Today we worked nine hours, by far our longest day on the Great Foundation and Screen Porch Project. When I say “we” I really mean we. The Wandering Monk got very serious about utilizing my minion services. I got very little rest and no blogging time.
But the Room with a View is now becoming a room that has a view despite having (almost) a complete wall on it.
From the outside, looking in through the future screen porch:
From the inside as the Monk packs up for the day:
Isn’t that door a beauty? I’ve had it for nearly three years after doing the usual bargain thing to get it. Sure am glad it’s finally found its home. We did such a good job on the framing that it didn’t even need shimming. Which is both a first for any door whose installation I’ve helped with and a minor miracle considering how non-square this house is.
Tomorrow we finish the wall (except for shingling and trim on the exterior and insulation and drywall on the interior, which will be my solo jobs later on). Then we do the floor of the future screen porch and tear out the remainder of the west sidewall where the screen porch will be. Oh yeah, and we finally get to take down that last jack you see in the photos!
That won’t conclude the project. Not hardly. I’ve got a list of 10 more structural mini-projects related to this one, including another foundation beam elsewhere in the house and of course framing the screen porch itself, which may (alas) end up being a low priority for this year. But tomorrow’s work will take us as far as we planned to go for now.
Before we begin the day’s work, I hope to have another blog for you, which will include a YUGE thank you to a donor whose gifts just keep on giving. I found it this evening when I finally picked up email. And whooooee!
Wow, Wow, Wow! So sweet seeing the changes happening.
Just stopping by for amazon link. 🙂
Very nice to see such progress. I’m sure it’s a great relief. Gotta ask, though, about the 1/4″ gap you mentioned earlier. Hope that proved to be either not that serious, or easily remedied.
FishOrMan — Thank you on both counts.
jed — We’ve done nothing about that 1/4″ gap, except stabilize the back of the house after deciding not to jack any farther. The gap hasn’t budged nor has anything new cracked or broken since that one very impactful day (I’ve been checking). The Monk did go through both the attic and the crawl space beneath the house with a very bright work light to make sure nothing else weird was going on.
We’ll definitely deal with that gap after we’re done shaking, rattling, and rolling the house. But for now it’s stable and being kept under my watchful eye. I do believe it’s less serious than I originally feared.
Looks very encouraging, especially given what we’ve been seeing!
I kind of thought the gap wasn’t quite such a big concern. Wood structues held together as you’ve described … you push here, they move elsewhere. Well, that can possibly be catastrophic, but I think that’s usually something that happens quickly. That it hasn’t gotten bigger is a good sign.
Nice!