Recyle, reuse, repair and relax…

A Porch Comes Home
In our neighborhood when a mobile home moves away, sometimes accessories are left behind. This is handled in the front office where a ‘list’ is established and the person at the top of the list who wants the left overs gets to haul them away. It was our lucky day…
 
Dan’s name was at the top of the list for a left behind porch. While it may not have been the most pleasant to look at, with some good skills and paint it can be transformed into coziness. My youngest was recruited to help with the project to help him learn some construction/reconstruction skills. Here it is in its raw form… freshly arrived and waiting for its new home.
 

 
The tailgate of the trailer was backed up to the entrance of the house and positioned in front of the door.
 

 
With a bit of vision and some skills surely this porch can be transformed…
 

 
Part of frugal living is using products that still have value and tweaking them so they are recycled into a new life. If you figure out how much all the wood in the porch would cost new, it’s quite a bit; it may add up to $1000-$1400. IMHO, that’s quite a big savings just for the small cost of renting a trailer and hauling it home.
 

 
Looking at the way it was used before we could see that the stairs would need to be moved by closing the existing opening and creating a new opening that aligns with the porch walkway.
 
Ah…. let’s take a little break… whew! That was a lot of work moving it here!
 

 
Now for the reinforcements… The porch needed to be firmed up and supported. Flashings need to be placed on top to direct water flow into the existing eave troughs.
 

 
Hey… some Black Friday sales were just too good to pass up. Who would ever think that even practical things would be deeply discounted?!
 

 
Needed to get up and add a backboard and an eave trough to the entrance side of the steel roof to catch the rain and protect whoever walks up into the porch… Looking pretty nice, wouldn’t you say?!
 

 
First we tried to just re-use the existing steps, but quickly discovered that the steps weren’t spaced according to step standards. Just a bit off… enough to almost have me twist my ankle. So new steps were in order and, here’s where those skills come in handy, voila! Presto! The steps are constructed. Dan made the entrance a bit wider, which gives it a more generous feel. And they are according to standards. Nice work. 
 

 
Now we need to wait for a day that’s warm enough to put a fresh coat of paint on it all so it blends in with the house. We also are planning to add bamboo roll-up shades for those hot summer days when you need that something extra. Now when it’s dark out and we leave the porch light on, there’s a certain homey cozy feel to the entrance. I find it very welcoming and certainly much better than the teeny steps that were there before.
 
Gosh… what should I say when I want to end the article and it’s not a food article? Bon appetit just doesn’t do it. How about welcome to Chez Kansas. : )