Something is Rotten in the Town of Manti

This is not a phrase describing the political hierarchy of Manti, but a sad statement about the state of my west porch that was being consumed by DRY ROT!

Dry rot is the weakening of wood by one of several species of fungus. The fungus digests the parts of the wood that give it strength and stiffness. The weakened wood is somewhat dry, hence the name “dry rot.” Dry rot usually results from too much moisture in contact with wood.

The dry rot on the trim and posts on the west porch of my house was depressing. Rain had run off the roof and rotted the trim. It had splashed on the floor of the porch and had started rotting the bottoms of the posts. Some of the turned posts were missing and the porch rails were in bad shape and coming apart. What an eyesore! I had to do something soon to prevent further damage.

I rolled up my sleeves, took out my checkbook and got started. I bought new trim at Crossroad Mills. I hired Tom’s Woodturning to turn me 24 new posts. Tom had previously turned some Newell posts for this porch, and I had bought hand railings when I repaired the front porch. Dave, my favorite handyman came over, bringing his tall ladder to start the repair job. He replaced and painted the trim then started on the porch.

When I returned from a trip to San Diego a week later, I drove in the driveway and was excited to see the porch posts were repaired or replaced and painted. What a difference! Of course Dave’s work made the rest of the porch look shabbier. I pulled out my 8-foot ladder, a bucket of oil-base primer, bought some Dutch Boy Extreme Adhesion paint and went to work. I filled in dings, sanded and painted the outside door casing, the porch ceiling and window casing. I removed the screen door to have its screen replaced. If I had known how cheap and easy that was, I would have done it sooner. I repaired, sanded and painted the door before I rehung it. I also took down an ugly shelf that was a junk collector, wondering why I had not removed it sooner.

I am planning to have raingutter hung to prevent this dry rot problem in the future.

On to the Outside

I finally moved to working on the outside of the house. Exiting to the outside of the house is easy since I have five outside doors, two upstairs and three downstairs. When I had a locksmith rekey all the deadbolt locks, he had a box of skeleton keys in his van. He let me dig through them until I found a key that fit almost every lock on the inside doors of the house. I went to the fabric store and found small tassels to hang from each key. It is those small details that make renovating so much fun.

My handyman poured and finished new sidewalks that wind up to the dining room and living room porches. The previous sidewalk was made of brick and with time had become uneven, a real ankle buster. I followed the same pattern and kept the winding effect. I had curbing poured on the street sides of the lawn and a automatic sprinkling system installed.

I discovered a wonderful mailbox. I drove up 10600 South in Salt Lake and admired a mailbox by the road near 13th East. By a stroke of luck I found one just like it and had two young men I knew dig the hole, pour the cement and help install it. I used a round cardboard mold made for pouring cement bases to line the hole in the ground and made a cardboard template showing where the bolts should be placed in the cement. After we poured the cement in the hole, I place the cardboard template on top of the cement and pushed the bolts into the cement where they were marked on the cardboard. After the cement hardened and the bolts were set in place, I lifted the mailbox and carefully set the base down right over the bolts. After tightening the nuts on the bolts, the mailbox was solid in place.

In the summer 2005, someone parked in front of my house to visit the Manti pageant. In the process of parking, they backed into the mailbox. The post snapped in two. Fortunately, it is made of cast aluminum, and I was able to find a shop that was skilled in welding aluminum and had it repaired. After touching up some paint, It looks as good as new.

The porch railings and posts needed a lot of work. Some of the posts were rotting while others were in good shape. I did not want to replace all of them so I found a wood craftsman who took one of the posts and turned others like them on his lathe using the original post as a pattern. I had them made out of redwood so they will last longer. I shopped around for porch railings and finally found some I liked at Crossroads Mill in Draper. The railings were surplus from the historical Cove Fort Restoration, and I bought them at a good price. Their employees have been especially helpful in aiding me in finding other moldings I needed from their stock, and the mill also turned rosettes for me. Even though I am not one of their major customers, they still gave me great service.

On the east of the house is weed patch next to the street. I have not decided whether to bring in gravel or to black top the area or look for another option for making the area tidy and still stay useful for parking. I need to get bids on each option and look at pros and cons. Any ideas anyone?

A Kitchen Stew

If my kitchen was stew, it would have been tasteless and bland. I did not have the finances to remodel the room like I wanted to. One day I could not stand the stark look and bad lighting anymore. A friend had creatively and inexpensively redecorated a little home she had purchased and it inspired me do to something, anything with this drab room.

The textured wall paper had never been completely painted and was stark white. This room with its white on white was not a place where I wanted to hang out, let alone cook.

Even the steps up to the porch off the kitchen were dangerous and built on sand. My handyman rebuilt them. I also had a motion light installed to make the porch area safer.