Over at The Coal Miner's Despair, Charlie and White Trash Bob are rebuilding WTB's porch. (I don't really know why Bob calls his house that, except that it really was built by a coal miner sometime in the 1890s.) The porch wasn't horrible before, but it did need some help. What they've done so far looks fabulous.
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| "What we're really good at is making a mess."--WTB |
Freshly painted trim under the porch roof, freshly painted and fixed-up posts, a brand-new railing, and nice new trim just below the porch floor. WTB decided he didn't like the old newel post, which was square and really didn't seem to go with the posts, so he made two new ones which are round. You can barely see them at the left edge of the above photo. (I wasn't standing quite far enough away when I took it, but I was afraid I'd fall down the hill.) WTB's idea is that the two round posts and new steps (not yet built) will frame the front door better. The gap between the tops of the posts and the porch roof will be filled in with new capitals. Look real close at the upstairs window and you can see two dolls that Mrs. WTB left behind. One of them has fallen forward and its little hand is against the window, so it looks like they're trying to escape. I want to put witch hats on them for Halloween.
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"I love scrapin' paint so much that I had to do
some more of it over here."--Charlie |
This is taken from the west side of the house. I don't know if you can see it in the photo very well, but WTB put the balusters at a 45-degree angle. Looks really nice. Here you can also see the porch floor a little bit. (I'll get better photos of the floor when they get it all swept off.) Like I said before, WTB bought new tongue-and-groove flooring intending to paint it and then decided it was too pretty to paint, so he stained it. Charlie scraped and sanded down all the porch trim and then WTB repainted it. Check out the curved ceiling on the porch. I just love that. They're going to keep that, but repaint it. I'm secretly wishing they'd paint it a very pale sky blue, but that's probably not going to happen.
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"If we make the top the bottom and the
bottom the top, then I think it'll fit."--WTB |
The east side of the porch. Look at all those balusters waiting to be nailed to the railing. While I was taking this photo, Charlie and WTB were trying to fit in the little piece of railing between the post on the far right and the half/newel post next to it. Some colorful language was involved. If you look really close, you can see a bottle of Torani Raspberry Syrup on the porch. WTB mixes that with water or club soda to sustain them during the arduous porch-building. He's a gracious host.
I think WTB needs some wicker furniture and big ferns on that porch when he gets it done. What do y'all think?
