Beautiful Front Porch Addition and Garden Oasis

Welcome to the 242nd Metamorphosis Monday!

Happy Monday! How was your weekend? It was beautiful weather here and you can definitely tell fall is on its way. The temps were really mild, even kind of cool at times. It was perfect weather for getting some outdoor projects done. I’ll be sharing those before too long. In the meantime I have a fabulous porch addition to share!

 

Between Naps on the Porch is now on Instagram!

Before we dive into today’s “Before and After” I wanted to mention that I’ve joined in the fun at Instagram. I had registered a year or so ago but never really did anything with it. I think I had one picture posted there and that was it. I finally took some time this weekend to check it out and even added a few sneak previews of what’s cooking on my front porch for fall.

So, if you’re on Instagram and you want to follow BNOTP there, just search for betweennapsontheporch. I love the idea of being able to snap a pic when I’m out somewhere and share it with you in real time, instead of days later on the blog.

Are you using Instagram? Do you love it? Any suggestions or tips?

A Beautiful Porch Addition for Met Monday

Recently, Rita who blogs at Panoply and I were talking about porches and she shared pictures of a beautiful porch addition she and her husband added to their home.  This is the “Before”  and as you can see, there was a small area where you could get in out of the rain but no real porch to speak of. Rita decided it was time to give her home a makeover, stepping up the curb appeal at the same time.

Preparation for Front Porch Addition

First came the removal of the old steps.

Before Collage_wm

Construction got underway and a curved concrete and brick porch was added with a beautiful balcony overhead.

You can see in the photo below on the left, a new walkway was also added leading out to a parking pad.

Add a Front Porch

The porch was added several years ago, so these photos were taken shortly after the porch was completed.

Building a Front Porch

 

All complete and isn’t it beautiful!

Why in the world did we ever stop building homes with porches? I know, I know…air conditioning came into being and folks didn’t think they needed porches to sit on in the evening until things cooled down inside anymore. But what a porch does for a house is truly amazing, not to mention the conveniences they offer.

Front Porch Addition

I’m so glad porches are making a comeback. They add so much curb appeal to a home and give your guests a place to stand out of the weather until you can get to the door.

Porch Addition

They provide a covered, protected area for packages being delivered and they can be loads of fun to decorate for the seasons and the holidays. Plus, they just feel so welcoming!

Traditional Front Porch Addition

 

Rita did much more than just add a porch. She said, “We created a landscaped yard, enclosed with high brick walls in rear, terracing to lower brick walls/custom aluminum fencing in front (we found quickly that a wrought iron sample rusted literally overnight outside and changed materials to aluminum.  We had a fellow custom make the gates & rails.

We tied together the existing architecture of an originally built courtyard wall into the landscape walls, preserving both our privacy and extending the boundaries of our property on the adjacent city lot we own (converting it from a ‘field’ to a yard).

We ran utilities from the house to the yard for landscape purposes, both electric and plumbing.  We also tied those to existing drains on the road, away from the house.  For the concrete parking pad, we had drains created on each end of our pad, which were tied into the central city storm drain, which eliminated ponding of water from ours, and each neighbor on either side.  We considered this one our ‘brilliant’ planning features.

For landscaping, we created curvatures to the otherwise angular architecture of the house and its front corner-to-yard and courtyard-to-yard entries.  The main yard was created in the shape of a large teardrop.  This allows for a natural gateway into the main yard.  From the street, passersby can see just enough to get a glimpse, yet we maintain our privacy.

In our courtyard, we created a hot tub oasis.  We took a portion of the grassy area and had a concrete pad poured, and trimmed it out with a herringbone pattern brick. The courtyard had an already brick section, in a running board pattern.  We wanted something a little different, so as not to have too much of one pattern.”

After Courtyard Collage_wm

 

Wow, that is a lot of great planning!  Amazing all the details that go into a porch and landscape renovation!  You really need professionals who know what they are doing when you’re undertaking this large a renovation.

Rita has a beautiful backyard oasis!  She also shared another interesting detail about their adjacent lot. She said, “Another really cool thing about our renovation is that our land in the adjacent lot had NEVER been overturned, and we found many Paleo-Indian artifacts when our land was excavated.  The Paleo Indians would have lived along our riverbanks more than 10,000 years before the present! It is amazing history, and I love, love, love those items.  I have a bowl full of flint pieces that represent tools they would have used to clean hides, hammer stones, etc.

As for the present-day garden/landscape, our area was just rezoned by the USDA to zone 7a, previously 6, which means we are able to plant and grow [more reliably] southerly specimens such as crape myrtles, but original plantings of mine, such as birch trees (a more northerly specimen), had to be cut down last year.”

After Landscape Collage_wm

Thanks so much to Rita for sharing this wonderful Before and After…so inspiring and so many great  ideas!

