Porch is Done!

Last week was crazy busy with the contractor, electricians, painter,  and plumber all here and trying to finish up.  Their goal was to get everything done on Friday.  But the final inspection couldn't be scheduled until today.  So I guess we will be officially done with construction today.  I have ordered a porch swing, but that won't be done until the end of the summer. 

We have a few little blades of grass peeking up through the hay, but this isn't really a great time of year to try and grow grass around here.  It has been in the 100s last week, and this week it is supposed to get the upper 90's every day.  I think we will need to replant grass in September.  We also have to plant bushes around the foundation to make the the architectural review board happy, but that won't be until this fall.  We are usually on water restrictions by the end of August, so it makes no sense to plant bushes we can't water. 

We've gone from a deck that was propped up with 2 by 4's to a screened porch and patio.  Here are  the pre-construction pictures.  http://sewingoutofmycomfortzone.blogspot.com/2012/03/porch-project.html

These are of the completed project:

Our utility room was originally a hall between the kitchen and garage.  Now it is a real room with space for dog crates. I think the weeks without a washer and dryer were worth it!

The End is Near

I can finally see the end of the porch project!  We have screens in the porch, the windows are in, the patio is done,  and the drywall in the utility room was completed today.  They still have to finish the siding, paint, put down the utility room floor, put up the light fixtures and the railings.  But we have been able to sit outside on the porch most every night.  I am looking forward to having the workmen gone.  They have all been very nice, but I'm ready for them to be done.

Lots of Porch Progress

The guys decided they wanted to work on Memorial Day.  Other clients didn't want them at their houses today, so we had a double crew.  They started framing the porch and also worked in the utility room tearing out the old wall.

Here is the old utility 'room', really a hallway between the kitchen and garage.

This is what it looks like now.

This is a different orientation from the before picture because the before pic was taken from the door  to the kitchen, which is  is now taped shut.  The open doorway goes to the garage.  That door had to come down today to move out the washer and dryer.  You can tell where the addition begins (where there is no sheet rock). Here is another view of the new room.

Debbie's Flowers

My next door neighbor has a son who works in the local nursery, a husband who likes to garden and an incredible green thumb.  Here is a picture of Debbie's daylilies from my back yard.

She has 4 clumps of these orange daylilies in full bloom.  I have  a total of 4 orange daylilies.  Hers have been blooming all week.  Mine just started today.

There has been some progress on the construction here. The porch floor is done.

Framing for the utility room is starting to go up, and the pile of dirt and rocks was moved out today.

It has been raining almost every day since construction began, and our grass is a mess!

Five Days Behind Schedule

The porch is now five days behind schedule due to rain.  They've started doing the floor and some of the framing for the utility room walls.

Here are the wall sections.  They are good about covering up the wood with plastic when they leave because we are expecting rain all week.

It seems like construction is a lot like quilting.  Lots of measuring and cutting.  Look at the mitered corner.

This week some white irises started to bloom.  These are some that the prior homeowner planted.

The butterfly weed that I started from seed is also blooming now.

Porch Progress

The foundation of the utility room and the piers for the porch went up today.

They are about 3 days behind schedule now due to weather, and more rain is expected Monday and Tuesday.  Tomorrow they do the back fill around the foundation, and Friday the termite guy comes to treat the site. 

This is a plant I bought several years ago at the backyard plant sale.  Someone told me it is a Mexican primrose, but I haven't verified it, so it could be something else.  The flowers are such a bright yellow that it is hard to get a good picture of them.  Look at the glare on the flowers.  It was cloudy when I took this picture, and I still got the glare. 

The only way I found to get rid of the glare was to photograph the flowers from behind.  But then you can't see the shape of the flower.  I think I am better at growing flowers than I am photographing them.

Digging Footings

Deck Demolition

The contractor came today and tore off the old deck.  One guy did the whole thing in less than 3 hours.  Here's the before:

And here's the after:

Tomorrow they come to dig the footings.

I have foxglove blooming in my yard for the first time ever. I' ve tried growing them several times, but they before this year, they've always died.  I planted a couple last year, but they didn't bloom until this spring.  One is white, and one is purple.

First Iris

A couple of years ago, I split my irises and gave some to my next door neighbor.  I have a mix of yellow, purple and white irises, and it is impossible to tell from their leaves which are which.  The last time I split them I must have given all but one of my early blooming purples away.  My neighbor has had purple irises in bloom for over a week.  Mine just bloomed yesterday.

My mother said that my grandma hated irises.  Every time one would come up in her yard, my grandma would throw it over the fence.  Since irises don't even have to be covered in dirt to grow, ones she threw over the fence would take root and grow where she threw them.

I like irises because they are deer and rabbit-proof. Pretty green leaves that last year round here.  They are easy to grow as long as they get enough sun, plant them shallowly, and don't mulch them.  If they get too wet, they might rot.  They survive in our heat and summer droughts. And they multiply.  If your irises aren't blooming the way you want them to, they might be too deep.

Yesterday the contractor came and took final measurements.  He also marked out where the porch addition and patio will be.  He is doing the drawings now, so we can submit them to the  HOA.  After they approve the plans, we can get started.

The Porch Project

When we bought this house 10 years ago, we liked everything about it except for the deck.  Four years before we moved, we had put a sunroom and screened porch on to the old house, and when we moved, we really missed having the outside living space.  The deck on the new house wasn't in great shape, and we weren't intesested in repairing it because we thought one day we would tear it off and put on a screened porch.   Now the deck is in really bad shape.

There is a missing rail, the deck boards are splitting, and worst of all, the deck is structurally unsound.  None of the 4 contractors who looked at the deck could tell us why it it pulling apart.  The gap started very slowly, over many years.  Then all of a sudden, we had a 3 inch space between the boards, and the floor was sagging.  We would liked to have blamed it on the earthquake, but that really wasn't the cause.  One of the contractors we talked to propped up the floor with some old 2x4s, so the floor wouldn't collapse while we were deciding what to do. 

At this point, fixing the deck is not an option because it it so far gone.  We thought about putting in a patio, a new deck,  a covered veranda, or  a screened porch.  We started talking to contractors back in October and have finally come to a decision.

 We're going to put on a 14 x14 ft. screened porch, and at the same time, we are going to have the utility room turned into a real  (8 x12 ft.) room instead of a hall.  Right now our washing machine, dryer, and utility sink are in a hallway separating the kitchen from the garage.  If you are moving clothes from the washer to the dryer, you are likely to get hit in the head by a door by someone coming in from the garage.  It is also next to impossible to pull out the dryer to clean the lint out of the exhaust hose without standing on your head.  We are making the room big enough for the dogs' crates.

The new utility room will come about to the edge of the brick walkway.

Where the grill and the steps are is where the new utility room will be.  The new steps will go down into the yard onto a walkway to the driveway.  I am very excited to finally get this project moving.  We will be signing the contract next week.