Victorian Veranda - work in progress

ve·ran·da [vuh-ran-duh] noun. Also, ve·ran·dah. Chiefly South Midland and Southern U.S. a large, open porch, usually roofed and partly enclosed, as by a railing, often extending across the front and sides of a house; gallery.
Origin: early 18th century: from Hindi varaṇḍā, from Portuguese varanda 'railing, balustrade'.

porch [pawrch, pohrch] noun. An exterior appendage to a building, forming a covered approach or vestibule to a doorway.

I often find myself wondering about the use of certain English words. Yes, I'm bilingual, but I grew up in a French speaking environment, so please forgive my mistakes. I've been using the word porch to describe my veranda. As for 'the gingerbread railing', I believe it would be a little more accurate to use 'the gingerbread balustrade' to describe that part of my veranda. For me, writing in my second language is very time consuming. But believe me when I tell you, it would be even more time consuming if I wrote in French.

So here I am, at my veranda, assessing my gingerbread balustrade and everything else that will/can be done this season.

The skirt will need a good clean and paint job. I'm removing them so I can work comfortably on workhorses.

I have to point out the excellent cutting job at the ends - following the shape of the stone.

The veranda is supported by huge stone pillars extending from the house's foundation.

A few floor boards and some supports show rot here...

here...

here as well...

and here. Some minor, some major.

I also had some rot showing in front, which I've started work on.