This is a view of the studio from my back door, as it all sat when I bought the place.
Notice the complete lack of gutters and the presence of a wooden deck on the right side (that is where the front door is located)
At this point in time, water from the roof was puddling UNDER the building, moisture wicked up through the floor making it smell musty and moldy
↑That is just an example↑
To try and get the water away from the building, I dug a trench along that front side, but to do that I had to dismantle the deck
There WAS a section of gutter on the north side, but it wasn't complete and it simply poured out on the ground
And I STILL had to run a dehumidifier 24/7, until Sunday, 7/3/2022
I got out there early and by myself got that old gutter down.
I then used my niece's small Pressure washer,( having first sprayed the entire outside with bleach/soap water,) and knocked off a lot of dead paint and mold
Of course I had good supervision
Then I switched hats, and became a painter/helper, while the couple I'd hired put up the gutters they fabricated on scene.
They brought the wood, I painted it, then they created a sort of soffit to enclose the space over the studio. All this time it was open on both ends, and birds, squirrels and all manner of varmints could come in and make themselves to home on the insulation
So here is the north side now
Here you can see the underside
I had some "quarter round' molding that was put up before the job was done
That dark strip between the gutter and the soffit underside is the original facia board that was painted, with some very old paint.
All the paint, brushes and scrapers were supplied by me
The work on the south side. There is a LOT of wood rot along the bottom edge and around that AC unit that has to be addressed still, but it is one step at a time.
So the finished South side
And my crew departing
The view from across the veggie garden
Now, the downspouts still need black piping to route the water away, on the south side I intend, at least for the present, to send it into the old well that is right there 4 ft from the pipe.
But last night during the Thunderstorm, both downspouts emptied more or less into the existing trench.
"One thing at a time Grasshopper, One thing at a time"
Paraphrase from Master Po, (Kung Fu)
↑Before↑... ↓After↓
"Gutters, Finally"
by
Jerry E Smith
©7/5/2022
All images are mine, taken with my cellphone