July 29, 2013

The Beginning of Porch Repair

The uniqueness of our front porch is one of the features that attracted us most to our home.  This porch spans the entire width of our house and circles around the turret to create a nice living space we hope to enjoy for much of the year.  Sadly this was one area of the house that was neglected over the years before we purchased this house.  But with the help of Pat Drury and his team from Drury Designs, today marks the beginning of the repair work to our porch.

The first day of porch repair
We have been very impressed with Pat's previous work including a few historic homes in De Pere, as well as the creativity and spark he brought to the work at the restaurant S.A.L.T.  It has been great to work with someone with as much enthusiasm for preserving the historic features of our house and using as much original or reclaimed materials as possible.

The Drury team begins work on the porch.
For our porch there are a couple areas of concern that Pat and his team will be starting with.  First, we have a few stone columns with wooden pillars that years of water damage have taken its toll on.  In the photo below, you can see the the worst section of the needed repairs -- a leaning stone column.

This would only be acceptable in Pisa.
Another area that will be repaired is our front step.  It is old, cracked, and actually crumbles apart when it is used.   I am sure it has been an eyesore in this neighborhood for years, and we won't be the only ones glad to see it replaced. 

The crumbling steps
While this is just the start of this project, we are very excited already.  We will be reporting more on the progress as the porch project continues!