Street Side Front Porch | The Last 10% takes Forever

First things first, the floorboards are installed 100%. Dale and I finished up last week. The floor deserves a post all its own, and unfortunately, I have a bunch of little projects and details that I have to finish before I can do the final sanding and oiling. Until then, here’s a sneak peek.

Don’t worry. Those little plugs sticking up won’t stay like that.

The street side front porch has reached the stage that all projects go through. There is about 10% of the work left to do, but it feels like it takes forever. At this point, the tasks are varied but uncomplicated. Unlike the floor which required a specific set of skills and tools, everything leftover seems to need my entire tool arsenal and many trips up and down the basement staircase to retrieve it. I told Dale last week that I did not even know where to begin if I were writing a tutorial about this project, and I needed to create a list of tools.

What’s Left?

The Cubby

Prior to demo, this side of the porch used to be a full cabinet, and the wall was board and batten.

The board and batten did not match anything else, and we never used the cabinet. It only served as a home for spiders. Instead of replacing the door, I plan to leave the cubby open. Since it is not original to the house, I have no concerns about changing its function. To finish that side of the porch, I need to rebuild the wall and frame out the opening.

Painting

Although I finished the bulk of the painting a few weeks ago, I still need to paint the threshold and all of the new wood that we used to rebuild the porch.

Included in that list is this side of the steps. There used to be a bush blocking them, but we took it out a few weeks ago. I will elaborate on that when I write more about our new landscaping.

Scraping

Instead of taping each window pane before starting to paint, I forge ahead and scrape the paint off the glass later. I find that this method works just as well as the tape and paint method. Both ways are valid, but I find people are staunchly devoted to their method of choice. How about you? Are you team tape/paint or team paint/scrape?

Pillar & Doorjamp Rebuilding

The pillar is still standing there awkwardly without a base. I built the base in Dale’s shop weeks ago, but I wanted to finish installing the floor before I set it in place. Once I secure it to the pillar, I will need to do a bunch of finish work to blend the old with the new. And speaking of finish work…

…There is plenty of that left to do. I need to rebuild part of the doorjamb on both sides.

The Stairs

Next year, we plan to replace the stair treads to match the new porch floor. However, this year, they will get a good scrub and coat of sealer to carry them through the next three seasons.

As this project continues, I find my enthusiasm waning. It’s time to wrap it up and get back to the jobs I set aside when the One Room Challenge started. Remember the guest bathroom?

This weekend, everyone will pitch in so we can knock out some of these final tasks. I am anxious to make the front porch pretty and write a gloriously long reveal post. Thank you for sticking with me during this adventure-turned-catastrophe. It is going to be worth it.