Category: back porch

Sooo, winter feels like it is over here in SF. We are getting our false February spring – temperatures are in the upper 60’s (Fahrenheit). And what has turtle been up to all winter? Finishing touches:

Here’s the porch with the base coat of plaster on it. It went quite well once I remembered how to do it.

Here’s the best photo that could be taken of me doing the plastering in such a tiny space. The view is through the door into our bedroom. I really like the patterned film that we put onto the glass: it casts rainbows when the sun shines in. Above right is how it looked after the plastering, and while I was installing the trim around the window.

OK, so this winter, we actually got some rain. Great. Except none of us are used to it. I managed to crash on a slippery piece of “safety” plastic on the crosswalk. Broke my (brand new!) helmet, tore some holes in my clothes, but otherwise, just scratches.

Above left, mole in her new long sleeved wool winter cycling jersey. Above right, I’m starting to install the flooring in the porch.

Here are some pics of the process… Looks a lot better!

Painted and with a shelf installed. I made the shelf out of reclaimed wood, then shaped the edge so that it fit around the door moulding. A fancy cut. The shelf works perfectly so that while we have laundry hanging out, we can put the laundry basket on this shelf and there’s space to walk through. I also set it up high enough so that the spare cat litter and our emergency earthquake backpack fit below it.

I added some hooks on the under side of the shelf, so that we can hang the clothes pins and the emergency backpack, so the shoes can go under them on the floor. And (!) there’s also a pole to hang clothes when we need to bring them in if it starts raining. A very space efficient 3ftx5ft space.

The best part: Paint! After all the work rebuilding and doing prep, painting goes very quickly.

Here’s the porch with all the trim on. It turns various shades of pink as the redwood turns the color of the primer. Hopefully the paint companies are honest (that two coats of primer will cover it), because California has banned the oil-based primers that really covered the redwood tannins well (air pollution, apparently).

So, we did actually get some rain. On that weekend, I worked on putting insulation in the walls, and putting up gypsum board on the walls.

The strange triangular bit is where the porch sticks up above the roof outside. The wall is really thin there – just the thickness of a piece of plywood – so I couldn’t screw the board on: I used glue. Hopefully it will hold.

Also, it’s rather tricky working in such a small space with sheets of gyp board. Sometimes I’d get the board in, also go in there to screw it on, and close the door to get at the wall, but depending on angles and the size of the board, could only manage two of the three. I got it done, though, and the sun came out. Above right is a closeup of the eave with all the bead-board installed, and the nail holes filled.

Arwen is still more adventurous than Bella. Arwen will go sit on the porch, and Bella will wait just inside, watching Arwen. What’s she thinking?

“I’ll just wait here, so if something scary happens, it will happen to Arwen first.”

or

“‘Curiosity killed the cat.’ Good thing I’m more cautious than curious.”

or

“I’m gonna jump her when she comes back through the door.”

Here’s the porch will a second coat of primer on everything. All holes filled. Ready for paint.

Janeen helped with the painting. Actually, she did most of it.

Done. Difficult to see in this photo, but we painted the eave the same pale blue that we used on the laundry room (apparently it discourages wasps from nesting).

Above right: The blue door has grown on me; I really like it now.

Above left: Next I’ve got to deal with the rest of this back wall…

The siding is all on, and now the trim is going on. It’s all starting to look much better.

The old back door was a peeling mess. It was also too short, and wasn’t square. Oh, and it was starting to come apart, too. So why did I save it? Not sure – but I did. Above left after I’d stripped off all the paint, and added pieces of wood at the side, top and bottom to make the door the correct size. I also glued it back together. This door was actually a home-made door by one of the previous owners, probably. Above right, I had to fill in the old holes for the door handle and lock, and re-drill because the door changed size.

They made the door by building a frame, attaching a veneer plywood on the inside, and vertical redwood v-groove siding on the exterior. When I extended the top and bottom of the door, I used a solid piece of wood the full thickness of the door. To match the old v-grooves, I added a horizontal groove at the joint: If you can’t hide it, make a feature out of it!

Here’s an 8 second photo of the lunar eclipse from our back porch…

Above left, here’s the door after priming. Above right: Someone climbed over our fence and landed on our peach tree. It got completely broken. There is a small limb left, but it was the one that grew towards the fence, so it’s not looking promising for this tree. The main trunk got broken off by the clumsy oaf. This happened in the middle of the morning, yet we didn’t see anyone, and because there’s construction across the street, we didn’t hear anything either. Sad.

We got our welcome packets for AIDS/Lifecycle 2016! Bella loves the boxes.

Here’s the door painted. Janeen picked out the paint color, but the paint store didn’t mix it quite right (she picked a slightly greyer blue). Above right, finishing up the siding. The old pieces on the left are just serving as spacers – they will be covered by the trim that goes around the window.

