And I do mean that literally.
When we had the siding done this summer, we raised the front porch roof by just enough that the flashing on the square columns holding it up was just a bit too short. I.e. you could see the original blue wood columns underneath. That didn’t really bother us, but we figured that as long as the flashing didn’t work, we might as well just go back to the original wood columns and paint them. No need for white flashing if painted wood will do.
Then we found out why the flashing was there. The bottom of the wood columns was rotted out on at least two of the four. Aesthetically, it wasn’t terrible, but structurally, these columns are the support for the whole porch. It’s not a big porch, I grant you, but how’d you like it to come crashing down on you when you ring the door bell?
Luckily, we have a number of very handy contractors in the neighborhood – one of whom is a civil engineer – so we enlisted his help in replacing them. And by help, I mean we paid him to do the whole thing in three days. It was pretty nice.
This was day two, since you can see one more column has to go up
The columns are now round and fiberglass so, although they’re not the original look of house, I think they go with the siding and the new contemporary makeover we’ve slowly been giving to the exterior.
Now, the columns actually went up sometime in September, but they came primed, not painted. Yes, it took me nearly six weeks to take two hours of my day and paint them. In the mean time, they sat in beigey chalky splendor. And if I was being totally honest, I’d say that this is only the first coat so I do have at least one more to do. But at least they look white now.
I know it’s only a little change, but I think it makes a pretty big difference. Now if only we could get up the courage to pay for schedule some door replacements. And stain the brick. I always forget about that one.
