Oh, today in the Great Northwest it is absolutely beautiful. Sun shining and I am filled with energy and yearning to get outside and play in the flower beds and work on the dream house and get things done. The temperature is in the 50’s and I am loving it.
Unfortunately, I am tasked with rebuilding our back porch on the little house we are living in, which means I don’t get to do any of the above, until the porch is done. The little house we live in now has been completely redone on the inside and it is very comfortable. We purchased this house in 1999 when the elderly man that was living in it went into a nursing home. It was a disaster and in much need of repair. The first thing we did was put a new roof on it as it leaked, then put a foundation under the master bedroom. I learned to lay block. Then we proceeded to strip all the interior walls of the lathe and plaster, and redid some of the floor plan and added a master bathroom and eliminated a pantry. It was a lot of work, and we had already started on the dream house, so this was a little detour. Okay, a big detour.
Our plans were to fix it up and sell it. Best laid plans. We ended up moving into it instead. It is on an acre and we will probably sell it when we get closer to finishing the dream house. But it will not sell without fixing the back porch, so that is where we are now.
About 5 years ago, we tore off the front porch and put on a new redwood porch which looks very nice. The posts had to be stripped and sanded and repainted. Now it is time to do the same to the back porch. Ho hum. I will post some photos of the front porch before and after. The back porch photos will have to wait as I am ashamed to show you how it looks now without it being finished. Now it looks like Ma & Pa Kettle’s place. So some before and after pictures will come in a later post.
Roofing first. I hate roofing and swore I would never roof again after 1988, when my best friend and I roofed my house in Phoenix. Yep, went to the library and got a how-to book on roofing and Patti, my neighbor and best friend and I, proceeded to strip two layers of shingles off my ranch style house, and lay new shingles on it. In March in Phoenix. I guess it was a novelty to see women roofers at that time, and we were asked for our cards. This was out of necessity, as I didn’t have the money to hire it done. Then I married Lynn in July of that year, sold my house, and moved to Washington, where in August 1988 we roofed his 2 car garage. Then in 1989 we roofed his house and then his barn. At that point I told him I was out of the roofing business. Until now……
Today, I began tearing off the shingles and a vine of Clematis that has been growing out of control for the last 11 or 12 years. Actually there is so much overgrowth that it looks like a sod roof. Good news, it doesn’t look like we will have to replace the roof joists, they appear to be in good shape, so that is a relief. Before I started ripping off the vines and old wooden shakes and two layers of asphalt shingles, I would have said it was a complete tear down. So I am optimistic that we will be able to remove re-sheet and re-shingle. Then we will start on the deck. Probably redwood also. So stay tuned to the progress of our back porch project.
Oh, and I still have my ‘bread and butter job’ that I work through the week, to keep us in bread and butter.
Annie, the reluctant roofer.
15yearsandcountingdream 