Spring has finally arrived in upstate New York! Not that it's been a particularly long winter, I think I heard this was the mildest winter on record. Either way - we've had a beautiful couple days so I thought I'd get outside and get some things going.
First up - an old punch-list item. A little over two years ago, I was working on the punch list after siding the front porch. Well, I never quite finished that list - here's the evidence:
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMR_rkhHDtB7rE0oYa1SZtFPM0QaPLEULaodKdLYFiR1htqcjN_IKNf8rtx5VKiMEhzYFfVNXJy0QEpc07TFly9zz1X_wi3mU0FTTCF08eCtQOmvWeU2B7BKhxKOAF-fmZ_kUfX_aG7Vo/s320/2013-10-12+12.50.03-picsay.jpg)
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-1Ly6PZYDurL_h0FeH0AhnKYEleHT-brk3ckl0pQS2_-hLgTxtrzjgoYjI97SdLs2_rtpuKpZYvPtUvccEJJul3fEGccZCQj0-kz06HrTcQlJfCbE2NVK_jiVJX0yfTneN94RBbNn2zA/s320/2013-10-17+16.08.05.jpg)
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgG0DWc-LPHr82yolgpLM5m68kD2-xJnd2ncw_l_9LV4Dw9EpoZkg4E_Py3pEFPw-SqfG4zxM4dKlcjc3AZdOgEqop4v-fyftaCLmuMgiH7TRmhCf-0tdu1OnKIh_Zz6SNiOYoLt-T4gYY/s320/2013-08-10+10.47.06-picsay.jpg)
First up - an old punch-list item. A little over two years ago, I was working on the punch list after siding the front porch. Well, I never quite finished that list - here's the evidence:
Once again I forgot to get a "before" pic until after I had gotten started. What you can't see is at the bottom of the end-cap there was a huge hole. Time and moisture had punked the wood a bit, and the neighborhood feral cats had dug through to make a home under the porch. So I had to clean all that up, and used PVC boards to cover the end-cap.
Another punch-list item was the boards at the bottom of the porch. I had put pressure-treated boards in place and primed them, but never got around to painting them. Here's a shot of the north side of the porch before priming:
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMR_rkhHDtB7rE0oYa1SZtFPM0QaPLEULaodKdLYFiR1htqcjN_IKNf8rtx5VKiMEhzYFfVNXJy0QEpc07TFly9zz1X_wi3mU0FTTCF08eCtQOmvWeU2B7BKhxKOAF-fmZ_kUfX_aG7Vo/s320/2013-10-12+12.50.03-picsay.jpg)
About a year after priming (and not painting) I decided to go with the PVC boards:
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-1Ly6PZYDurL_h0FeH0AhnKYEleHT-brk3ckl0pQS2_-hLgTxtrzjgoYjI97SdLs2_rtpuKpZYvPtUvccEJJul3fEGccZCQj0-kz06HrTcQlJfCbE2NVK_jiVJX0yfTneN94RBbNn2zA/s320/2013-10-17+16.08.05.jpg)
When I did the north side, for some reason I got distracted and only made it around to the other side of the stoop. So today I did the south side of the porch:
The local wildlife had also tunneled under the side of the porch, so I filled in some soil and spread some gravel - that'll slow 'em down...for a second.
The other thing I got done was removing the stump for the much-missed birch trees we cut down a couple years ago
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgG0DWc-LPHr82yolgpLM5m68kD2-xJnd2ncw_l_9LV4Dw9EpoZkg4E_Py3pEFPw-SqfG4zxM4dKlcjc3AZdOgEqop4v-fyftaCLmuMgiH7TRmhCf-0tdu1OnKIh_Zz6SNiOYoLt-T4gYY/s320/2013-08-10+10.47.06-picsay.jpg)
This one was not a matter of being lazy - my plan was to let the stump rot for a little while making it easier to remove - I just didn't intend it to be three years!
So I got it out, and it got me to thinking...this stupid little stump took me at least an hour, I can't imagine being a pioneer dude clearing acres of land - insane! Anyway, got it out and now there's a couple more things off the OOOOLD punch list!