Doing the porch - Part 1

The previous owners of the house were quirky.They lived here for a couple of decades and did a lot of work on it while they were here. The guy of the couple was a carpenter/builder by trade and did much of the work himself to get the house renovated from where it stood in the early 90's. The condition she was in was expected since she was built in 1906.The problem is that he was building and fixing things like he would always live here. Some of the materials used were reclaimed from various jobs he was working on and there were some corners cut. I'm certain that the thought was that when the cut corner would cause a problem that the required rework would happen and life would go on.The problem is that we got the house without an instruction manual. The cut corners eventually are causing problems for us.The porch, for instance... the decking wasn't normal outdoor wood. It's something reclaimed from god only knows where -- I heard rumors that it was something from boats that would have to be varnished a few times a year. (we didn't)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3m5qxZm_JqMThe key to this is that we don't want the front to fall off the house. While we were off in Idaho and our neighbor was minding the kitties... well, hole happened in the deck. Not good. The front was starting to fall off the house.Today - first check for fixing it. New decking (composite, not real wood -- because lazy) and lots of overall work.In a few weeks, the front will no longer want to fall off the house.