![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mapsedgeThe Big Project for this spring is to rebuild the front porch. No, that's not quite accurate: the Big Project is to destroy the concrete porch and build a wooden one in its place. It's about 5' x 6', and I plan to add another 8' x 8' piece to it on the North. Basically, the goal is to have a porch large enough to put a couple chairs on. I haven't drawn the plans or talked to the city or called 1-800-DIG-RITE yet1.
Before that job can begin I want to finish the front of the house (exterior, done last weekend) and the side porch entryway, so we have a door we can use to get in and out. I started on the side porch entryway several years ago - I think before Jami was born, and because we don't regularly use it for anything but storage I was never highly motivated to finish it.
I have gotten much better at drywall taping and mudding since I first started that project. I own better tools now, for starters, and I can lay in layers of mud so fine that I have to sand very little (sometimes, not at all) to get a finish. I used to think the process was to put on the mud heavy and sand it back: I know now that you're supposed to put it on in thin layers and build up. All the difference, that.
The only reason we have a side porch entryway is because my Uncle Vance was an accountant who worked out of the house, and that was the customer entrance. At one time we had a door there that opened into what is now the family room. Coupla winters ago I walled that door in because we rarely used it and it leaked air and was impossible to seal. I still have the door and will use it for the dining room, eventually.
I am right on track to finish the side porch entry this weekend: prime, paint, and trim. If we had the money - we don't, thanks to tax time - I'd go ahead and replace the window, the one window left that I haven't touched. The one that's there is a jalousie window, non-functioning and leaky. They must've been cheap when Uncle Vance built the addition back in '56, because that's all he used and They Suck.
Once the entryway is done, I'll grab my large camp hatchet with built-in sledge and begin the long, tedious process of destroying the front porch concrete slab. It will be done in small pieces, working backward from the gas meter. I don't believe there's rebar or mesh inside the slab: I think U.V. embedded 1/2" galvanized pipe. The slab is cracked all the way through in a couple of places, and I've already determined that a few well placed hammer blows will knock good sized pieces off.
1 Although I don't really have to. I know where the gas, phone, electrical, and water lines are because I was present when they were laid.
Before that job can begin I want to finish the front of the house (exterior, done last weekend) and the side porch entryway, so we have a door we can use to get in and out. I started on the side porch entryway several years ago - I think before Jami was born, and because we don't regularly use it for anything but storage I was never highly motivated to finish it.
I have gotten much better at drywall taping and mudding since I first started that project. I own better tools now, for starters, and I can lay in layers of mud so fine that I have to sand very little (sometimes, not at all) to get a finish. I used to think the process was to put on the mud heavy and sand it back: I know now that you're supposed to put it on in thin layers and build up. All the difference, that.
The only reason we have a side porch entryway is because my Uncle Vance was an accountant who worked out of the house, and that was the customer entrance. At one time we had a door there that opened into what is now the family room. Coupla winters ago I walled that door in because we rarely used it and it leaked air and was impossible to seal. I still have the door and will use it for the dining room, eventually.
I am right on track to finish the side porch entry this weekend: prime, paint, and trim. If we had the money - we don't, thanks to tax time - I'd go ahead and replace the window, the one window left that I haven't touched. The one that's there is a jalousie window, non-functioning and leaky. They must've been cheap when Uncle Vance built the addition back in '56, because that's all he used and They Suck.
Once the entryway is done, I'll grab my large camp hatchet with built-in sledge and begin the long, tedious process of destroying the front porch concrete slab. It will be done in small pieces, working backward from the gas meter. I don't believe there's rebar or mesh inside the slab: I think U.V. embedded 1/2" galvanized pipe. The slab is cracked all the way through in a couple of places, and I've already determined that a few well placed hammer blows will knock good sized pieces off.
1 Although I don't really have to. I know where the gas, phone, electrical, and water lines are because I was present when they were laid.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2009-04-16 05:40 (UTC)I just thought I'd throw that out for ya.
no subject
Date: 2009-04-16 13:42 (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-04-16 13:07 (UTC)1-800-DIG-RITE...Yeah...
Have you actually called them before?
I was not impressed.
They make it sound on the ad like you call one number and all the appropriate entities are activated to survey out all the lines and one day little colored flags will pop up in your yard like dandelions.
Oh, no moosebreath.
After the tedious task of actually getting your info, you then have to wait for callbacks from the utilities to arrange for a time for them to come do it.
I started getting auto-attendant calls (which were pointless when you use an answering machine) and never got anything arranged at all.
I need to try again, I guess, since I am determined to sink the posts for the raised beds; but at least here in Midtown KCMO, the experience is NOTHING like advertised.
no subject
Date: 2009-04-16 13:46 (UTC)My experience with 1-800-DR has always been the dandelions popping-up experience. Maybe that's just an Independence thang. If I have any complaint at all, it's the timing. They mark, the yard grows, by the time I'm ready to go the marks are gone.