Wood Rot

Our house was built in 1963.  It has great character, a nice warm-and-fuzzy kind of feeling to it, and a pretty good-sized yard.

We love this house.

However, older homes come with some problems.  The number one problem being the toilets.  They choke on even Julie’s loads, and I don’t think a day goes by that James’ bowels don’t manage to send those old porcelain gods sputtering to the point where the ever-standing-by plunger is an emergency-like necessity.

The second problem isn’t (well, wasn’t) nearly as entertaining, but a bit more detrimental to value of this place:  wood rot.

wood-rot

Last year’s monsoon season was the final straw for some of the wood trimming on our house, and the exterior paint was starting to peel like the calluses on my feet after a weekend dance convention.  Gross, I know.

wood-rot2

Now, you can’t really tell from that picture, but the wood rot was seriously ghetto.  It was so deteriorated that there was no possible way it could make it through the next pending thunderstorm season without the front quarter of our porch collapsing into a heap of splinters and crappy foam roofing right on top of my rose bushes.

When we got a quote to fix it last year, we fell over clutching our chests gasping for air.  There was no way we could afford it.  However, remember my awesome group of guys who finished landscaping my yard?  Yeah, they have experience with wood rot and exterior painting as well.

fixed

They completely replaced the deteriorated wood beams and repainted our house a pretty shade of light blue that coordinates better with the Tucson skies than that off-pink (gag) color that was adorning our crumbling walls.

And off topic, but those are the Catalina Mountains in the background.  Gorgeous, huh?  Living in the desert does have its perks, despite my incessant bitching and moaning about the heat.

But anyway, the price they did all this work for was completely within our budget, and they did a beautiful job.

fixed2

My next home project?

Re-tiling the house, much to James’ complete horror, I’m sure.  This crappy vinyl crap has seen its last days.

I’d also like to install flagstone under my front porch. Wouldn’t that look so pretty?

Current Mood:Mischievous emoticon Mischievous

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This entry was posted on Saturday, May 9th, 2009 at 10:13 am and is filed under Photos. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

6 Responses to “Wood Rot”

  1. Amy Says:
    May 9th, 2009 at 5:06 pm

    It looks great! I love the idea of the flagstone…I’m trying to convince my husband that we need to do that as well.

  2. Samantha Says:
    May 9th, 2009 at 6:06 pm

    Wow, they did great. I scrolled up again it looked so different.

  3. Jessica Says:
    May 10th, 2009 at 8:04 am

    i want your mexicans.

  4. Jim Says:
    May 10th, 2009 at 10:49 am

    Ah old houses and plumbing… my big Euc (probably dating back to when the neighborhood was platted in 1948) had a crush on my sewer pipe. Literally. I hated to break the affair up, but now I have a better view of the mountains _and_ reliable indoor plumbing.

  5. Tamra Says:
    May 10th, 2009 at 1:33 pm

    LMAO… the “love affair” comment nearly had me on the floor laughing!

    But seriously, while those trees are beautiful, they’re kind of a pain… did you know they call them “widow-makers”? It’s better you have a mountain view now… and flushing toilets, well, that’s just a downright necessity.

  6. Tamra Says:
    May 10th, 2009 at 1:37 pm

    Jess… I could try, but I don’t know if they’ll package as nicely in a box as those cookies did… :-) .