Monday, April 21, 2008

house projects

Joe and I have made the unbelievably adult decision that we will not go away for our annual anniversary weekend. We've been going to the beach once a year while my parents take care of the kids, but this year we want to do something else with that money, like pay off some of our fabulous trips from the past.

So the kids are still going to my parent's house for the weekend, but we've agreed to get some work done on some of the house projects that have been languishing. There are so many to choose from.

We could work on this, which is our back porch and needs to be jacked up a little more, then secured in place, then the stuff that keeps the wildlife out replaced:
Or we could work on this, the front porch, which has been a long restoration project. We're almost there, but the final details are fiddly and require some small lumber purchases, not to mention paint.
And then there's this. Doesn't this look frightening? I hardly know what to make of it. It's a hole in my foundation along the north side of my house, and it grew bigger all through the winter. I imagine all that needs to be done is chip off the loose stuff, prep the area in some way, and then slop some new kind of goo on there, but I don't know what kind of goo to get. Need some advice on this one.
Doesn't it look like my house is trying to tell me something?

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

The first two aren't too bad (my inlaws had to have their entire house jacked up to replace the foundation footings) but that last one indeed looks scary.

Ipo said...

you should save up a list and some funds and convince my dh, your sweet brother, to lend a hand. we have lived in an old coffee shack for years and are all about random fixes. we had to jack up our floor right before birthing dd at home because we figured the birth tub and by whaleness would drop me right through the floor :-)) we have some crazy house projects to take on next month as well prior to farm selling... a corner of our living room ceiling has mango flowers dropping through... talk about a wacky fix needed!

Anonymous said...

jeez, I wish *my* house had mango flowers falling through the roof. Some people have all the luck...

All three of those fixes look too daunting for me, and they would cause my own dh to go into palpitations.

Anonymous said...

Getting a start on them will probably help. I would be tempted to get professional advice on that last one. Fixing foundations can cost a lot more than a vacation, as can flood damage, so it is worth doing well. And as fiddly as painting porch railings is, if the weather is good it can be quite rewarding.