Yesterday was a rain-out on the porch job.  I know the anticipation has been cruel.  The lifting ensued this morning and the old column came right up off the termite bed.

We’re using a 12 ton bottle jack to do this, placed directly over a new floor joist with a 4×4 post into the ground.   We nailed two studs together above the jack and tacked them into 4×4 post above.

We lifted the corner eight inches.  It was high enough to free the middle column too, meaning it needed a new cap to account for the correct height.

With the roof jacked, we could then take out the damaged beam and all the flooring.  We replaced the beam and a couple joists.  Then we put down new flooring, matching the seams of the architects of old… Who had floored the porch with upside down ceiling boards.  Nice.

In case you’re not up to speed on the project, we’re trying to do three things.  Level the roof, replace the damaged wood, and replace the unmatching third column.  It was too short and too skinny, the wrong taper, plus missing any sort of base and cap at all, but otherwise perfect in every way.

Anyways, with the new column, plus the base, and plus the cap we made we hoped we’d be close to level.  If not perfectly level, at least unnoticeable. Worst case, I could fertilize the hydrangea.

Then the moment of truth, we let set the roof down and checked.

A bubble does not lie.  Both left to right, and house to street.  And across, just for fun.

“Like it,” my friend Scott (the maestro) always says.  That means, “Now put your tools away and slap some paint on it.”