Week 20 - Porch Rail

The big thing for this week was that I got a porch rail on the front steps. I asked for several minor modifications as the rail was being built, some on the plan, others suggested by the "look" that had developed for the porch.

It is a wall style railing sided to match the porch itself. with the look of a post with a flat top at the end to give it a more solid feel

Unfortunately, we ran out of siding just short of being able to finish.

Lots of other little details were taken care of, most of which look like nothing in pictures. They include; patching small holes in the foundation and a superficial crack, nailing down some loose flashing, calking a few missed spots, ...

... blocking the soffit transition between the new eaves and the old. Eventually all the siding will be replaced and the new style of eaves will be continued everywhere, but for now there has to be something to keep birds and rain out of this area.

For my part, the weather was so nice that I jumped back and forth between readying the next pocket door for installation (see doors) and moving dirt around in the front yard to make it more presentable.

Unfortunately, as I started to work on reducing the pile of dirt/gravel/trash left from digging out to reset the forms for the wall repair, I discovered that the old retaining wall/curb that I had intended to dig out or simply bury in the new yard had rebar in it and was huge. (18"+ tall, rather than the 4" that had been visible before construction began) Even more unfortunately, in the process of removing the driveway and setting the forms for the wall, the sub contractor had not only torn up one end of this existing piece, he had also lifted what remained about 6" at the driveway end. It was now too high to bury,so I exposed it about a foot down, got out my sledge hammer, and began knocking off the top.

Then I spent a lot of time shovelling and sifting one huge pile of mixed materials into: dirt, gravel, big rocks, and trash. The dirt is going back into the yard, held back by a temporary retaining wall made up of salvaged concrete pieces that sits about a foot outside the curb that I'm mangling.

The gravel went to the side yard to underlay the paving which will create a path down the side of the house. I also reinstalled the gate separating the front yard from the side yard.

And on Friday, while I was away, my new storm door was delivered ... again.

Week 21 - Concrete Finish