A Little Porch B & A

I need to remember to take better Before shots. Part of the reason for not getting a good Before shot this time is because I really wasn’t planning to do all this work right now. I had to go back in to the archives and find an old shot of the house and then crop the porch. The shot doesn’t have very good lighting, but then maybe that’s good thing. Light has not always been this houses friend when it comes to photos.

I did add the reeds I spoke about yesterday. You can see them in the last photo (click to enlarge) on the front of the two posts at the base of the steps. I’m really glad I added them. It adds the little detail that seemed to be missing. I also got the deck painted and added the Sharkgrip to the steps (I never did talk about Sharkgrip).

Old Brown & Green


New Bright & Green


Full Frontal


As you can see I still need to do the rain gutter. That will be next week when I have money. There is also the unresolved issue of the heater vent on the second story. You can see it to the right. At one time that vented a free standing heater in the front bedroom. This is left over from the apartment days. I’m pretty sure the vent will go at some point but because I haven’t really figured out a heating system for the house it will stay for now.

The other thing that needs to be dealt with is the front door. It needs a little more work than I willing to put in to it right now. It is generally in good shape. There is some plywood screwed to the base acting as a kick plate, I guess. That will need to come off but I’m not sure what’s behind it. There is paint build-up that needs to be dealt with. I also need a new lockset and a piece of glass is loose. And it needs proper weather stripping.

The last thing is the mail slot. It pains me to think that the POs may have cut the slot for that crappy, crappy brass mail slot that is on there now. The house was a rental for so long I can’t imagine there was a slot there for the tenants. I can only hope that there was a slot there in 1895 and that one was not cut in the last 6 years by the POs. Regardless of when it was cut, the crappy brass slot that is there must go.



I bought the one above on Ebay several years ago. It is very large which is what I need because the crappy brass one is large as well. Most of the period mail slots I saw were rather small. I don’t remember what I paid for this big one but it wasn’t cheap. I searched for months on Ebay and was beat out several times for similar mail slots. Not for that one though. I sniped at the last second with an absurdly high bid and got it. I’ve got the get the rest of the house painted, though, before I deal with that front door. I can’t get bogged down any longer on this porch. I think it’s been over a month now. Way to long.