Porch Facelift

This past March we replaced our porch covering. It originally was aluminum but we wanted something more permanent and substantial. This is the best before picture I could find.

Playing around with designs and keeping our budget in the forefront our possibilities were limited. Getting a few quotes for a wood porch attached to our already existing gable posed to be out of reach, most quotes came in at around $9,000. So on to option 2...another aluminum awning. I didn't really like anything Lowe's or Home Depot had to offer or what I could find online. However, option 3 turned out to be the best bang for our buck. A fabric awning, very sleek with clean lines and modern. We were going to go with the New Yorker style in black, but something was bugging me about it. How would it look with that gable on top of the house? I just couldn't pull the trigger and purchase it.

 

option 2 / option 3

But my indecisiveness played in our favor, I figured I would called our roofing company, who was coming in a couple of days to replace our roof and ask if they could build me a porch overhang. And to my amazement they could frame the porch for a price me and Dr. J was happy with paying. So now I could get what I wanted!!

The porch has been slowly coming along, lets emphasize slowly! In March the porch was framed and the roof was done. In May the gutters and fascia was completed and in June the cedar shakes was added to the front of the porch. We found the cedar shakes at our local Habitat for Humanity Restore for a whooping $10 a bundle! I wanted to tackle the shakes myself since it seemed easy enough and I am a DIYer at heart but decided against it cause heights do scare me 'a little' and also the time it would have taken me to complete the job. Against my better judgement we hired a guy, we didn't know anything about and we didn't even check for references, to put the shakes up. He had the top two layers crooked and he was suppose to come back and finish it, but he never did and there it sat ugly for months. Please do your research on whom ever is doing work on your home, this situation could have been averted with a little homework.

Unhappy with how the porch looked...I began seeking out other options to cover the front of the porch. In the meantime the cedar started to warp and break apart. :( I found fancy vinyl shake siding on craigslist for $15 and that paid for six panels. Which was plenty for our small porch. Finding it for that price was a heck of a lot better than $250 for the same product anywhere else, it's a special order everywhere I looked and you could only purchase a minimum of 10 sq ft. Way too much for my small project. Here is the vinyl shake siding we purchased from craigslist.

 

I called the same crew that did our house siding to come put it up on the porch. They came out the very next day and did a very professional job.

 

 



The porch is still a work in progress. I like to have some sort of check list/to do list to know what still needs to be done and to also have some sort of goal to work towards...it also makes me feel like I am accomplishing something when things start to get checked off.

In no particular order here is the tentative list of to do's for the porch/front of house...

• replace cedar shakes
• wrap columns
• add house numbers
• add shutters around all windows in the front and sides of house
• add ceiling to porch
• wrap door
• add railing around porch and down steps

Here is the after of the porch with the siding now completed!

 

And for your viewing pleasure, here is a side by side of the before and after.
 

 

 Much better right? The porch now looks like it belongs on the house. I will keep you updated on its progress but don't hold your breath  remember this will evolve slowly. See you soon!