Front Porch Re-Do

The Porch Needed A Face Lift

It started with some rot on the molding around the front door. It lead to repainting the railing, painting some windows, adding some flowers, painting the garage door, adding some urns, replacing the front lanterns, painting the front door and cleaning the windows.

A little rot opened up a large can of worms. One thing just lead to another.

It was a lot of work, but it looks a lot better than it did weeks ago.

Take a look:

After fixing all the rot around the door (if you want to see how I did it or before photos click here:

http://christys-thriftydecorating.blogspot.com/2008/09/fixing-wood-rot.html ), I gave the front door a new coat of paint. Black with a border of cinnamon. I installed some new hardware since the old stuff was worn and not very secure.

So what was thrifty about the door? I made the stained glass myself (oh, that saved me plenty), and I happen to have the black paint in the basement, so there wasn't much of a cost. The hardware however, was not cheap but I justified that thinking we need the security, right?

I installed these lanterns. I found two of them on sale at Lowe's. No electrician needed, I did the wiring myself. I do only basic electrical work. The plant hangers beneath were sprayed with black Rustoleum. They use to be a light shade of green.
So now that the front door and trim had a new coat of white paint, I had to do something with the large atrium window above. I hired this job out ($190.00 for priming and painting inside and out). I don't do heights, so it had to be done. Chalk it up to homeownership.
The railing was scraped down with a wire brush, primed with rustoleum primer and sprayed with high gloss black. Looks like new.
One thing just lead to the other. Now that the door looked great, the trim was painted and the railing looked like new......the little tin roof about the front window needed paint. I brushed this from the windows above and finished with a ladder. Not really high, so I could handle it.
These urns I purchased at Lowes. They were on sale for $45.00 each. They are very well made and are pretty large. Best to wait until the end of the season to buy things like this. They are so much cheaper. These urns were $89.00 each during the peak of summer.
These stones I actually had hanging around the yard doing nothing so I used them to build an additional place for flowers right next to the front porch.

Here are some photos of plants in the front containers. The reason I'm showing you this is that some of them are not real. The ferns I added are from Walmart and you can't kill them. You really can't tell that they are fake and add to the fullness of the arrangement. I am not a fan of plastic or fake flowers outside, but I think you can use them together to really fill up garden containers. I find that the greenery works but stay away from plastic flowers. They just look "plastic".

I installed the scalloped garden edging (I also had that hanging around) into the front garden bed. Below another shot of the edging. I dug that all in...what a pain!

The mums I purchased at Aldi's for $2.99 each. What a deal!

New doorbell-$12.00.

Last but not least, the $1.00 clearance- garden gnome....priceless.

Well, it was a ton of work, but satisfying in the end. The front of the house now looks so much better. A coat of paint can do wonders.

01 02 12

Fixing Wood Rot

The Elements are Killing My House

Yes, I know this is suppose to be a decorating/craft/thrifty blog but all that is worthless if the house is falling apart from under you. This post can help you save money by doing it yourself. I can do it, so you can do it. Read on.....

Here in Atlanta we get some real extremes in temperature-blistering heat in the summer and some days with below freezing temps in the winter. Those changes in temperatures really do a number on the exterior of my home.

Every year I try and take a "tour" of the exterior of my house after summer and look for any problems that need attention. Better to find those problems before you have to sink a fortune into repairs and have major problems.

After taking a good look at my front porch, I realized there was lots of work to do. I had stains on the cement, several lose bricks, exterior lights that needed replacing and plenty of rotten wood to repair.

Here's what I mean.......

Here is the first sign of the rot that had infested my door trim. You could put a screwdriver right into this wood because it was rotten and soft. I got my saw out and cut out the rotted part rather than replacing the entire trim. This is the saw I used to do it. A great tool for me because it's cordless,variable speed and light weight. I bought this a few months ago (cost around 39.00) in Walmart.

This is another section, all cut out and left to dry in the sun. Pretty bad looking isn't it? I measured out a piece of wood to glue in using liquid nails. Here is my replacement piece, glued and nailed in. What do I use for filling all those cracks and crevices? The best product ever. I read about this a few years ago on several different websites about filling and repairing rotten wood. It's called Bondo and it's available in Lowe's and Home Depot.

This product costs about $10.00 and is a two-part putty. They use it for automotive repairs, but it's now commonly used to fill in areas in wood work. It's great stuff and hardens like a rock. So if you have a small area that you can't plug in with another piece of wood, you can use Bondo. It's not easy to use, because it drys so quickly, but you get use to working with it. I usually place the compound on a piece of cardboard, add the hardener, mix quickly and then apply. This stuff is "rot proof" and can be sanded. Photo below shows piece all sanded.

All sanded and primed it now is clean, dry and strong. Oh yeah, it looks better too. I won't kid you though, it took a lot of work.

Fixing is one thing, but you know I needed to add some decorative touches. I am adding four decorative pieces to each corner. I've cut four pieces of pine measuring about 12" X 6" (the size of my door trim). In addition, each piece has a rosette and long trim.

All the pine pieces are caulked (I used my free sample that I got in the mail) and primed several times. All four of these rectangles will be connected with trim. When it's all done, I'll take a photo and present it to you here.

So here is what we have:

• taking a tour can help you find all those potential "expensive" problems.
• Bondo works great for filling in rotted areas
• You can always add to the look of your door by adding decorative woodwork
• caulk, caulk, caulk. If I had caulked these areas faithfully, I wouldn't have rot at all. Check all your doors and windows....save yourself some money!

*I'll post a photo when all the decorative pieces are connected, primed and painted. I'm hoping it looks really nice when it's finished.
01 02 12