Considerations

Posted on Sun Jul 6, 09:37 PM in Playing House

A list of things that on the surface are kind of frivolous, but which are really preventative maintenance.

Been thinking about house projects lately. We’re not directly in a position to do any of these right now… but I’d like to put some in the docket because they are sort of important.

  1. The front porch/basement water problems. Our front porch is a wood deck that is level with our front door. It is elevated about 2-3 feet above the ground. When the spring thaw hits, or the rain is really hard and windy, we get rainwater seeping into the basement under that area. The deck is built above an old (probably original) concrete slab, which pitches back towards the foundation. To really fix the problem, I know I need to alter the exterior elements through things like grading. So, the porch at least has to be taken up, if not eliminated. While I was visiting with my aunt and uncle on Saturday, they mentioned that if they had known then what they know now, they would have built their patio out of concrete, not wood (which they claim to be a pain to maintain). I had always thought concrete to be kind of bland, until I did an internet search for stamped/colored concrete, which looks pretty neat and not bland at all. Plus, a concrete patio could be installed flush with the foundation wall, pitched correctly, and eliminate the water problems in the basement. Not a lot of maintenance, looks nicer than wood (imo), and corrects a problem; that gets a vote from me.
  2. Minor roof projects. We eventually need a new roof, but before that, we found that we really need to remove the two antennae which the tree limbs are starting to pester. One is a huge UHF that is, of course, on the highest part of the roof and hardest to get to. The other is a smaller RCA satellite dish. We also need to have a chimney cap installed. I’m hoping we can find one roofing person to do all these things in one visit.
  3. The sunroom. We have a great sunroom in our house. It’s four season, so it gets a/c in the summer and heat in the winter. It would be great to use all year… but really, we don’t use it much in the winter, because the huge, beautiful windows which make this sunroom so airy are door-style windows, and they are not sealed all that well. I need to find a way to install weatherproof trim so that the ambient temperature of the room can remain consistent (and I need to treat the door the same way, actually). Secondly, the crown molding is painted over in this room, and we don’t like the way our choice of wall color turned out; what I’d like to do is remove the crown molding, have it taken to a stripper (no, not that kind), refinish it, then repaint the walls and ceiling before nailing the moulding back up. With a better color, restored woodwork, and nicer ambient temperature, we could actually hang out it there. My ultimate goal is to turn this into a room that really is an extension of our living room.

And then you said...

# Redchuck wrote on Mon Jul 7 at 01:03 PM:

You can probably fix the concrete without removing it or the deck. If you feel like do-it-yurselfing, you can rent or borrow a concrete slab lifter, pick up the slab and pack fine sand under it. This is the “Chuck’s Dad is kind of hardcore” technique.

If you prefer the “Chuck is kind of a wuss, personally” technique, you can hire someone to do slabjacking (aka mudjacking) and relevel the slab.

# mercyskye wrote on Mon Jul 7 at 10:47 PM:

I thought about mudjacking, but I still think the porch would have to be removed to get at the slab. I mean, we’re talking an area where you can only crawl around on your hands and knees (underneath the porch).

Regardless, the slab itself is so old, it really doesn’t look comfortable, and I personally wouldn’t use it for hanging out on.

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