Looking forward to the Before and Afters linked for this Met Monday!

If you are participating in Metamorphosis Monday, you will need to link up the “permalink” to your MM post and not your general blog address. To get your permalink, click on your post name, then just copy and paste the address that shows up in the address bar at the top of your blog, into the “url” box for InLinkz.

In order to link up, you’ll need to include a link in your MM post back to the party so the other participants will have an opportunity to receive visits from your wonderful blog readers.

Please observe these few rules:

Only link up Before and After posts that are home, gardening, crafting, painting, sewing, cooking, DIY related.

Do not link up if you’re doing so to promote a website or product.

Do not link up a post that was just linked last week since a lot of readers will have already seen that post.

Do not type in ALL CAPS. It spreads the links waaaay out.



Welcome! Thanks for coming to the party!

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Comments

  1. Thanks for sharing Rita’s home with us. It’s beautiful!

  2. Thanks so much for hosting!!

    Hugs,
    Deb

  3. Beautiful porch!! A porch is like icing on a cake. We would not ever have a home without one. We built and designed one on our old home and it was one of the best things we ever did. Made our home so elegant. Our home now has a beautiful and large portico. It makes me happy every time we drive up and come home.

    • Thank you, Peggy – it’s been almost ten years, and we feel this project was one of the best things we ever did to make our house the home it is today.

  4. Beautiful place you shared!
    Thanks for hostessing Susan,
    Cindy

  5. Susan,
    Thank you for sharing my project in such detail! I hope your readers find it inspiring. I’ve cross-referenced this post on my blog today as well. Have a great week!
    Rita

  6. Wow what an amazing transformation! Her porch looks like it was always a part of her beautiful home!Thanks so much for hosting!
    xx
    Anne

    • Thank you, Anne – that’s exactly what we hoped for, that it would appear seamless! We wrestles three weeks before deciding on the porch & walkway concrete with brick rowlock framing (it was an all brick surface previously).

  7. Thanks for hosting a great party! I love the new porch on this lovely home. My husband and I are big lovers of front porches too.

  8. Hi Susan! Rita’s porch redo turned out so lovely. What a pretty home she has too. Thanks so much for hosting and I hope you’re doing well.
    be a sweetie,
    Shelia 😉

  9. Great porch, I would love to do something like that to our house, beautiful!

    • Thank you, Jenna. If you ever do decide to undertake something like this, I kept a bulging 3″ notebook of notes! I could definitely offer some pitfalls to avoid!

  10. That looks pretty fabulous. I have to say. There is just something about brick homes that I like.

  11. Wow! That’s quite a transformation, Susan! Thanks for sharing!…hugs…Debbie

    • Thank you, Debbie – it was a transformation on many levels. It was the first project my husband & I did together – he had lived there as a bachelor for 15 years prior, and we did this after our first anniversary. 🙂

  12. Rita’s porch looks amazing! It looks like it was always meant to be there. I’m following you on Instagram!

  13. I think the reason porches became less popular isn’t because people stopped wanting to have them… but because they became less affordable. When considering building a new home for example… we had a “FIREPLACE” as a TOP item on our wishlist. In order to add that, it was an additional $5,000. Since we were first time homebuyers and scraping the bottom of the jelly jar just to get IN to our first home with 20% down… it made it next to impossible for us to have that. We would have had to give up the FURNACE or something (NOT), so it would have to wait unless we bought a home that already had one (which is what we did haha).
    Thanks for hosting once again!
    Michelle / newengland-style.com

    • Michelle, you have a valid point! The project did involve an investment, and I agree, especially with first-time homebuyers, just getting in is the top priority. This kind of a project was after years of ownership.

  14. Thanks so much for hosting! Life to the full! Melissa

  15. Thank you so much for hosting, Susan! That is some amazing transformation on the porch and landscaping!

  16. Thanks for sharing this beautiful home. I look forward to exploring the Panoply blog as soon as things settle a bit.

    • Thank you for your kind words, Scribbler (aka Ellen) – I hope you will come visit me on my blog. I just hopped over, read your bio, and can already tell your blog peaks my interest. I will be back to see you!

  17. I think Instagram is so much fun — can’t wait to follow you!

    I love the transformation you shared. That porch/patio looks amazing. How lucky she is to have such a beautiful home and the means to create such a lovely space.

    Thanks so much for the link-up…I’m looking forward to seeing what everyone has to share this week!

    Julie

    • Julie, thank you for your complimentary words. Yes, I feel very fortunate to live in my house and to be able to work to make it the home it is today. It keeps both me and my husband busy!

  18. Thanks for sharing such a nice transformation. Rita’s home is lovely. Thank you for hosting. I am investigating Sweethearts on the Homefront. It looks like a wonderful event!

