aka the continuing saga of the “little” front porch project that grew… ( good idea #2 and first phase front porch tell the start of the tale if you need to catch up)

When we last left off, after stripping, sanding and watersealing the porch floor and then deciding to remove the porch rails…one section of the porch rails had come off easily.

The remaining sections were giving me fits. The screws were kind of sort of countersunk, painted over and who knows how long in the wood. A few came out easily and the rest I couldn’t budge. I was working with a cordless drill that has a few issues so before resorting to digging screws out with a chisel and hand turning with vise grips, I bought a corded drill – more oomph, less $$$ than a cordless with enough power – I hoped – for this job.

I was teased into believing that things would go swimmingly as the first screws that I tried with the new drill came out – not easily, but with a little back and forthing they did come out. Ultimately, each section had 1 or 2 that I still couldn’t budge.

Sunday, I started on the digging out of the remaining screws. It took 1/2 an hour of huffing and puffing to chisel enough wood out to get the grips on the screw head and hand crank the first screw out. And that screw had a head in good shape – most of the others did not.

Before starting the Sunday work, I made a trip to the hardware for screw bits to replace 2 I’d broken working with the cordless. I stopped at the construction counter and conferred about my task. The consensus was that it was either what I was doing or “if they were doing it, they’d use a sawzall and cut the nails”.

Yesterday, I was passing the tool rental place…short story, rented a sawzall and cut the remaining nails. I have to admit that I am intimidated by saws. I have a circular saw – but am still not overly comfortable with saws. I had no problems with the sawzall on the nails, though – until getting to the last 3 nails. Problem there was the sections were so tight I had trouble getting the blade in and broke a blade in the effort. Enter my neighbor Mike, who was returning my pie plate (empty! – it had 1/2 a cherry pie in it when it when his way!). Showing that “no good deed goes unpunished”, he helped me with the remaining 3 cuts and now the front porch looks like this:

I love the feel of openness – I’m getting used to the look.

Next step, prep for painting and the upper “western-look” bracing ala this porch:

Onward!