Wren’s Nest Conservation Project — Repairing the Porch
You’ll be happy to know that Blalock Construction Co, our contractor, started exterior and foundation work on the Wren’s Nest around Thanksgiving. Workers have been busy banging on the house ever since.
We’ll be spending about $107,000 on this phase of the project. Curious as to what we’re doing? Let me show you!
Our carpenter started on the porch, which had been a victim of wood rot.
See where that subtle green arrow is pointing? That hole is the result of a pinhole leak, clogged leaves, and years of water dripping and dripping and dripping.
We fixed it. And those leaves are coming down soon, promise
Around back, the beam in the southeast corner had suffered from the same problem.
We took it out completely and replaced it in-kind.
Our carpenter took off the rail and replaced the rotted pieces in-kind too.
Many of the pieces, such as the wood that spans the bottom of the porch railings, had identical pieces underneath the house. They were left over from our restoration in the late 1980s.
Luckily, most of the porch was in decent shape, so mostly we repaired spots hither and thither.
Like here.
And here.
Finally, you might have noticed that you can now click on the pictures and scroll through larger versions of them. We aren’t just making changes to the house, folks.
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Amelia Trace Lerner
Program Director
Lain Shakespeare
Executive Director
5 Comments to Wren’s Nest Conservation Project — Repairing the Porch
I love historic preservation. Is that a wheelchair I see in the background of the third picture?
Nice work with the photos, Lain!
That is a wheelchair, Kirk. And if you look closely, you can also see a beat-up stroller to the left of it. I don’t know where it came from.
Thanks, LaWren!
Nice work with the blog improvements! Were they easy to make?
Also, these historic preservation posts are my “faves.”
Thanks, Joe. And for some people I’m sure they’re easy.
Since our blog has the same design as the rest of our site, it’s a little harder. I do not help, since instead of leaving it to the experts (our web designers), I like to tinker with things. So, at press time the blog looks different from the main site. Why? Because I screwed something up. Right now I’m trying to figure out just what exactly I did.
Anyway, WordPress 2.7 should be easy to use once we get everything updated. Trouble is, there are a few complicated things we have already / need to update first.