Safety First

29 March 2016

It's getting down to crunch time now. We have to be moved out of our current house in just 8 days! This weekend my daughter and 4 of her friends are coming to visit and help us move. It will be great to see all of them. We missed seeing Sam over spring break because she and her boyfriend and two other friends went on a cross country road trip to Colorado and back.

With lots of stuff to move, and so many trips in and out of the house, I decided that the front porch needed some attention. And the missing stair railings were just asking for trouble. So I took an afternoon and and did some quick and dirty carpentry.

First I need to remove the bad wood and previous make shift repairs.

These areas of the porch have suffered the most because there are no gutters. Water drops off the roof, lands on the steps, and splashes back up on to the porch and the supporting lumber.

Here you can see that water has caused the upper few inches of the support beam to rot. Someone has repaired this before. Termites have weakened the bottom of the beam so that it has crushed down around another previous make shift repair to support the beam.

I have made my own make shift repairs at the two sets of steps on the front of the house. Just enough to make it safe to walk on for the near future.

I also added some temporary railings to the staircase.

Just a comment about putting new screw holes in the original flooring and stair stringer. We're not too worried about it. We are not creating a pristine museum display. We are creating a home to be lived in. This house has survived for over 150 years. Each owner has left their mark on it in some form or fashion. And everything that has been done to this house tells a story. From the nail holes left from hanging a picture, to the knob and tube electrical fittings, to the bathroom addition on the south side of the house, they all speak about the wants and needs of the people who were living here. We are just adding our chapter to the story.