New weatherboards and verandah decking

So after we had our balcony replaced and it looked so nice (you can read about it here) I decided we needed to go ahead and do the whole front of the house.  That included the verandah posts and decking - basically everything except new windows as I wanted to keep the double hung sash windows.

The builders did a great job and it actually was surprisingly quick.  Old cladding came off, including the power needing to be disconnected briefly due to the old meter box on the front of the house - this was reconnected back up later on the same day when the new boards were put on.

I had a whole lot of photos of the process but unfortunately it seems when I switched to a new phone they were lost.  So instead I will have to make do with some before and after shots!

This is the finished product with the new verandah, poles, and all painted up.  

This is a during shot of me painting the weatherboards (complete with my upside down lights).

The before shots - dodgy handrail, bright blue paint (although you can't see how bad the paint job actually was!).

This before shot shows some of the rotten and dodgy verandah decking boards.  Plus when I had half stripped one window frame!

More before shots.

Before - but I still have the same pots to hang from the verandah!

We used the same Mirbau decking as the balcony and the same profile weatherboards as the upstairs. We also put on a new Colorbond roof on the verandah - which took the longest due to some stuff ups with the roofers and some fairly big variations in quotes.  In the end we could only really afford to do the small portion of the roof and gutter - so we unfortunately have a current patchwork part red and part grey roof!

After the painters we used for the upstairs part did a not particularly brilliant job and still cost a lot of money I decided that I would give painting a go.  My theory was if I was terrible then we could pay someone and not too much damage would be done.  In the end I was pretty happy with the results.  The weatherboards themselves went fine, although the trims weren't so easy (partly because we kept the old windows and even with multiple attempts at sanding and filling they remained fairly lumpy and difficult to paint). My tips for painting weatherboards can be found in this post.

End result though is very pleasing. The colour scheme is Dulux Miller Mood for the weatherboards, with Vivid White for trims and the dark grey for the decking is Ironstone - a colour that matches up to the Colorbond colour of the same name.

Finished product - deck in Ironstone, weatherboards in Miller Mood and trims in Vivid White.  Plus the same hanging pots and dodgy paint job on my cane chairs!

Our new balcony - also known as the perils of starting one "small job"

So we have now owned the Crooked Cottage for two years.  Actually I think today is the anniversary day of when we settled.  And after the initial push to renovate before we moved in, followed by a period of extreme dislike of building work, I've swung back to wanting to get stuff done around the house.

The quest to get the balcony fixed started last year, when I got a builder to quote on fixing the railing.  We hadn't been letting people go out onto the balcony, even though we do have a little view of the city, and can see the fireworks at New Years - but the balcony rail was quite low and not sturdy so we wanted to fix it.

Seemed simple enough.  But nothing is ever simple here!

This is how the house looked when we bought it.  Those palms are long gone.  But as you can see, the balcony railings quite clearly do not meet any safety requirements.

Builder turned up. (bonus).  Looked at railing.  Bounced up and down on the decking.  Looked underneath.  Pronounced the boards to need replacing.

Ok - so we will replace the boards too.  Good idea.  New balcony.

Then he looked under the base.  Our balcony doesn't have any support posts - which means the joists are cantilevered under the floor of our bedroom.  The joists were also pronounced rotten.  So suddenly the "small job" of fixing the railing height had become taking up the floor in our bedroom, putting in new joists, new decking, new railings....  And the numbers he was "quoting" me kept climbing - first $5000, then $9000 then maybe $12000 - but all rather vague.  He never did send me a detailed quote.  And I didn't chase it up.

Then this year I spoke to our neighbour who had replaced our fence.  Asked his opinion on the matter of the dodgy balcony.  He had a look, agreed with the first builder and called a builder he works with.  So this time I got a proper quote.  The floor would be taken up, new joists put in, new decking (the right way up this time - it was pointed out to me that the ridges on the decking should go on the under side but people think they go on the top side for "grip"), new railings with regulation height and also no child sized gaps for anyone to stick their head (or entire body in the case of the old balcony) through.  Plus as the weatherboards had deteriorated these would be replaced.  

Not sure if it is very clear in this photo but previously there was quite a large hole under the balcony.  Also, the joists had been "fixed" by a second piece of pine attached to the first joists.

So we went ahead.  And as usual, Sydney's unseasonably dry weather stopped the day work was meant to start - we lost probably 4 days in total to rain.  

I didn't actually take any internal pictures, but for a few days it was very painful removing all the stuff out of our cupboards to allow access to the roof space and under floor.  But the results are complete (apart from painting - still waiting on quotes for that!) and I'm so very pleased!

The joists were cut off, and floor inside pulled up.  Weatherboards were also removed.

New joists were put in place and remain cantilevered so the balcony remains the same form and size - but is no longer rotten!

I tried to take some photos of the joists that were removed to show how rotten they actually were - very glad now that we didn't let anyone out there before! 

Base all framed up nicely, with the decking down, and new posts going up.

The finished product!  Looks so much better (and will be even better when we get it painted).  A nice sturdy, safe balcony which meets requirements.  I might even be able to sit out there sometimes and watch the world go by!

Of course, the problem is that now the upstairs looks so good I have to do something about the downstairs.  So next project will be replacing all the weatherboards and architraves at the front of the house.  And of course painting it a new (non bright blue) colour.  Won't be long and the Crooked Cottage will be one of the best looking houses on the street!