Outside Project for this Week, February 4 & 5, 2010

So yesterday, Rod was off and we decided to start working on the outside of the house.  First up is the front walkway columns...well, they are painted 4 x 4's with a decorative edge.  We decided to replace them with plain 4 x 4's which they apparently don't make anymore.  LOL  Well, isn't that the case if Home Depot and Lowes don't have plain, straight edge 4 x 4's?  First, the quality of the lumber left a lot to be desired.  It was full of cracks, knots and chips.  And they were "radial edge" rather than the pointy edges in regular lumber.  Hm, not sure if we liked that. 

By late afternoon on Thursday, we had all the brackets and fasterners we needed, and we headed home to get started.   Our process was to first, chip away the rusted bracket that was holding the post to the concrete floor.  This often left the two fasteners sticking out of the floor which we cut off with our recip saw.  Then we had to pull the old piece of wood out and clean up the old, dried caulk at the top. Then we drilled for the new fasterner, put some epoxy in the hole, seated the bracket and drove it in.  Once the new 4 x 4 was cut to size, it was a matter of attaching it at the top and bottom and voila...a new column ready to be painted. 

By Friday at dinnertime, we were done with all but one bracket to replace.  A rain storm with a few tornados blew in, so that slowed us down some.  The wood on the one remaining column is still in good shape, so, we just want to change the bottom bracket out.  Whew...next up is repainting the carport celing--I scraped it while Rod was working with the recip saw.  And then we are going to pressure wash the carport and the front walk before painting it.  Eve is loaning me a pressure washer which I am gonna pick up on Monday.  I hope to be able to do before I leave for Illinois on Thursday.  Cross fingers...or bring a paint roller and come join me!!  :)

We are having a screen company come out on Monday to look at the leak on the back porch.  Hopefully they will be able to find a fix for us!