All we wanted was a little more soil for the garden. Sure! So we brought a yard of soil home from Campbell River in March after a medical appointment - no problem! It wasn't until we came home that we remembered that we had a temporary porch last time we did this. Problem! Without the extra width of the porch it was impossible to easily unload all that soil. We had two options:
Option 1: Make many wheelbarrow trips of soil to be wheeled down our winding cedar path then dumped, drag the wheelbarrow back up then repeat.
Option 2: Build our permanent front porch and install our fabricated dock ramp. Then we could just wheelbarrow soil from the back of the truck to the end of the porch and dump it over the side, creating a pile of soil on garden level. No going up and down the hill controlling a load of soil. Hummmmmm.
Guess what option we chose! First Jim pulled apart the old gangplank then started constructing the porch frame. Next we called Nate at our island mill and ordered enough cedar milled to make the porch decking (then picked it up only 3 days later). We ate our Wheaties to make us strong and started planning how two people in their mid 60's could move the 16' long aluminum ramp from its resting place half way down our slope to its permanent location across from our front entry, a rise of about 18 vertical feet.
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| First Jim had to take the old temporary ramp off, saving all lumber for future projects, of course. |
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| Next Jim installed the joists to support the new cedar porch |
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| We engineered supports to help us shift the ramp sideways and line it up correctly |
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| Meet "Red" , the awesome, convertible unpainted wagon/work cart Jim made from wagon components ordered online. He clamped the ramp to Red and readied ropes so we could pull/ push it up the hill. |
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| Jim screwed a yoke to the front of the cart, checked the ropes then directed me as I slowly inched the truck forward. Red did a great job for us and we got the ramp a lot closer to its destination. |
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| If it wasn't for COVID we could have asked a local construction crew across the street to help us for five minutes but that wasn't going to happen. We managed the whole thing with just the two of us! |
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| Jim put in temporary slides for the ramp to move across. |
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| Great turning radius on Red. We lined the ramp up and inched it towards the temporary supports. |
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| Closer... |
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| Touchdown! |
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| Supports are removed. Ramp's in place and temporary plywood is screwed down across the porch. |
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| At this point we still don't have a deck on the ramp. That was part two of the day's fun. |
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| Jim revamped Red to carry a 4' x 8' piece of decking weighing about 200 lb. Two trips needed. |
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Except for this photo, we were both working. I pulled using the handle while Jim pushed HARD
from the back. It was tough getting the load up our short steep slope but we managed. Twice! |
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And by the end of the day the decking was in place and screwed down permanently!
Notice the cherry tree. This was March 22nd. No leaves even showing. |
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| Ramp done! Jim launched happily into decking the porch. Oh the smell of fresh cedar! |
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Jim screwed the decking from the bottom through cleats he had added to the joists. Having no nail heads showing on the porch deck surface inhibits rot where water would collect at the nail heads.
All the deck framing is pressure treated. |
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Just a week later we had snow. The fibre/resin component deck is going to be a
help in getting rid of grit, gravel and even snow before it enters the house. |
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| Getting ready to put the last boards down, ensuring flashings are in place. |
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Late April. Cherry tree in full bloom!
When Jim designed the house he wanted it to feel like we were in the tree when we were on the porch. |
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| The tree frames the left side of our house, creates summer shade and gives us easy picking for cherries. |
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We hope to pick cherries from our porch this summer...if the crows don't get them first!
P.S. Permanent railings to come.
Enjoy spring. We are!
Until next time... Jim and Tricia Bowen
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