  19. Wow! That changed the whole feel of the house. Very pretty. laurie

  20. Oh, yes! This weekend was glorious! Loved the cool, early morning temps. Dearest and I spent the day together Saturday visiting garage sales – and then our daughter and her husband – it was a lot of fun! Love this transformation – it is quite dramatic!
    I am delighted to join your party, I do appreciate you hosting,
    Kathy

  21. The porch makeover is stunning! Talk about curb appeal…It made the house look so grand and stately!

    • Thank you, Amy! We really wanted to up the curb appeal factor, and it was especially important for us to tie the ‘field’ together as one property with the house. Curving the landscape borders really helped blend the landscape to the home, as did the fence and extension of the parking pad across both lots.

  22. Thanks so much for hosting, Susan! Have a wonderful week!

  23. Hi,
    I’m trying to link up a before/after to MM but it’s not letting me for some reason. I’ve been doing this awhile now, so I can’t figure out what the deal is. Everything is fine until I get to selecting the pic and it says can’t link something about a link back? Loved the before/after on the her porch. Very nice transformation.

  24. Thanks so much for hosting! What a beautiful porch and yard.
    KC

  25. Wow, what a difference her new porch made! Beautiful. Thank you for sharing and thank you for hosting. Have a happy week. Toodles, Kathryn @TheDedicatedHouse

  26. What a gorgeous porch and landscaping! I agree, porches add so much curb appeal and thankfully they are making a come back. Susan, thanks for hosting the Linky Party…looking forward to a closer look at the talents posted in here!

  27. Oh my gosh that is fabulous! That’s a first class upgrade! Love the brick wall with fencing and the new entryway. Even that backyard looks fab! Wonderful job!

    • Liz, thank you for your enthusiastic reaction! I appreciate the feedback, and maintaining the landscape is like a part-time job for both me and my husband from March through November!

  28. That is an amazing looking Porch Susan! A big thanks to Rita for sharing it with us! I must be the worst blogger ever because I still haven’t join Instagram! but I have a good excuse I just got my first smart phone on Sept 8th!!lol…I can barely make a phone call and text..,now imagine taking pics in real time and sharing, lol…that’s going to be a hoot! So happy you did though…looking forward to follow you if I can figure out how to open an account! lol, thank you for the party! I look forward to it every Monday!
    Hugs, Lizy

  29. wow – her home is just beautiful!

  30. Susan,
    Thank you for visiting. About Mary Carol Garrity’s Home Tour…
    Her Home has a comfortable feel to it even though is is large. We didn’t see the upstairs bedrooms. I can see why Mary Carol didn’t allow strangers in the more private places of her home. She was so gracious to let us see what we did. Touring homes is great fun and just what I love to do. Seeing how people decorate and how they live turns my crank!

    Blessings to you.
    Hope you come back to see the rest of her mansion,
    d

  31. Susan, what a beautiful makeover! Thanks for hosting and sharing information with us. I have no clue about Instagram, and think I might have an account with nothing in it. Just haven’t taken the time to read about it.

  32. Susan…what a gorgeous porch facelift!…Her exteriors of her home are just stunning!…Thanks for hosting Susan and have a great week!

  33. Hi Susan, What a magnificent transformation. The house was amazing before now it is ever so grand. The grounds are designed to perfection.
    Would you look at the post I have put up today “Is Blogging Driving Me Crazy?”? Seems there are a lot of folks out there needing insight to better blogging. I know you are not on blogger or G+ but maybe you can offer some input to the organizing side of the process. Any input would be helpful.
    Thanks again for hosting probably the most consistent parties out there.
    Have a great week, Ginger

  34. Wow Susan, gorgeous porch-gorgeous home! Thanks so much for hosting, and have a wonderful week!

    Jeanette

  35. That is a beautiful front porch addition and yard! Thanks for hosting!
    Sherry

  36. Wow, fabulous home and amazing extentions to her home! Thank you so much for hosting sweet lady.
    Have a great week.

    FABBY

    • Fabby, Thank you for sharing your comment on my home project. It really did extend our house by enclosing the ‘field’ and making it a garden, to become part of our home.

  37. Thanks for the party! Love your alternating links! ~Ann

  38. Thanks for hosting! What an amazing house. Beautiful porch making a statement curb appeal, and gorgeous landscaping.

    Shannon ~ bohemianjunktion.com

  39. Thanks for hosting such a fun party!

  40. Oh my. Rita’s front entrance is an absolute dream. What a picture perfect front entry and how fun will she have decorating it for the holidays. Love! Thanks for letting me share my weekly projects. 🙂 xxoo

  41. Thanks for hosting such a wonderful party.

  42. It looks gorgeous and totally different. I love the addition of the brick wall.
    You know, this is exactly what we recommended to our builder when our house was under construction. He came up with a ridiculous reason to avoid it (I guess it was the cost). Then he goes on to build another house in the same sub-division with the same layout as ours but smaller and adds the porch to it!

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