Times They Are 'A Changin'

Our little bungalow is starting to seem a whole lot smaller these days. For Sarah, Gilligan, and me, our little 950 square foot home was perfectly cozy. But the Puleo family is growing - we've got a little boy on the way!

With limited space, our new addition means we need to rethink our house. We tried moving, but the market didn't cooperate. So, we're working with what we've got. The guestroom/office is becoming the nursery. After some work, it will make a great space for baby Puleo. One problem: we won't have any space for guests. So our little addition means we're going to have a little addition.

Let the fun begin!

Room to Grow

When you have a tiny little house on a tiny little lot, there's not a whole lot of room to grow. But with a little one on the way, and with him slated to take up one of our two bedrooms, we really wanted to add some space for guests to stay and for us to have some sort of office.

Growing out was out of the question: we didn't want to lose any of our precious little yard space. Growing up was a possibility, but very expensive. We'd also have to add two rooms upstairs for the net gain of one because a good portion of one of our existing bedrooms would be taken up by a staircase.

The solution? Use the space we already have. Not wanting to relegate guests to the basement, we decided on building a room out onto our porch.

And yes, we hired a contractor. But just for the outside! I'm saving the inside for myself.

Step 1 was to jack up the existing porch roof so new supports, floor, and walls could be added.

Step 1: Jack up the existing roof so that new supports, walls, and flooring could be added.

Step 2: Create chaos.

Step 3 (week 2): Build stuff.

Finished Product

After a few Saturday mornings of work, the patio is finally finished. Total cost: less than $300.

Day 3: Crushed Stone Base

The third day of work on the project entailed filling the frame half way with a crushed stone base. This required 14 cubic feet of stone or 1,400 pounds. Thankfully, Lowes was able to forklift a pallet right into the back of the pickup.
Gilligan, as usual, was a great help on this project. While it took some convincing to get him in the wagon, he refused to get out after enjoying a trip around the yard. I think I may have created a wagon monster.

Getting the stone in place before dumping, raking, and tamping.

One small step for man....

It Runs in the Family

Like many things around our house, our picnic table is an antique. Okay, it's really a hand-me-down. But we love it.

The table is in great shape even though it is probably approaching 20 years old. A few years ago we painted it like the Texas flag and really love it in the yard. The benches are a different story. They're sagging and are showing signs of rot.

My recently-retired father offered to replicate the old benches. They came out great!

Day 2: Lattice Backing

Okay, so day two on the project wasn't really a day at all. Today I made a trip to Home Depot, bought my supplies, and put up the lattice backing on the patio project. All-in-all, it took about an hour and a half from leaving the house to finishing the project.The first step was to figure out how to setup the backing. I decided to do three panels, with the middle panel being higher than the others. I'm adding a 1"x4" backing to add support and to give the lantern/plant hangers something to grip.

The hangers are leftovers from last year. I'm not quite sure why I bought them, but they work perfectly here.

Assembling the panels was pretty easy.

I drilled the panels into the 6"x6" timbers. The bottoms of these panels will be covered in gravel later.
And since I had some extra time, I got the grill all shined up and ready to go for summer.

Day 1: Timber Install

With the timbers put in place, it was time to start digging. The goal was to have a level place to sit. After Measuring the space, it was clear that one timber would be almost completely flush with the ground, while to other would sit almost entirely on top of it. I'm not sure if there is a "right" way to level off timbers, so I adopted my own technique. Dig, level, stuff dirt underneath, level, repeat. It took a long time, but I saw the results I wanted.Thankfully, my landscape edger was the same width as the timber. I used it to cut out blocks of grass. Next, I put in the bars to secure the timbers to the ground. I also added some corner brackets to shore-up the frame. Gilligan came outside to help. Being afraid of hand tools, powertools, and banging noises, he spent most of his time eating plants and sunning himself. Not a great helper, but he sure is cute. And we have a frame! Next weekend: lattice and fill.