Our Olde House: December 2025

We finally finished repairing all of the damage and replacing the broken items from ‘the tree fell on the house’ disaster in 2023, and it took us only two and a half years with long lapses to restore our mental health. We (two people, two cats) are still very chaos adverse and do not like wind or storms. Completely removing and replacing the back deck was the last major project on our list, but we also needed to have some rotten trim on the front porch replaced, and to replace the flooring in the sunroom that was replaced two years ago.

The back deck took three weeks to complete, but the finished product is beautiful, sturdy, and well worth the time and effort the contractor expended. This deck does not sag or wiggle, and since we used plastic decking there are no nail holes or screws in the deck surface so one can safely and comfortably walk barefoot on this deck. And also important to me, I can power wash the deck to remove any mildew and restore it to ‘like new’ condition.

When the deck was removed, the contractor noticed that the exterior house siding was not extended far enough down to reach the foundation. This siding was added and painted. Support posts for the deck were installed along the edges of the house so the deck is free-standing, and not hanging on the house, which could provide a causeway for termites. Instead of the usual wooden spindles, Miss Sherry picked black aluminum spindles for the deck railing to match the newly installed wrought iron fence next to the deck. The contractor added deck boards to the sides of the deck as trim pieces making the deck almost furniture quality; this looks very nice and is a formidable barrier to any animals trying to get under the deck.

The pressure treated pieces of the deck rail have not yet been stained to match the deck boards because they need to dry out for a few weeks. Since this is December, it may be a few months before the outside temperature gets above 60F and the wood can be stained. We are also waiting for the three screens on the sunroom windows that were torn by the tree to be replaced.

We had the metal back door that goes out onto the deck replaced because it had rusted through in one spot, and it did not fit right after the tree fell. Miss Sherry picked a similar metal door to replace it but had this one painted black to match the wrought iron fence and deck railing spindles. This door also has glass nearly to the bottom so the cats can see outside.

Apparently, the flooring we picked for the sunroom was not thick enough. After only one year it had cracked at several seams from the foot and paw traffic. We selected a much thicker flooring, with a rubber backing very similar in design to the flooring I put in my bathroom; this flooring has been great without any issues. We had new quarter round moulding added to the floor perimeter, using stained quarter round along the paneled wall and white quarter round along the painted wall.

We found another piece of rotten trim on the front porch due to water damage. This was replaced and painted. When the rotten wood on the porch pillar was replaced we discovered that the pillar trim was holding up the porch roof. We added a 4×4 post to carry the weight of the roof before the pillar trim was replaced for a much sturdier design.

Miss Sherry and I are looking forward to a period of no pending or ongoing construction on Our Olde House. It has been a very anxious two and a half years while we were having our home worked on; everything was good eventually, and some things were improved, but the journey was definitely not one either of us cares to repeat. Maybe when younger, non-retired people suffer the same or a similar setback, they are able to rebound quicker than we did, but maybe not. We tried to stick to the task, or disaster, at hand, and work on one thing at a time; I think we succeeded at this.

This was much more than a ‘make lemonade’ project, but we always kept going to the best of our ability while being very aware that we needed to also maintain our mental health. Merry Christmas to all; as we strive to take care of others, always remember that we need to take care of ourselves first.