HOMEOWNERSHIP #101 – PART 1

I am guessing that perhaps 35-40 years ago in response to someone noticing that all four corners of my home were drooping, Phelps Dodge (then owner) jacked my entire home up and ran steel girders under her – an astonishing and resource-intensive feat from every perspective. When they did, however, the front porch apparently sort of ‘fell off” and while they ‘iced’ it back onto my home, we have dealt with water issues all along the front for the 30 years I have been here.

In those 30 years maybe 6 different folks tried to repair by skimming, coating, floating – you name it we tried it and all unsuccessfully. Clearly all these were band aid attempts to avoid ripping out the landing to see what we really have and fixing it properly. One of the nagging and worst places is the front porch landing under which is the ‘scary closet’ and boy is it appropriately named. In my infinite wisdom I decided that this month was THE TIME so we cleared out the scary closet and prepped for demo! It is a bit difficult to see but about one-third of the ceiling has fallen in due to the continued moisture. P.S. the over-sized sump pump serves double duty as discharge for our two washers as well as to evacuate water most quickly once it finds its way in.

Primarily for the benefit of my home’s next steward, I want to document the severity of the breach.

Next Joshua went to work with the jack hammer and pry bars.

What we found were joists (in not too bad of shape), rotted plywood, torn visqueen, and concrete. Also complicating the repair is the Grand Gramma of my wisteria so caution must be taken to work around her mother trunk. At the end of the first day, we secured everything and peeked into next week when we intend to finish the demolition and reconstruct the landing.  Wish us good fortune and stay tuned.