I guess better late than never, the footings are in for two posts. Four posts have their first coat of Kilz Primer. So the weekend hasn’t been a total failure.
Had a humdinger of a headache when I woke this morning, but a couple Excedrin and a few hours more of sleep and I am a new person.
The progress on the porch renovation didn’t go as fast as I anticipated this past weekend. But we are playing catch-up. I took Saturday off from construction as on Friday and Saturday I participated in the Relay for Life, Cancer relay. This was my first time participating in this worthwhile event. Cancer has been a killer for many of my family members and friends. Through research more people are living longer and beating this dreaded disease. My Aunt being one of those. She has lived the past 5 years, that she wouldn’t have had just 10 years ago. Her cancer has begun to grow again, so she is undergoing Chemo again. All I can do is pray and feel like I am helping through doing the Relay for Life. If you get the opportunity, participate in this event near your home. They make birthdays.
Back to the back porch. Hauled old decking out to the burn pile and did some clean-up and dug the footings. Then it started raining on Sunday and that was the end of that. Couldn’t pour concrete during the rain.
So this afternoon, my hubby and I mixed up some concrete and I managed to prime 4 of the posts that will be holding the roof of the porch up. I will be painting them white and will have white railings on a redwood deck. Through experience with doing a lot of painting on my “Dream Home”, I have found that you need to use a good primer or it just will not hold up in our climate. Though our weather is not as wet as the west side of the state, we do get a lot of wind in our area and any wood surfaces that are facing south have a hard time holding paint. Our porch is on the north side of the house so it won’t get that wind, but when you find a good primer, you stick with it. We now always buy Kilz Premium Primer because that is the most durable. Just touting the Kilz as maybe you can learn from my experiences. By the weekend I will be able to put 2 coats of paint on them.
Got a little side-tracked when I went into the dream house and saw the post from the front porch (of the dream house) which had 3 sides glued together (last fall) and needed the 4th side glued on. So I took a little detour and worked on the Dream House post. Wasn’t going to work on that until I finished the back porch. Actually, now that I think of it, the back porch IS the detour.
Again, back to the back porch. The posts going under the deck will be pressure-treated and hidden so they will not be painted. I am really excited about the progress, even if it is slow. I can’t wait to take the pictures of the finished porch. But in the meantime, here are a few photos from this weekend.
Annie, the novice porch builder.
15yearsandcountingdream 