Here’s the question I asked myself today:
Should I keep my promise to you during a global pandemic?
I promised to share our old house renovation with you wonderful readers, and so I will—even when I’m very much aware some of you are dealing with the “real” of this pandemic; it’s not a mere inconvenience to you.
If that’s where you are, know that even as I’m working to bring this old house back to life, I’m praying for you. I’m asking God to meet you right there in the middle of your pain, your uncertainty, your grief and help you find a path through today’s reality. I wish I could ask for a path around it (or make it go away altogether), but Life isn’t like that, is it?
Perhaps this post will be a nice distraction and bring hope that some kind of normalcy will return soon.
My last renovation update to you left off with us moving from one end of the front porch (where we had achieved a firm foundation once again!) to the back of the side porch.
Again, we removed floorboards to expose the joists. Hmmm… I wasn’t expecting to see concrete block holding up the joists. Oh, brother.
When we removed the corner column, not only the base, but also the torus (disc-shaped piece; middle pic) was rotten. Previously we’d been able to keep the original torus, but not this time. This baby was soggy, soft, and crumbling. All that thick paint to remove on the cap piece! (bottom pic)
Fortunately, after researching where we might find a replacement torus—and not finding the perfect fit for our situation—Renaissance Man remembered that we know someone who’s skilled with a lathe! A phone call later, he’d agreed to let us hire him to make three toruses (two we know we need plus one “just in case”).
So while I stripped paint and Renaissance Man removed rotting floor boards, our neighbor cut down a slab of cedar he already had and worked his magic!
The 12′ section of porch now has new joists plus floorboards (which I’ll wait to show you next time). But this pic holds a clue for any of you who know about porch construction. There’s a reason we put 2x4s in between the joists on this section—but not the others.
Besides porch work, it’s Springtime which means yard work! And this Spring brought stump removal.
This one stump was several feet across and took HOURS to remove, even with this efficient contraption, so it warrants its own collage. Also because my Renaissance Man loved every minute of it!
Once the stump was out, we planted a new maple and a crape myrtle. Eventually both will provide much-needed shade for the west side of the house.
The side yard was seeded and covered with hay, and then the rains came. Grass is already coming up!
While my green-thumb sweetheart of a husband was on a roll, he decided to put in a large flower bed between the driveway and the (someday we’ll tackle it) cottage. If you’ve been a reader here for a long time (thanks for that!), you know our last old house had beautiful gardens, and cut flowers were plentiful. Let’s do it again!
And then last weekend, Renaissance Man woke up and said,
What do you think about getting some ferns for the porch?
I think it’s time!
Here’s a “behind the scenes” for you . . .
Seven years ago (where did the time go?), I wrote a post asking you readers a question:
Are your hanging ferns the envy of the neighborhood?
And then I showed you how to make that happen—and shared the post on Hometalk.
Since that time, that Hometalk post has received 448,000 views and more than 100 comments (and questions). That’s hard for me to imagine! As recently as this week, someone looking for information about growing ferns found that post and contacted me.
The main secret to having beautiful, lush hanging ferns is to keep them watered—and we do that by installing slow-drip automatic watering system because #stayathome is not the norm, and regular watering isn’t something I remember to do!
So after measuring our porch, determining the hose path, and taking inventory of his supplies, Renaissance Man made the obligatory trip to purchase what he needed. Yes, I went with him. But he gets seriously “in the zone” when he’s doing this project! I may as well be absent until it’s time to help pot the ferns.
Rainbird drip irrigation supplies are sold at Home Depot.
Hose runs on the ground from the water faucet (where a timer is installed) to the porch, up the side of the house, underneath to the inside of the porch, and then all the way across the porch. One-hole conduit straps hold the hose in place.
Smaller hoses are installed for each fern.
Helpful info: Position ferns to hang under eaves, not directly over the porch. This will keep water from rotting your floorboards! Also, attaching the hose to the basket chain with a small zip tie will keep the hose from moving out of the basket.
At the end of the weekend, we had two tired home owners, an ongoing porch renovation, and seven hanging ferns to (let’s pretend, okay?) improve the look of disarray.
Everyone was happy.
We’ll be installing drip irrigation in our flower beds, too. Learn how you can do it too!
. . . Because sometime this Summer you’re going to take a trip again, and you don’t want your plants burning up while you’re gone, right? We live in hope!
Wow, that’s some major improvements right there! Porch is looking great, and the plantings too!
I have one big question about planting right after stump removal – what did you do to amend and fill the inevitable sinking of the ground? My daughter and sil just had 3 huge trees removed from their 110 yr old home landscape (and stumps ground). I’ve advised them to wait until at least fall so they can amend and fill the soil in those areas, and then plant. What say you and Mr Renaissance Man?
Rita, if your daughter and SIL have significant holes where their stumps were removed, they can certainly fill those now, but sinking will likely occur and the areas need to be “topped off” with more soil in the Fall, as you advised. In our case, we only took the stump down just slightly below ground level because it was an area where we already needed to add some topsoil (shown “at the ready” in the background of top middle blog pic); there was no significant “hole” per se. Once soil was spread, we seeded, covered with hay, and kept watered until seeds sprouted. It’s almost time to mow!
I’d love to see pics of your daughter’s old house! There’s a wonderful “old house community” on Instagram. If she’s not already sharing pics of her home and projects there, she may want to consider it. Lots of great old house love, resources, and helpful people!