This is my boyfriend’s old house. It’s really gorgeous on the inside but needs some major work on the outside. The gutters (right now) are the biggest problem. He had a gutter company come to quote a gutter replacement job but the condition of some of the wood, especially on the wrap-around porch is in such bad shape that a new gutter couldn’t even affix to it (and their quote to make it work was very high). Those columns are ooooold, the porch is sagging a bit, the roof is, well, old.
He is concentrating right now on the idea that the whole porch needs to be replaced (probably including the front steps leading down from it that I believe were made by someone with their eyes closed). The floor on the porch is actually in pretty good shape. Just structurally it’s not great anymore (and the original issue is that the gutters HAVE to be replaced).
He, of course, being a proud, stubborn man, thinks he will have to (and can) can do this himself because hiring a contractor would be very expensive. I, of course, being a practical and realistic woman, thinks that there’s no way an amateur could even hope to accomplish something of this magnitude.
So, anybody want to throw out a guess as to the cost of a project like this? I’m assuming I won’t get any replies saying a DIY curved wrap-around porch is a piece of cake… 
Beautiful house!
An amateur could not accomplish something of this magnitude.
Messing up, wasting material or using the wrong material, the extra time it takes to figure out something that’s second nature to a pro…all will add up to NOT being worth it.
It’ll require a permit too, which will likely in turn require architectural plans. That’s part of the expense of the contractor, which folks don’t take into consideration.
I suppose if we wanted to install the gutters all by himself after the rest was done, he could probably pull that off 
ETA: I am not a contractor, but I worked in residential construction for 3 years and have done several remodeling/DIY projects. Even with that, I would be hesitant to touch that porch myself.
I’ve heard the same from other skilled I-can-build-just-about-anything friends.
I forgot to mention that rotting wood is the reason for some of the gutter-affixing issues. 
There’s also the matter of the fact that it’s a very old house in an economically depressed town, so any expensive project is just going to make the house more expensive and harder to sell (and recoup the repair cost).
But still- the gutters NEED to be replaced.
Never replace more than you need to. If the issue is that the fascias are too rotten to affix the gutters to, fix the fascias. If the steps are bad, fix those. Just superficially, it looks like the porch has been attended to in the last 20 years or so. That suggests to me that wholesale replacement is not in order. If you can, peek behind the lattice work to see if you can assess the structure underneath – whether it’s in good condition, and whether it’s original to the house, or later work.
If the problem is confined to the fascias, gutters, and steps, we’re talking about $4,000 in Massachusetts prices.
What kind of gutters are you considering, by the way?
