MY FRONT PORCH

    I am rather taken with the look and feel of my front porch on Hawthorne Avenue.  Looking at the white fan against the soothing blue of the ceiling and the whimsy of the leaf motif on the early gas (converted to electric by Kyle) fixture pleases me.

This is where I will be this Friday evening with a cool bottle of wine, some cheese, water crackers, and fresh fruit.  Friends, if you are in the neighborhood, stop by and visit.  There will be room on the wicker swing or in a rocker!

BEFORE AND AFTER: PORCH CEILING

 BEFORE

March 2011

AFTER

August 2012

MY WEEKEND

     Despite spending 22 of the 48 weekend hours working on the porch this past weekend,  I simply adore my front porch on Hawthorne Avenue.  After a full day's work Saturday we enjoyed an evening on the porch during a thunderstorm.  Cold beer, hard cider, diet Coke, pizza and good company made it all the more pleasant.

    Picture the house with these colors....

Rockport Gray on the stucco

Magenta on the door

White trim

Cape Blue ceiling

Gunmetal Gray on the floor

Despite its state of disrepair, the porch suits Miss Magnolia just fine.

   

EVEN THE BEST LAID PLANS....

    This past weekend had been designated to 'build the balustrade'.  I made a special trip Friday to get  the lumber we required (2 trips actually because my car could not handle the full load in one trip).  As it turned out, the  building of the balustrade was postponed so that we could take full advantage of the hydraulic lift that is scheduled to be returned today.

    A week ago we spent removing the modern bead board and the buckling old bead board from approximately 35% of the porch ceiling.  Doing so unveiled an extremely poor support structure installed by the previous owner.  Before we could install the new bead board (milled to match the original) a new support had to be built.

Removing modern boards

Removing trim supporting buckling old boards

We discover the ceiling needs proper support

Building the supports

The lift comes in very handy

Having completed that and having taken delivery of the reproduction bead boards, we could spend this past weekend installing the ceiling.

Man with nail gun and lift.....enough said

Notching the wood to fit snuggly

Patching with new wood

How beautiful!