Details...

The front porch of the house, from what we can tell, is the original one.  It looks like the upright posts, floor and rails with balusters were switched out at some time, but the roof line appears to be the original.  The roof type is called a shed style roof.  Not incredibly decorative, it is basically a wedge that slopes away from the house, with no gable in the center. 
We were excited to see that the original gingerbread (that was pulled from the main gables at some point in time) was still on the sides of the porch when the aluminum was removed.

Another big surprise today was the discovery of more rafter tails at the front of the porch.

Now this doesn't look like much now, but these will be visible from street view.  The soffet itself will be painted the cream color we are using for trim and the rafter tails will be cleanly sanded and painted the rich chocolate brown we are using for architectural details.  Unfortunately, as you can see, the rafter tails were squared off on the ends, at some point in time, to accommodate a gutter board and k-style gutters--these would have been rounded at the ends.  The porch posts will be painted the cream color, as well.  As far as the detail on the porch is concerned, I am making my own brackets, rails, running trim, fretwork and balusters.  The balusters are the most time consuming part of the porch project for me.
The original balusters and porch details are long gone--and in the 70's, the previous owners did their best to put something together that looked Victorian, which for the time was exceptional--there really was very little regard for preservationist thinking at that time.  This is what they came up with.

  These are what is known as a sawn baluster.  Their profile should have an intricate design that plays with the eye--allowing you to see two or three patterns mixing and merging.  The pattern I came up with to replace them are these.

The three on the left are completed.  I have about twenty completed at this point, but I will need 45 to finish the porch.  I have the day off today and I hope to get another 20 completed.  When installed, they are placed against one-another like shown above.  They will be painted the cream color.  You can see a couple of patterns as you look at it.  I hope it is worth the incredible effort.  They aren't perfect like a professionally made item, but isn't that the point?  These are hand-sawn balusters.

Week 2 Construction

Cassie and I had a week of vacation last week.  With the reconstruction of the house starting, I was glad that we were around all week.  Our contractor, Bill Zeller, has been great.  On a hundred occasions, we have called an audible--and he never seems to mind at all. 
Money was a little tighter than we expected because of some additional work that we decided to get done while we have the workers here--but all-in-all, you would be surprised with how reasonable this whole project is going to be.  If anyone is considering taking a leap and doing this scope of work, just let me know, I am happy to share my quotes and final bill, if it may just help push you into wood restoration.

Let me go down the list of what is being done...
-Removal of all aluminum (siding, trim, porch ceiling and storm windows) Finished
-Removal of rotted wood (cedar plank, soffits, window surrounds, etc)
-Scraping and removal of lead-based paint.
-Replacement of the crown molding and sills on windows (that were hacked off during siding install)
-Replacement of margin boards, drip sill, and baseboards.
-Replication of missing and damaged decorative rafter tails.
-Replication of missing wooden eight light storm windows (taken out and replaced by the aluminum)
-Replacement of corner bead trim.
-Removal of K-style gutters and replacement with half-round gutters, downspouts and hardware.
-Priming and painting 4-color victorian paint scheme.
-Digging underground drainage pipes for gutter flow.

With all of this work, we are currently on pace.  Bill has stated that it is mapped as a four week project.

I have had prep guys here for the past week, and the carpenter shows up tomorrow. 

This is a picture of the house with some of the primer on, after scraping is done on one side.  They put primer on before major wood repair because it helps identify cracks and pits that may need filled with epoxy.  Note the missing margin boards below the attic window and above the first floor window.  Also note that the crown molding above the second floor window has been hacked off as has the sides of the window sill.  This picture still has the gutter on it, but you can see peeking out a little, the hand-carved rafter tails that were covered in aluminum.

Because of the budget, we were going to leave the aluminum wrap on the porch ceiling.  Bill told us that if it was taken off and showed damage, it could cost into the thousands to get it right.  We decided to make it a later date project, but on a whim of sheer courage of stupidity, Cassie and I decided to yank the aluminum down on Saturday, while the construction team was off.  To our joy, the ceiling was flawless!  You can see some peeling paint, but there is no rot, whatsoever.  Bill emailed me and told me that I get the 'Grande Cajones' award for even trying it.

We plan on painting the ceiling light blue (which was a common Victorian practice).   They were under the impression that this helped with insects.