Spring and summer 2019 - finishing screen porches

I kind of have two things going on at once this warm season.  I'm wrapping up the screen porch and screened balcony from last fall and also starting in on the the finished stairs (separate post).  The finished stairs are a big project.  But getting the screen porches finished is another big milestone in making the house more livable.

So I started this year by making the frames for the upper screens.  Last year, I finished off all the main railings which was the far more time-consuming part, but was unable to get the whole thing wrapped up due it getting to be late in the year and the weather turned winter pretty early this time.  Well the frames for the upper screens are very simple.  There is no "grass" that needs to be done in the field of the panel, so it is really just a frame from angle iron.  I had all the stock prepped from last year, so it was really just measuring for each frame, doing final cutting, and welding them together.  It only took a week or two in reality (with other distractions in there of course).  Then I took them in for electropolishing and they turned them around very fast - 2 days.  So final install of those is now complete.  Pics below.  Now we just need screens...

They really don't look like much from the inside as they are just frames around the opening.  Here is a close-up so you can see the frame on top of the cap rail of the lower railings, perhaps... Lots of touch up paint TBD...

So the next big step is screens.  I was originally thinking about making my own screens, but this is a task best suited to someone already set up for it, so I am going to farm out the screens.  I am currently in the process of getting some contractors to visit the site and quote the project.  It looks lke there are several outfits in the region that do this as their primary job, so hopefully it will work out.  Drilling into Stainless Steel is not easy, so I am glad to farm that out...

More to come this summer...