We were anxious and yet sad the winter day when we started taking off the old porch.  We left it on during the whole project, when actually it would have been much easier and more practical to have removed it way before now.    We just couldn't bring ourselves to do it since we sat on it quite often and knew that it would be many seasons before we would be at the stage to build one back. 
But the day finally came and down it fell.   Our dog Wrinkles loved the old porch as much if not more than we did and he never did really seem to understand where it went. 

The house changed dramatically in my perception.  Maybe it was because it was winter and dreary, or because the place now looked like an old school house.   But it lost something without the porch and the three months or so that it took to rebuild it back seemed the longest part of the whole project so far.

 

Since we're such outdoor people, we wanted the new porch to be wide and large enough that we could have meals outside as well as stretch out a hammock between cedar posts. I had also read that it would help cool and insulate the house and of course we had to have room for rocking chairs.    We also designed it so that we would have a separate screened-in room that we would access from our bedroom for cool summer night sleeping. 

So with a "How To" in hand we set out with string and level and staked out the wrap around porch and screen room.   We talked to the owner of the local supply store and was able to salvage a pickup load of old bricks that would match the fireplace nicely.    So we became masons for the next month or so and built the peers for the porches to sit on. 

The seasons were starting to change into spring when we finally got the framing done and started decking the porches.   


Wrinkles, Sharon and I were so happy and proud the day we pulled back out the old rocking chairs and could sit and watch the sun set from porch built with our own two hands. 

We wanted the covered porch to be sturdy as well as look rustic and blend with the natural setting that the house sits in.   So with this in mind we decided to use rough cedar logs as the posts for the porch roof.   Our neighbor and friend Larry helped us log and haul a couple dozen cedar trees from a place on his farm where they grow in nice tall thickets.  We were able to use quite a few that had fallen from the ice storm that damaged some of the forests a couple years back.      It took a couple guinea pig logs for my chain saw skills to improve enough so that I could cut out the notches and pegs to make the posts all connect together. 

Once we had the skeleton of the roof frame done we took a break from porch work and put a protective stain on the siding.   My uncle from Colorado was passing through again and since he is a painter by trade, we couldn't pass up his invitation to help us out.   With his help we also got all the the exterior trim painted.   The only thing missing now was the tin on the porch roof. 

As the summer came to a close and the autumn winds began to blow we finally had all the roofs covered and had logged several hours already in the old rocking chairs.     During the rest of the fall we planed the wood that we were going to use on the inside walls, installed insulation, electric and  heat and air ducts.   By the time winter came to visit us again this once falling down old homestead, was now standing tall and proud in its cozy home at the end of the road in Butterfly Hollow.