Jacking Up the Porch (& Gutter Talk)

The front porch overhang was historically supported by three 2x6 boards, stood vertically. The boards were a bit bowed, and clearly weren't intended for this type of application. That is what caused the roof overhang to sag. I set out with the goal of replacing those 2x6s with three 4x4s, secured in place with metal brackets.

 I had Maximum Flow Seamless Gutters (http://www.maxgutters.com/) come out to put gutters on the place shortly after the first contractor was done with the exterior. This house never had proper gutters, and it caused pitting damage to the sidewalks around the lower ground level. It also caused water to gather around the house in a few places.

Pool Removal

This wasn't an overly hard job, but there were some things about it that were unexpected. The first thing I did was go around the pool with a pick-ax, jabbing holes into the lower part of it. As you can see here, it was leaking like a sieve around the bottom. It drained that way for almost two days.

After that I went around the whole thing with my cordless drill, unscrewing the multitude of screws that held it together. That left me with several posts, the post caps, the top lip/edge that went around the whole pool, the 4' tall outside ring, and the inside rubber liner. All but the last of those were metal.

The Contractor Goes To Work

The worst thing about this job was that it had to be done in late December, early January. The guys from AGW Contracting didn't seem to mind though, as they jumped right in.

I did the roof tear off and clean up myself, with a few friends. It took us two days to strip it down. It took me another few days to get the yard cleaned up decently, but it had to be cleaned again once the snow finally melted in Spring. It only took two days for the new roof to be put on.

Move In Day

 Move in day was November 13, 2009. There were some issues that I wanted to address immediately.

The brick wall around the lower level was literally falling off the house. There was a gap between the brick and the house that was several inches wide in some spots. I couldn't have water and snow getting behind there. There had been a few half-hearted attempts to repair this over the years, with black caulk; by the time I took over, it was a real mess.

Introductions: The House

This post will give you some basic info on the house. I'll use the pictures and info that was available via the realtor and realtor.com for this post, so you can see what I saw going into it.

It's located in the Town of Hull, WI, and has a Stevens Point mailing address. That's pretty much in the dead center of the State.

Introductions: Me

This first post is intended as an introduction of me. That way you'll get an idea of what my background is, what my skill sets are, and how I ended up in this remodeling project.