I don't know what you'd use or how you'd attach it-- maybe someone who bends aluminum to cover facing boards on the eaves. If you could get it to go over the outside lip of the cement and then attach to the house on a slant that would run the water away from the house and keep it away from the pad altogether. If you don't know what I mean--imagine a wedge shaped space sitting on top of the outside part of the pad. The water hits the slant and runs off. Maybe not aluminum but something that will run the wateroff of the pad altogether

I know "perfect" is why our reno is not done yet either. My DH can't seem to let any little thing go, and it's just dragging on and on. He's doing a really good job, but definitely obsesses about getting some little thing perfect that absolutely nobody is going to notice, and it really chews up his time. He just can't let it go. I guess I'm fortunate that I'll never have to worry about something patched together with duct tape or baling wire. His insistance on doing everything right is what makes him a good engineer (his profession), but occasionally I have to remind him that tight aerospace dimensions don't apply to the kitchen :) The end result is that he's been making progress very slowly. I know he's got project fatigue, we both do. Our 8 week or so facelift took very large detour and we're still not done after hitting the 1 year mark in March, but I'm at the point that I really just want it DONE. Over the last year, we've put some things on hold and passed on some things we were going to do because we were tied up trying to get our kitchen done. We certainly haven't done a good job of keeping things in perspective on this project. I'm working real hard now on enjoying the parts of my kitchen that ARE finished.

1) for a small one story porch with a roof not deeper than 9', a 18x18x10 footer below frost is fine. 2) ventilated bases and caps (if a hollow post) otherwise, Simpson makes a cast-aluminum post base in 3,", 5", and 6" sizes. Stops wood/wood contact. Prime decking under posts first. Never caulk the base to the deck, it just traps water. Add some good blocking under the decking at the posts location so the flooring is not carrying the roof load. 3) We tend to use mahogany or Ipe T&G. Last year we used some Amendoim or Jatoba. Nothing says that the porch deck has to be T&G, many locales use plain 1x4's set with a consistent gap. Casey

It dried out in a few minutes so I was able to get the 2nd porch finished and a 2nd coat of primer on the 1st porch. Will start painting in a day or 2 as I want it to really dry. I jumped in the pool after I finished and feel great now ! Sue : your DH knows his mops. I will say that it doesn't do great in the house on the wood floors for some reason. But boy outside on the porches and all the walls it is amazing. Thank you Jan !! It really wasn't too bad. I was lucky that they were in pretty good shape except where the rain hits them on the steps etc. jleek: I can pass along what I have found and been told. You have to start with completely clean unpainted wood. Nothing sticks like it should to old coatings. So they will need to be sanded all the way back. After that you should use oil penetrating stain. It is the only thing that will go all the way into the wood...but you have to be at bare wood for it to work. If you don't want to do that then you need to get all the loose paint off 1st. BM has a primer that supposedly you can put on even loose stuff and it will bond all of it completely...my DH says "humph" and won't believe it. Might be worth a try but I still would get everything off that I could. After that use 2 coats of really good primer and let it cure . Then coat with 2 coats of porch and deck paint. I have been told that if the wood is exposed to the weather/water that you will never get a horizontal surface to hold the paint longer than 3 years or so. If that is the case then I may be working on this again in 3 years. We'll see. Most of it was fine and only the parts that get water on them all the time were peeling. So there you have it...that is all I know to do. Oh another tip a painter told me was that if you use the oil penetrating stain be sure it is quite warm and that the wood is warm too...hot sunny day...he said it really soaks in and will last upwards of 15 years...I am going to use it on all the new trellis and see how it does. c