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Beacon Hill: Front porch
Posted on October 4, 2016
The porch! This step is where I could have used lots of pictures and diagrams! It’s a bit confusing.
First–this was my Sheet 23, which has all the porch post trims (about 40 of them). When it came out of the box, it disintegrated, so I had to piece it together like a jigsaw. I managed to find all the pieces, thankfully.
The broken Sheet 23 goes back into bags and a shoebox for later use (the front door and some window trim is on it as well).
These are the pieces of porch post from Sheet 26 (which thankfully was intact). Note–there are two of Sheet 26.
Tip: By the way–I found it very useful to go through all the big sheets in the box and mark their number with a sharpie (in a corner so it doesn’t get on a piece you need!) The numbers on mine are very faint, and I got tired of searching for what number was what.
Three of each post pieces are glued together, stacked on top of each other, to create four posts. Masking take was a good clamp.
The edges of the posts are a little raw for me, even after much sanding, so…
I smoothed them out with spackling. (The post in the picture is pre-spackling–I gave it a base coat of gesso). (Explain to me my spell checker doesn’t like the word spackling? That’s what it says on the jar!)
The porch post trim pieces (from my ill-fated Sheet 23). Middle post trim (the long ones, four per post), and the bottom trim (four per post).
The spackled post waiting to dry, and the trim pieces getting a coat of paint.
The post on the left is what they all will look like. I decided to experiment with one first to see if I liked the colors. I like the dark base with the lighter pieces glued on top.
The bottom row is the “mid post caps” (one large, one small for each post) which slide down the posts from the top. I had to sand down the spackling to make them fit!
A finished post in place, with the caps–large one first then small one on top of it–in place.
The porch-roof trim. These pieces gave me problems, and there were no good photos to guide me! Laid out here from bottom to top are pieces A, B, C, and D (D is the small one).
A, C, and D glued together and painted. This part was fairly straightforward. When this is flipped over and glued to the underside of the porch roof, the long piece will go against the right side of the house, the shorter piece on the side with the front door. (I show this in place a couple of photos down.)
It was piece B that drove me crazy. I put the roof down under the trim and tried to figure out where B went. Like this? No, apparently not. I even had it glued, took it apart, flipped everything around wrong, glued it again, took it apart … Until I finally figured out ….
That piece B goes like this. It rests flush with the top of A (actually the bottom, but we’re flipped over right now), with A’s big rectangular tabs sticking up. Like this, B forms holes for the posts to go in. So B, in this picture, sits about 3/4 of an inch off the table. Who knew?
Another shot of B correctly glued to A. This will show on the underside of the porch roof (got all that?).
Here’s how the porch trim / post (A-B-C-D) support will fit on the house. Porch roof will go on top of this.
Now that everything’s painted (2-3 coats) and given a coat of DuraClear Ultra Matte varnish, it’s time to put it all together. Port posts go in the holes first. I only had to enlarge one hole, which made me feel good.
The trim in place with the porch posts pushed through the holes, held in place temporarily by tape. The house, BTW, is on its back, which is why the photo looks a bit odd.
A shot of the porch posts in the trim, from the side.
The porch roof itself in place, with the top trim painted and glued on. I went with red for the top trim.
Now for the porch foundation. This is the smallest foundation piece on the right after it had been knocked loose by the furry assistant.
Here is the furry assistant complaining that he should be able to unglue things whenever he wants to.
The right porch foundation glued back into place. It took me a while to figure out it went to the left, toward the porch.
The longer right side foundation piece goes under the porch floor, against the post sticking through, and back into the piece I glued in the photo above.
Small foundation piece on the left side of the porch. It too goes against a post sticking through and back to the main house’s foundation.
The long foundation piece goes against the bottom of the porch posts that stick through the porch floor, and against the edges of the left and right foundation pieces.
Here we are–porch posts, roof, trim, and foundation in place. This took days!
The colors might be too stark for me. I might soften with a yellow or blue, or “age” the house, or do greenery … I’ll see what it looks like when more is done!
Next I’ll do the kitchen bay setup, then return to the roof, which I’ve been avoiding.
