The Joys of Home Ownership?

A month or so ago, Cal and I noticed that bits of our porch were crumbling. And not in the place you’d expect, like the edges. Nope, these bits were at the threshold to the door. And if you bounced on it a little, it gave. Not good. Really not good.

I tried not to think about what it meant. When your cement porch behaves like a trampoline, it's a bad sign.

So Cal called a mason. He came and inspected. Then, he took Cal on an inspection. This is another bad sign. It means something is horrendous is wrong--it's bad enough that you won’t believe it without seeing it.

The mason showed Cal that not only did the porch support beams have dry rot, so did the beams supporting the front of the house. Gulp.

As you can imagine, I had immediate thoughts of the entire front of the house falling off. Not likely, but possible.

I had thoughts of the house on stilts. Also, not likely. Except they did put the front half on stilts during the repair.

About two weeks later, the porch and the front half house are safe. Thankfully, we have a home equity line of credit—a partial new foundation isn’t cheap. But, hey, the porch looks great. Except we need to paint it and repair some of the stucco. The joys of home ownership…

You can see some of the dry rot under the door.

See the red stilt helping hold up the house. And more dry rot.

From the door to the ground below is a good six foot drop.

New porch is drying.