Friday, July 28, 2017

porch posts

Our original plan had been to use 6x6 posts to support the porch for the time being (due to budget, naturally).  We were going to chamfer the edges to dress them up a bit, and leave them until we had a chance to mug Toren's tooth fairy for additional funds.


We'll be reinstalling the enormous porch window (the only element saved from the porch we demolished), so we were interested in installing the permanent columns to either side of it.  We wanted to get this done at this stage because pulling out and replacing the temporary columns would be complicated and expensive.


So, quotes were obtained, and as expected, they were disgusting.  One place quoted me 1200 per column for finger-jointed pine.  Another followed up their initial e-mail with another e-mail two days later after I hadn't yet replied with a "was it something I said" e-mail.  Weird.  Even weirder was an incredibly friendly e-mail, with a reasonable quote attached!  The quote was reasonable enough that we're sucking it up and buying all the columns from them, custom 10 foot 8x8s in western red cedar for $550 apiece.  Once they're on site I'll be more specific about the quality, for now I'm cautiously optimistic.

I'm posting the enhanced images here, along with their drawings, just in case your eyes pick up on details we've missed.  You'll notice the incised carvings don't appear on the drawing, that's only because they're unsure if they'll be able to do them.  If they can't our builders will...




10 comments:

  1. I am SOOOOOOOO excited for you!

    One concern? The "taper" on the original columns seems more extreme than on the drawings.

    Does this make sense?

    Put another way: The original columns have their girdle on really tight! Their waist is cinched, baby! Cinched!

    I think this is a CRITICAL aspect, and hope you can recreate this. It should not cost a penny more.

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    1. I think you're absolutely right! The shadows have been messing with my picking out the details on the columns. Nothing sexier than an hourglass shape in shiny black (or red, I haven't decided yet)!

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  2. Wow, that will be really exciting!

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  3. Wow, awesome!

    For commonplace commodity work, it seems that competitors are generally close on price, and quality and price often correlate, but for more unique work with a smaller marketplace, there sure seems to be a lot of variation, and quality does not always follow price. I'm sure there's a certain element of liberty taken with the presumption that you don't have many other options. I'm glad you found what appears to be a good supplier at a fair price. It's definitely a case where you have to be an educated consumer. I think a lot of the poor-quality work done on historic homes is due to the owner not being able to distinguish good work from bad, and a good salesman from a good craftsperson. Unfortunately, that means you almost need to know enough to do it yourself to get good quality from hiring it out. Which, is why I end up doing nearly all my own work...

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    1. "A good salesman from a good craftsperson," you hit the nail on the head with that one! That's why it kills me when people don't research their own project (just like you would with a medical diagnosis). You may not have the skills or time to DO the work, but at least you'd know what you're looking at...

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  4. I love dropping in on your blog and seeing the progress and historic photos!

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  5. Caramba! Wish I could say I've accomplished 5% of what you've done in the same period. Bravo!!

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  6. I really like what you describe, good to know such things. Thanks for this content on the blog.

    Paris

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