Front porch getting there....still a ways off.

Sample wall colors and finished windows. These old windows are hard to replicate nowadays....the art has almost been lost...in short, I'm glad we were able to salvage these old guys, even if they're single paned.

I'm actually not a bad finisher. Finished footings. Finally!

We conveniently ripped off some old one by materials from the front porch that needed to be tossed anyways and created these 8-10 foot planks to be able to wheel the concrete into the trenches so that shoveling and raking was minimized. Then it could be finished.

Two guys with two wheel barrels, one guy spreading, one guy finishing, 6.25 yards of concrete, 1.5 hours

Footings dry and ready to pour...1/26/2010...

Saturated and flooded footings on 1/25/2010. Took three pumps at once to get that water out all morning long.

Exterior Colors: accent, house, and trim

Footings for the addition - four feet down is not enough; inspector calls for a geotechnical engineer...

Taking the trench/pipes to daylight all the way to the ditch...

16 inches of dirt excavated along this particular wall, 1-4 inches of base gravel was laid, then a perforated 4" pipe along with a solid drain pipe for gutters was laid along the slope, which was later backfilled with 8-10 inches of more gravel.

End result...

Mike C. drove this backhoe across town to excavate the perimeter of the house so that we can install a drainage system and waterproof the foundation walls.

I like this picture. The long awaited "unveiling" of the porch as it was originally built in 1927-28. They built homes certain ways in the early 20th century for a reason. I guess that can't be said for every situation, but at least it's the case here.

This is what the home looked like back in the late summer/early fall. Mr. Thomas Wentz Jr., a surveyor, moved here in the early 1950's from Charlotte, and resided here until his death. We made the purchase from his son on November 2nd, 2009. Plans were submitted to the Durham Historic Preservation Commission in early October to convert the area underneath the swooping front gable back into its original state, a front porch with columns, reclaim the 1920's siding and windows by first removing all the aluminum, and increasing the square footage from 1050 to around 1400. A certificate of appropriateness was granted on January 5th and building permits should be ready for pickup any day now.