I am passing the baton to my dear husband.

First attempt at removing sod on roof.

Nice and fertile soil with clematis vines

The project looks overwhelming.

Beginning to see some daylight

Working on not getting it in my mouth and up my nose.

Lynn get my back side. Standing on the ladder all day is tough

The is the last few feet of the sod and it was growing up the valley of the roof on the house.

This is what I managed to get done this weekend.

Final photo of the porch. Getting there.

This is the last picture of the day

Well my goal for today was accomplished.  I got all the sod off the roof and many of the boards.  It is ready to have the roof rafters and ceiling rafters taken down.  That is Lynn’s part of the project and he has this week to get it done.  As next weekend we will be removing  floorboards and seeing whether we will be using the joist that are there or whether we will be replacing those also.  Got the feeling, they will be replaced.

We are also planning on pouring the cement posts.  If we get that far next weekend, I will be a happy girl.

I had planned to wait until the project is done before showing you pictures, but I just can’t wait that long.  So I will be posting a few of the ones as we progressed to how it looks today.  Really had no way to go but up.

Annie, the demo queen.

Yippee!! Almost got the Back Porch Demo Done

Today I was determined to see some progress on demolition of the back porch.  Got up early so we could get the grocery shopping done and be home in time to work outside on the porch.  I had a plan, I implemented that plan, and things progressed well.  Set a goal of how far I wanted to get today, and almost reached that goal.  Hmmm I always  over estimate my ability.  My target was to get all the old shingles, sod and wood cross boards off the porch roof.  I only have about 4 more feet to go.  Should have it done by tomorrow noon.  That’s my next goal.

Donned my hat, my work clothes, my goggles and my face mask and proceeded to removed the sod roof.  Got about 5-6 hours work on it, and this girl is pooped.  What I have discovered is that I am capable of doing most anything I set my mind too.  This project is not how I wanted to spend this summer, so I am trying to get it done so I can go back to the Dream House.

Lynn has made the shopping list of the lumber, joist hangers, pressure treated posts, cement, and various other assorted building items.  I would like to go get this stuff tomorrow, but that may be pushing things a bit this weekend.  And, I may just sneak over to the garden supplies and pick out some flowers for the flower beds.  They are pretty neglected this spring as the porch has demanded my attention.

Oh, the plus side, I have numerous starts of Clematis which I removed from the roof to give my friends and van buddies.

I can’t wait to share the pictures of this little task with you all, but want to wait until it is almost finished.  It is embarrassing as to how bad it looked.

I had planned to put on asphalt shingles to match the house roof, but for the last couple of days, I was thinking how nice a metal roof would look and sound.  Love to hear the rain on a metal roof, takes me back to my childhood.  What do you think?  I have roofed with asphalt shingles before, but have never tried to instal metal roofing.  Well that is where the internet is a wonder, I will just Google it.  May have to get some assistance on that, as I am a might too old to be getting on a roof.  Oh, and I haven’t shared this idea with Lynn yet.  Don’t know what he will think of that.

This project, and all my other projects are do-it-yourself, because my budget will not let me do otherwise.  I think we are all feeling the pinch a little with the high price of fuel.  Most of our expendable income is spent on getting back and forth to work.  Hey, but that gripping is for another blog.  If you have dreams and you want to make those dreams happen, you just need to roll up your sleeves and get to work.  I am fortunate enough to be in relatively good health with lots of energy.

I will try to post an update tomorrow, after I finish my sock fairy duties.

Ann, the porch demo queen 🙂

Sidetracked with Maintenance

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.