The Strongest Porch in the West (Maybe in the World)

Dan and Fernie, the framers, worked for about a week to complete the front porch. It took a little longer than they anticipated since they had to spend a day reframing the front wall around the front door. Because of the earthquake code, the walls of the porch have to be treated like shear walls, and so they are composed of Simpson strong walls and big beams. Looking around at all the porches around us, I can't help but wonder why we seem to be the only ones with this super strong porch, but with the sheathing on it looks really great.

The pictures below show the evolution of the porch as it moves from a simple concrete pad to a finished porch. In the first one, you can see all the rotten wood around the front door. In the second one you can see the new plywood that covers up the new framing they had to do to make the front wall strong again. I think the arches came out beautifully. The last picture is from the inside of the porch and shows the strength of the framing.









In other news, I started painting the garage and casita. I primed all day on Friday and got the garage itself done, but still need to do the front room and all the trim. In the picture below you can see the primed walls in the garage. We bought paint for the front room and the garage this weekend and I hope to be finished painting within a week and a half.