Front Porch Progress

So while I was goofing off and wandering around Marblehead, SLOW progress was being made on the outside of the house.  We had four solid days of rain last week that really brought things to a halt.  But the porch roof is up, the front stairs are almost there, just missing the treads.  The trim is on the upstairs windows.  The new longer living room windows are done and should be delivered to the house today.

I need to have that limb taken off.  I never noticed it until I started to stand back to take photos of the house.

Hey, do you think this porch...

Before picture of the house.

...makes me look fat?  Doesn't the house look taller in the old photo?  I think the horizontal lines of the porch deck and roof that make it look wider.  You know what they say about horizontal lines.

I think it will look at little better when the skirt detail fills in the black space under the porch.  The longer windows will also add some verticality to the front.

As I mentioned before, I'm keeping the old shingles on this driveway side of the house to save money.  You can see they've cut back the shingles on the front corner so the cornerboard can wrap around to make it look a little more finished.  Someone was there yesterday from the painting company scraping the shingles as you can see on the lower portion.  They look pretty darn good for being about 70 years old.  Hopefully they'll hold paint until I'm ready for phase 2.

Here's another view of the front stairs.  The first stair is granite which is done to keep the wood off the wet ground.  It's kind of a common treatment around here.  The old cement sidwalk is too narrow for the wider stairs so I'm going to have to have that ripped out and a little bit of that curbing cut back.

And remember the electric meter that was a few inches out from the house...

...and this ugly front corner of the house?

The electric meter has been moved and the trim is going up.

Here's another view of that area.  My "lazy stairs" are built, also except for the treads.  I think they should have been narrower but it's not a big deal.  It's something I missed on the architect's plan.  I think some landscaping will resolve that. 

The living room windows and columns are supposed to be delivered today.  I'm eager to see those in place; they'll make a big impact.