I ran out of the original siding. The lumber yard sells v-groove siding, but it’s thinner, and doesn’t have quite the same vertical dimension as the siding on the house. So I had to make some more (or buy some custom-milled). Besides, I have loads of wood sitting around that I need to use up.

Above left, first I glued pieces of redwood or cedar together to make boards of the right width. Then I beveled one edge on the table saw (above right).

Then I have to make the tongue side, with the bevel, so first I cut the bevel (above left). Then I stand the board up on end, and cut out the wood in front of the tongue (above right).

Above left shows the tongue side done. I used a similar process to make the lap side. Above right I’m test-fitting the newly made v-groove siding.

I made a sill for the door. I used the same Ipe wood that the deck is made from. Above left, I’m not going to drag you through the whole process, but I had to make it a bit wider, so here’s clamping another piece on the front edge. I used polyurethane glue, which bubbles up and makes quite a mess while curing (above right after it’s cured).

Here’s the door sill installed. Starting to look good.

Whenever a piece of trim is installed on v-groove siding, there will be holes left that need to be filled with small v-shaped pieces of wood (otherwise insects use them as nesting places).

Ahh, finally I have the siding finished at this location. Primed, and ready for the final coat. Above right, I’m starting to put the bead-board on the eve. More on that later!

With stories of an ‘El Niño’ year abounding (maybe it’s wishful thinking), I’ve been working on finishing the weatherproofing at the back of the house. The back porch has always been a problem: It was built in stages, in the most expeditious way possible at the time. First, I think it was an open porch, with a roof covering. Then it got closed in, maybe windows added at that time. Then the roof was extended out a bit to provide cover over the new back door. But none of it was actually built with any type of water resistant membrane. It was initially just a semi-outdoor porch that became closed in. The wood framing, with lots of caulk, was directly exposed to the weather. So it leaked, paint pealed, rotted.

Above left is the opposite side that I’d started working on in my last post. The corner where the porch wall meets the building back wall is where the main problem is. Water gets in there, and rots even the redwood. Then it gets down into the roof below. So off with the wall! (above right)

I took off all the siding at the side of the window, and cut the siding below the window back from the edge of the porch wall. Above right, I’ve put in a bent piece of metal that laps behind the siding, and will go over my new tar paper.

I’ve put plywood on the part of the wall that will be inside the porch. Above right: Not sure why, but the corner posts holding up this roof are all about 3 inches short – so I had to fashion some extensions that I glued and screwed in place.

Then it’s back on with the wall, and new plywood.

Meanwhile, I also put the wiring in for the light in the porch. It’s not working yet (needs to be connected to power), but it’s easier to pull the wires before all the wall finishes are back on.

The roof extension that had been added was strange, because it stepped down from the other roof – a bit like an eyebrow. It was pretty badly rotten, so off with it! Above right I’m starting to add back in the framing, this time flush with the roof. I saved the roofing, so it was flopping around while I was working. In retrospect, I think I should have just torn the roof off completely. Faster, and the end result would have been better.

Above left is the view from the other side, and above right is the view from the kitchen, while I’m working on it!

Arwen came outside to check up on me, but decided something down in the garden was much more interesting.

Above left: Bella wondering why I’d left the drill there. Above right, I made new fascia boards, and routed a quarter round at the bottom edge, but still need to finish the corner (by hand so that the patterns match around the corner).

This is how the new roof looks.

Above left: the reason I was saying I should have just replaced the roofing. You can see it ended up being a lot of joins and patches, so it won’t be as reliable as if I’d just replaced it. Oh well – I can never predict if I should just keep what’s there, or tear it all apart and rebuild. Sometimes the latter feels like a massively expanded project, but I often regret not doing it. Above right, the white pieces of wood with the two half-round cut-outs is blocking that goes between the rafters. The cutouts are to allow ventilation above the insulation. Because the rafters are so small, I’ll use rigid insulation. You can also see the back door: it was fit in with a whole bunch of pieces of tapered wood, so that I always had to duck to go through this door.

So of course, I tore it all out. Mole: “What happened to the wall?” Above right: Where’s Arwen?

Here I’m starting to put the tar paper on. Above right, this is the rotten area that we ran into the first year we had the house. The orange is the expanding spray foam that I used to fill in where I’d cut out rotten wood. I’ll have to get back to this one day…

Above left: All tar papered in. We had our first rain forecast for half a year, so I had to get it water tight. Above right, I covered the rotted area with sheet metal, and flashed over it with self adhesive window flashing.

Back to the siding factory: I had lots of pieces of wood siding, but much of it was damaged, or the pattern did not match the house. I stripped the pealing paint off it all, then joined all the short pieces to make longer pieces. I also cut and shaped the profile of it all to match the siding on the rest of the house (it’s an unusual size that I’d have to get custom made).

It doesn’t look like much, but those few boards are a huge amount of work.

Oh, and while I was at it, I got some new windows to replace the aluminum single pane windows.