Final Inspection

We passed the final inspection and now we are working on finishing things and getting back to normal. We started staining the new front porch. We want the new porches to look like they belong to the house. We will stain the porches when it is not raining. This time of year there are not many days without rain. We are staining the railing to match the belly band on the house. We will stain the deck and risers to match the lower part of the house. The stair treads and other pressure treated wood will be left alone.

Bracing

They finished the cover for the back porch. They added bracing for the roof.
The top of the garage door opening for the small garage needed to be lower so the garage door will be below the beams in the garage when it is raised. They lowered the top today.
I am told we will lose our third bathroom -- the Spiffy Biffy -- soon.

Porch cover

They put on the porch cover today. The cover has a slight tint to block out the UV light, but you can still see the trees through it.
This a view of the cover from the ground.

Porch cover frame

They built the frame to hold the cover today.
This is what the frame looks like from the back porch.
If I were to put in a zip line from the back porch to the garden, this would be a good place. You would need to hold up your feet to clear the landing railing.
They cleaned up the yard and re-graded the yard where it needed it. They moved our third bathroom (the Spiffy Biffy).

Start of back porch cover

They worked on the frames for the back porch cover today. They blocked our back door and back stairs while they are working. You can see the cover will be over the steps too. This will allow us to get to the garage without going out in the rain.

Downspouts and trim

Today they worked on a lot of things. You need to look closely to see the changes. They started to put in the downspouts. The black tubing is gone from this picture. They added a cedar trim to the outside of the porches and landings. They also put up the vertical stripping on the wall under the front porch.
They also added cedar trim to the back porch and landing. You can see they haven't put in all the downspouts because we still have a black pipe in this picture. You can see the posts that will hold up the cover for the back porch. You can see that they have graded the back yard. We still haven't put in a lawn.
They also put in siding on the wall above the front porch. The old siding may have been removed when they lifted the house.

Painting

Today they painted the area of the wall that didn't get painted before because it was covered by the old cover over our back porch. They are going to start to install the new cover. This cover should let us get to the garage without going out in the rain.
It is hard to see, but they installed flashing between the walls and the back porch.
They also put varnish on some boards they are going to use to trim the back porch. I didn't include any pictures.

We have a front porch

They finished our front porch today. I guess we can no longer confuse visitors.
This is a view of the south lower stairs. We have nice sturdy stairs and handrails.
Before the house was raised, we accessed the circuit breaker box from the ground which was three steps lower than the old porch. Now that it is accessed from the porch, everything is lower than usual. This end of the porch was extended to give the required clearance in front of the circuit breaker box.

Sixteen steps

They finished putting in the stair tread and risers. They also added the railing.
They also started to put up some of the balusters.
This is a view looking out of our front door. When they removed the temporary stairs they made it so our screen door wouldn't open. This picture is taken through the screen door.
There are sixteen steps to get to the front porch. Ten to get from the foundation to the landing and six to get from the landing to the porch. The back porch also has sixteen steps -- eight to get from the sidewalk to the landing and eight to get from the landing to the porch. We had seventeen steps when we were on the Jenga blocks.

More stairs

The front porch is looking more like the architect's drawings. Today they added the decking to the landing and most of the treads and risers to the north stairs (the one to the left). They also put in the framing for the south stairs.
Because the stairs aren't finished, they blocked off the north stairs. While I was taking pictures, our cat ignored the barrier and went clear up to the front porch.
This is the decking on the landing.

Front porch steps

They finished putting the decking on the porch. They put the tread and the risers on the stairs from the porch to the landing.
They also put up the framing for the stairs to the left (as you look at the front of the house) and they put up the columns at the bottom of the stairs to the right. The columns at the bottom of the stairs to the left are behind the port-a-potty. The port-a-potty is now labeled a "Spiffy Biffy."

Front porch decking

They put most of the decking on the front porch. There is a little more that needs to be added near the fuse box. They also need to trim the ends
They also put the stair supports from the front porch to the landing.

Posts

Today they installed posts to hold up the roof over the porch.
We had someone come by today who hasn't been to our house since they tore out the front steps. She couldn't figure out how to get in until the workers told her about our new back porch.

Porch and Septics

They continued to work on the front porch today. They worked on the landing and removed the wall next to the front door. Removing the wall lets us get to the circuit breaker box. If you look closely you can see the electric meter. The circuit breaker box is next to the meter.
This is a different view of the landing that they were working on today. If you look at the main part of the porch you can see where they removed the wall.
They also covered up our the last parts of our septic system today.

Railings

They started adding the railing to our back porch.
This is a different view of the back porch. You can see that the railing is missing from the far left side next to the house. It either hasn't been installed yet or they are going to put in a zip line. I think a zip line would be fun.
After our septic system gets inspected, maybe our yard can get back to normal.

Decking

They installed the rest of the decking on the porch today. They also installed more posts for the railing.
They also installed most of the decking on the landing. There are a couple of boards at the edge that need to be installed.

A little more work

They did a little work on our back porch today. The changes I saw were diagonal bracing, a little decking, and another post by the stairs.

We have steps

They put the tread and risers on the steps to our back porch.
This is the top part of the steps.
We still need the deck for the landing.

The back porch is looking good

They continued building our back porch. They added three of the columns to support the covering we will have on the back porch.
They finished framing the stairs today.
They also added some decking to the porch. They put a board under the back door that prevents it from opening. They may have done that to prevent us from going out on the back porch before it is safe, or they may have put the board there to get it out of the way.

Looking more like a porch each day

They continued working on our back porch today. They framed the top part of the stairs.
This is a view from the back door. It won't be long before we can use our back door again.