The Porch-The Finale

When last we met, I was going to tell you how we save a ton of money finishing up our wrap-around porch. We know this isn't permanent, but since we've spent all of our house restoration funds painting the outside, this will be functional and pretty until we are ready to invest more money in the porch. I'm figuring on 5 years, maybe a bit more.

We started with exterior grade 5/8" plywood.



Using these tools:



and a 1 x 4 as a guide, we cut out shallow grooves on the plywood to resemble the joints in a tongue and groove floor. The linoleum knife cut the grooves and the chisel widened them a bit. We took turns cutting, because it was hard work. Both men ended the day with gashed fingers. I didn't. ;-) Then, we used a regular pencil and ran it down the grooves to emphasise them a bit.



Finally, I stained it to match the rest of the porch. I'm abot 99% sure it will be a perfect match when it's varnished, because the original floor was this awful when it was stained. Varnish is an amazing thing!!



Once we put them in place, it was amazing how much they looked like the rest of the porch. From 2 feet away, you can't tell that it isn't tongue and groove all the way around. This picture doesn't look like it matches because the new stuff isn't varnished, but in person, it's amazing.

Can you tell?




Isn't my husband brilliant? ;-)

Ok, so that's how I spent my summer vacation--did I mention painting all of the outside too?

Now, we are taking a break from house restoration to enjoy the fall and winter. After Christmas, we will pick our next project--which may be rebuilding rails around the porch. One of us wants rails and one doesn't. So, I've agreed to live a few months without rails before we make a decision.

So, tomorrow, I will move into something a bit more crafty or doggy or whatever else strikes my fance.