So over this past winter my front porch started to literally just fall apart. It had to be replaced, but I was not sure if I just wanted pre-made cement steps or do pressure treated lumber. Looking at other houses in the area that appeared to have pre-made replacements I decided on pt lumber. Once spring hit I busted up the porch and kept some of the decent bricks from it to make a fire pit or walkway in the future. Then my father and I worked on it a couple hours a day for about 2 weeks. Rain every other day sucked.
Here is what the porch looked like when we bought the house.
I had bought my father a pocket screw kit (most for cabinetry making) and he really wanted to use it. Looks really clean. And you can see my driveway completely torn out in the background
Next up was the back patio/deck. The whole back pad appeared to have sunk about an inch along the foundation. We noticed this when we first looked at the house and asked the seller to seal the gap along there. Well on days it rained heavily we started noticing water in our basement. Only a little bit though. Spring came and I noticed what appeared to be Great Stuff painted over. The previous owner “sealed” the gap with great stuff, newspaper (dated Aug 14, 2007), plastic and PLASTER! WTF? I was pissed once I pulled all that out. I sealed up right with expansion joint and silicone sealant. A month later we had the guy that excavated our driveway rip out the patio and haul it all away. Next came the fun part. Designing and figuring out how big of a deck we wanted and could afford. Lowes deck designer was very simple and had decent amount of options along with a list of everything that would be needed.
Then my favorite part…the lighting. I bought 2 boxes of Philips Aurelle LED deck lighting from woot. Super easy install and they look great. My camera skills suck but they look way better in person. Also bought some cheap plastic solar post caps from Home Depot. They actually pretty good quality.
well done
