Planning

So, as we don't have the money this year to make over the front of the house, we sat down and made some sketches. I've been researching porches for a week now, trying to figure out what I want to do, what would be appropriate, what would keep the finished porch part of the year-round living space and still come out looking Craftsman-style.

Currently (this may change, of course), we plan to go from this:



to this:






This will obviously begin with the much desired removal of the plastic siding (admittedly, they attempted to be harmonious when they picked this stuff, but it's still plastic) that wraps the front porch monolithically, and makes it look rather like a Very Tall Doublewide. This will be followed by (or preceded by) the ripping out of the front steps and the remains of the old iron railings (there are currently a couple of uprights left). I'm glad the back door is closer to our driveway. The windows will stay, but they and the door will get appropriate trim, while the door will be replaced with either the restored original front door and a nice full-glass storm door or a harmoniously designed modern steel door (if we can find one).

The bottom of the porch will be faced with brick tiles - the kind that are cast off actual antique bricks - laid over a concrete board underlayment. This is admittedly a cost saving measure, but the porch was reframed about 10 years ago and is quite solid. The front steps will be concrete based, with full brick facings, and the piers will be brick (we plan to use recycled brick) with concrete caps and a painted wood railing.

The top of the porch will be framed up to suggest beams, and I'm still deciding what to do about thae little bit of non-"beam", non-window and non-trim space. I'm thinking stucco, as it's an easy solution, but it'll clash with the original siding. I don't want to use clapboard there, though. I'm stuck.

Good thing we have couple of years to think about this.