To our home’s successors,

In September 2022, after more than a year of waiting, our contractor team started on demolition and discovery. The porch project as a whole expanded into several projects and a much longer timespan that anyone expected. Our team started by removing the ceilings, they were meticulous and slow as to be as least disruptive to the existing work as possible. Once the ceilings were out, the railings came off the roof and deck, followed by the deckboards. We started to learn a lot by this point and also developed new questions.  

There are not many pictures we have uncovered from the house, and drawn maps were not always accurate, but from what we’ve seen it did appear that the porch had originally had more of an italianate style stoop front porch, and it was expanded later on. It was clear that the enclosed porch was done sometime in the 70s and as result of such- we found that they relocated a primary column without properly redistributing the load above- this created a very unlevel 2nd floor, and ultimately created rot due to poor drainage at the roof. 

When the floorboards came out we discovered a little cavern below the front steps which still puzzles us a bit. It’s possible it could have been a coal chute but it was not often delivered at the front of the house from what I have heard. 

The team continued demo with roof, moulding, and deck beams. After exposing the problems, bracing went up and they removed windows to avoid breaking when they jacked up the second (and third) floor. They then installed new lvls, replaced all the rot, installed deck beams and put columns in. Our team was so professional, it wasn’t until after this was all stable that they told us it was the single sketchiest thing they’ve ever done. They executed flawlessly.

They removed the enclosed porch, flashed the house, replaced more dry rot and then we were off to the races with rebuild. Deck beams and joists went in- steps were framed, rounded porch was tied in and the last of the columns went in early January 2023 starting the year off on a very productive note.