold online, from Menards.
9. Primed siding panels from Menards - painted gray.

The goal is to get the entire project done in time for Grady's third birthday the first weekend in June...and stick within a budget of $500...wish us luck!

Frost & Fun

I can't remember another Minnesota winter where there was less snow.  Back in November I filled up the gas can thinking that it'd probably be a matter of days before I'd have to fire up the snowblower & I wanted to be prepared & not have to run out to get gas.  That gas can still sits completely full in my garage.  Then, we waited until the week before Christmas to get our Christmas card pictures taken because we wanted them done in the snow...when I finally took some shots of Grady, there still wasn't a flake of snow around.  Now, I'm not complaining at all - I'll be the first to admit that I don't like winter & I don't like the cold, so this winter has been fantastic...although it would have been nice to have a white Christmas & Grady has been dying to build a snowman.  Last weekend there was finally a little bit of accumulation on the ground, but more importantly, everything was covered in a thick layer of frost when we woke up!  Grady & I quickly got dressed & walked over to the park to play & let the dog run.  It was beautiful!

I'm glad we got a little taste of winter...now I'm ready for spring!