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Tag Archives: Porch
All quiet on the western porch
Almost every summer I seem to spend quite a lot of time working on one of our porches, from building a new porch from scratch off our kitchen door in 2006, to building new screens for the upstairs northern porch … Continue reading
Wooden screens: complete and installed
In a series of blog entries, I’ve been documenting a small project to build two new wooden screens for a sleeping porch on our house. Though I only needed to construct a couple of screens, they were large, hence awkward, … Continue reading
Wooden screens: Starting construction
In my previous entry on this topic, I talked about how I was building two new wooden screens to put on windows on a second floor sleeping porch. In this entry I’ll discuss how I started putting them together. First … Continue reading
Wooden porch screens: The setup
We have several porches around our 1820 Federal style house, and no two of them are the same. Off the driveway we have an entrance porch, which I largely rebuilt last year (photo), and above that is a classic sleeping … Continue reading
Half a fence
As I have reported on previously, I’m doing a vegetable garden for the first time in several years. Everything was in the ground by the end of May, and it’s clear that I’ll be battling weeds all season. This is … Continue reading
First serious snow of the season
Today we had the first snow of the season that amounted to more than a dusting. It made it slightly more difficult to get my son to school this morning as I had to deal both with people being overly … Continue reading
October
[I made this simple iMovie video of this blog entry to experiment with a few things. I know it looks too much like I'm reading, but I'm posting it for later comparison sake and just in case anyone might be … Continue reading
On why the side porch tilts
A couple of weeks ago I posted an entry about how I rented a jackhammer and removed some brick steps on our side porch. This is different from the kitchen porch which I built a couple of years ago and … Continue reading
Brick step destruction
Two years ago I took out some concrete steps and built a new wooden porch off our back door. Now some of the other porches and steps need attention, so I started another project just down the driveway from that … Continue reading
After the break
Like many school children, my kids get a week off from school in April. We’ve used this week in the past to do a “driving vacation”: a trip by car to somewhere on the eastern coast of the United States. … Continue reading
The last porch photos
As some of you know, I spent a ridiculous amount of time last summer building, photographing, and writing about a porch I built off our back door near the driveway. I finished the project as the snow was falling and … Continue reading
The porch in a blizzard
I know what many of you have been thinking. Enough with the ODF stuff. Enough with OOXML. Enough with the guitar and Second Life. Tell us how the porch is doing! It’s doing fine, thank you. It’s been getting snowed … Continue reading
The completed porch
A friend reminded me that I never posted a final photo of the completed porch I built this last summer. I took some photos soon after it was finished on a sunny morning, but the final shots were too sun-dappled … Continue reading
Too wet to finish the porch
I came very close to finishing the porch this weekend but the weather just did not cooperate. It seemed that every time I wanted to paint, it would start raining. After a few dry hours, I managed to get the … Continue reading
The porch is feature complete
All carpentry is now complete. The only things left are some painting, a small section of gutter over the steps, and some landscaping to the right of the porch. Previous porch entry: “Stair spindles – ‘C’ wins – Halfway home” … Continue reading
Stair spindles – “C” wins – Halfway home
Thanks to all of you who offered your opinions on the design of the spindles for the railings over the steps for the back porch I have been building in my spare time these last three months. Half of the … Continue reading
Spindle math
As I anticipate another rainy weekend where I may or may not be able to finish the carpentry on the porch, I thought I would explain some of the math involved with the geometry of the spindle spacing. You might … Continue reading
Finishing the porch lattice work
This weekend I finished the lattice on the other side of the back porch. Here are a few of the steps along the way. Here are the pieces of lathing that have been precut for the rectangular section to the … Continue reading
The spindle prototype
I got a lot done today as I’m getting closer to finishing the porch that has turned out to be my main summer and, evidently, early fall project. On Thursday I solicited opinions on how I should cut the chamfers … Continue reading
Back to the porch
I got home about 11:15 last night from Paris via Chicago. The flights themselves were uneventful, though the security at the Paris airport was more extensive than anything I had seen before. I won’t describe it in detail but during … Continue reading
Opinions solicited on spindles
I was going to toss this up last night from my hotel room, but I had NO WiFi, which was not what was advertised. Anyway, here is a quick solicitation for your architectural opinions. As I showed in the spindle … Continue reading
Some lattice work
It is both a rainy weekend and a travel weekend as I write this at midday from the Rochester, NY, airport. I’ve managed to get a bit more done on the porch since last weekend and I can feel it … Continue reading
Building the porch spindles
Here are a few photos and comments about building the spindles for the porch I’m constructing outside our back door. These spindles are for the top section by the landing. The ones I will need to build for the the … Continue reading
Labor Day labor on the porch
While I’m remiss in my photo tour of building porch railing spindles, I thought I would show an update of the state of the porch after the long three day Labor Day weekend and some work this evening. I’ve made … Continue reading
The porch, Ernesto, and me
In the last installment about the porch I’m building outside our backdoor, I discussed buying wood and the spindles I was going to build. It’s raining this weekend as we get the remnants of Tropical Storm Ernesto up here in … Continue reading
Good morning
It’s Saturday morning here in western New York and I’m sitting in a cafe in Wegman’s supermarket enjoying a coffee and a blueberry muffin while I wait for my daughter Katie to finish cross-country practice. They have free wireless here, … Continue reading
A summer weekend
While Katie and I covered 2400 miles two weeks ago during our Minnesota trip, last week I drove about 1400 bringing Katie and William to New England to spend time with their grandparents. The return trip was Saturday and it … Continue reading
More on the porch
I added an older photo of the porch to my blog entry from last night so you can see more of the understructure. Since the house is close to 200 years old and the driveway is sloped, it’s tricky to … Continue reading
Looking out my back door
I’ve mentioned a few times that I’m building a new porch by our back door. Though my mother-in-law insists that it is a “stoop,” I’m going to stick with “porch” because it more accurately reflects the amount of time this … Continue reading
