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The Front of the House... #1: The New Front Porch...

Blog entry by Jcees posted 452 days ago 299 reads 0 times favorited 9 comments Add to Favorites Watch
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If you’re an LJ, then you may have already caught a glimpse of this puppy in my projects on that site. I’ll do it this time as a blog and showoff some of the details and talk about the process just for you, MrTrim.

I had to build the large archway twice! A wood boring bee decided to take up residence in the first one. I had made it out of WRC and the little bugger said, “Yummy!” So I rebuilt it out of SYP this time and put in a standing kill order for wood boring bees. So far so good.

I lavished attention on the window boxes and for what? The missus just heaps plants in there and… oh well, the married guys out there understand. When she replaces the flowers, I’ll pop off a few shots and post them. They really are quite lovely even without plants. Really.

So here’s the door with a classically proportioned entablature of my own design. The only bugaboo with this aspect of the project was having to move the portal two inches over in order to center the design in the space allowed. Looks pretty centered… hold your thumb up and see.

You can see the rocks mama pasted to the wall where I really wanted side lights. She just couldn’t wait…

I had to overcome two obstacles here; first—the hand railing wasn’t sturdy without the short descending section. So I sank PT 4×4s two feet down in rock lined holes and poured concrete collars around them. The posts are actually boxes fit around 4×4s. This hand railing is not going anywhere. Second—I ran out of spindles so I designed a pierced panel that mirrored the shape of the spindles. What do you think?

The post caps are made from 4 pcs. of SYP fit together so as not to expose any end grain to the elements. I allowed the lumber to season for over a year before the making. They’ve been in service for over eight years now without any separation or failure. Don’t you love it when a plan works out?

The ceiling is SYP t&g bead board hand fitted together prior to installation and then reassembled in place. The satin polyurethane has helped the wood mellow to a nice honey color.

I designed the light fixture to fit in with the whole package. I fabricated the moldings to maintain proportions and scale. Looks like I should have knocked the spider webs off first.

Lastly, I designed and built the darned mailbox to match too. Call me obsessed… call me crazy… call me Sally… wait… no, don’t call me Sally.

-- "Imagination is more important than knowledge" -- Albert Einstein

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Jcees

29 posts in 454 days

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9 comments so far

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MsDebbieP

326 posts in 469 days

posted 452 days ago

holy moly.. that is absolutely gorgeous!
I’m thinking that you are an artist/perfectionist/craftsman
and the mailbox is just too darned cute.

A magnificent job.

-- ~ Debbie, Ontario Canada

View MRTRIM's profile

MRTRIM

747 posts in 456 days

posted 452 days ago

oh yes , i remember this project ! you gave us a little more detail this time . thanks ! superb craftsmanship j c .
you also have a great talent for design . better watch out when you come over to pinellas co. i might hi-jack you and put you to work ! lol great post and awsome work j c !

View Dadoo's profile

Dadoo

30 posts in 455 days

posted 452 days ago

Had to show this one to my wife. It’s absolutely beautiful, especially the stone inlay everywhere! Nice job!

-- Dadoo!

View Dick, & Barb Cain's profile

Dick, & Barb Cain

106 posts in 465 days

posted 452 days ago

What beautiful porch entry. I can’t imagine what the rest of your house looks like.

-- ** Dick, & Barb Cain *************** http://lumberjocks.com/jocks/Chipncut

View ckip's profile

ckip

17 posts in 452 days

posted 451 days ago

Amazing detail! What an entry and porch. You’ve given me ideas for my mail box to reflect the house style.

-- Kip, Shasta Co.,CA--"The sooner you fall behind, the more time you have to catch up."--Ogden's Law

View PaBull's profile

PaBull

554 posts in 402 days

posted 302 days ago

Very nice, followed the link from MrT’s ceiling…

Detail, detail, detail….

-- http://www.twinoaksgrowers.com

View tenontim's profile

tenontim

146 posts in 455 days

posted 302 days ago

There’s a porch with character. In fact, looks like the whole house has a lot of it. Great job on the porch and the mail box. Thanks for the post.

-- Tim - http://www.tmuli.com

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Jcees

29 posts in 454 days

posted 300 days ago

Thanks again, folks, the house is a work-in-progress. It still retains a few elements of a 70’s style ranch but I’m working on that. I’m going to document the remaining remodeling projects here on HomeRefurbers. The missus can’t wait to take a sledgehammer to our kitchen. “Honey, take off the safety glasses and put down the hammer, I still have to make dinner.”

Stay tuned…

always,
J.C.

-- "Imagination is more important than knowledge" -- Albert Einstein

View PaBull's profile

PaBull

554 posts in 402 days

posted 300 days ago

We will stay tuned….........(can’t wait)

-- http://www.twinoaksgrowers.com

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