Porch Project: Part 4

Well, after a couple weeks of hard work, the porch renovation is completed! FINALLY! And while this took a little more elbow grease than we originally anticipated, the payoff was well worth all the effort. We now have a space that can enjoy 3/4 of the year (and maybe in the winter if we get a space heater), and this enclosed porch adds additional "living space" to our home...letting us enjoy the outdoors without the bugs.

So, without further adieu, let me introduce you to our new back porch (minus the "decor").

But first, let's go waaaay back to the beginning to see the before pictures. Note the following: original brick, unfinished beadboard on the ceiling and walls, green paint, old fashioned light fixtures, stained berber carpet, bamboo blinds that were falling apart, and junk everywhere...

Joey's thinking, "hmmm... this space has a ton of potential!"

And here is the dramatic transformation! We started by ripping out the carpeting and painting the brick gray. We also painted the shelf that is attached to the brick the same gray - I wanted the shelf to blend in with the brick rather then stand out. The built-in bench was painted gray also. The interior door (leading into the Kitchen) and interior window (where you can see into the 1st floor bedroom/office) were painted white.

The ceiling then got painted a bright white as well. The walls were painted a blue-gray. White 2X4 boards were added as crown molding around the ceiling and baseboards. 2 new light fixtures were added. And lastly, the tile floor was installed. This picture below shows the area that will be used for sitting (hence, the free couch from my Aunt and Uncle) and eating (we're moving a dinette set in here as well).

The opposite side of the porch is the entrance area and is going to be used as a mudroom. This will be the main entrance into the house, and so I want it to be an area for hanging coats, storing gloves/scarves/hats and other outdoor items (inside the bench), dumping shoes etc...
The 2 light fixtures we bought for the room were very inexpensive. The ceiling fan/light for over the sitting and eating area cost $60 but came with a $15 rebate - making it only $45! And the flush-mount light to illuminate the entrance from the porch to the kitchen was $25. Both were bought at Mendards, and while they don't match perfectly, they coordinate well. Both have a brushed nickle finish on the metal parts and are roughly the same shape.


The tile on the floor was also bought from Menards. It was actually very inexpensive as well. The color is a fabulous shade of blue and gray combined. In some lighting it looks more blue and in other lighting it looks more gray. It grounds the space so well. Joey installed it in a staggered pattern, which not only adds interest, but also mimics the pattern of the brick.

Here is close-up of the 2X4 boards that Joey bought for only $3 per 8 feet of board. He painted it white and it adds a great finishing touch to the room around both the ceiling and the floor.

The primary color scheme for the room: Lowe's Eddie Bauer Collection - Vintage Gray for the brick, Shale for the walls, and white for ceiling/trim. This picture shows the color swatches against the tile.

Pretty sweet transformation, no?

Now that the work is over, we can usher in the fun part! DECORATING! We'll be setting up the furniture this weekend, and then I can add hooks and baskets and all kinds of accessories. But more on that later!

Almost Done (with 1 room)

Warning: The following information is known to cause extreme laziness and many yawns.

Over the past week, we've been giving you some updates on our porch renovation project. And it's exciting to say that this project is about to come to a close (although there's still plenty to be done in the decorating dept. - for that never truly ends, right?).

As of tonight, the painting is 90% complete, save for a few touch-up spots and another coat of white paint on the kitchen door and window trim. The tile floor has been laid and should be grouted tomorrow. Light fixtures have been hung. It's almost ready to be used! FINALLY!

There will be many more pictures to come when the room is a bit more put-together and polished, but I wanted to show you 2 or 3 quick highlights of what the last few days have brought... and share the perspective of our 3rd family member.

Here's a peak of the new wall color next to the gray brick that was shown to you in the last post. The color is "shale", and it's a beautiful blue-gray color. The blue is so nice and soothing - reminding me of the sky, and the gray undertone of this particular blue complements the gray brick so nicely. This exact blue-gray color is also going to be used inside the house (but you'll have to wait to find out where - suspense?!).
Here is a not-so-great picture of the ceiling fan that Joey hung today. It has a brushed nickle finish to coordinate with the gray brick. The fan blades are white, which helps the fixture to blend into the white ceiling and not seem too "heavy" in the room. This light/fan combo is hung on the far side of the room where most of the sitting and eating will take place. There is another light fixture that still needs to be hung on the opposite side of the room to light up the area leading into the kitchen.

And finally, the view from the rocking chair... where a mischievous family member watches (and sleeps) as we do all the work...


I hope to lay around like Spike someday!

Porch Project: Part 3

May I just say that I LOVE GRAY?!

It's that simple.

Period.

The Beginning...


The Middle...


The (almost) End...


Joey's working on painting the door, window, and trim a nice, crisp white...


There's nothing like gray brick. I could paint my whole house gray (if Joey would let me)...


The porch walls are next! Wait until you see what color we chose for these! Any guesses?

Porch Project: Part 2

If you remember this story we posted recently, we started the process of renovating the porch on the back of our house. Given that it has been 1 week since the start of this project, we thought it was time to share a brief update on how this project has progressed.

While there have been a few noticeable changes to the porch, the progress has been slightly sloooow. In part, this is due to the busyness of our schedules this past week, leaving little time for house-work. Also, this has been a very HOT week in K-town, and so doing any project outdoors (even on the the porch) has not been on the top of our priority list.

Needless to say, here are a few pictures of where we started just a few days ago, and what we've got goin' on now.

Old Porch: Note the carpet, almost-no-paint-walls, and very old hanging light with cord strung across the ceiling.

Porch after some "clean up": No more carpeting or light fixtures, Junk cleared out, and trim replaced around the ceiling.


And here are some pictures showing what has been done this week...

Joey laid DUROCK cement board on the floor in preparation for the tile we are going to lay down. (Please disregard the shop vac and paint stuff on the floor.)

The ceiling has received 1 coat of white paint. That immediately brightened the space and made it feel more up-to-date and cheerful.


The brick wall is the last part of the porch that we got started on this week - although, it is not close to being done at this point. We began applying the first coat of primer to the brick - using a special for-masonry-and-brick-only primer to seal in any grease, grime, or dirt on the brick that may disrupt the pretty paint (the primer has the consistency of elmer's glue). Painting this brick is slightly time consuming. Even with a 1-inch nap paint roller, the roller really only covers the top of each brick and doesn't do much in terms of getting into the cracks and crevices. And so we're filling in the cracks using a thick paint brush, but even this takes a long time. You can slightly see that the brick on each side of the door has been filled in with the paintbrush compared to all the areas that we haven't brushed yet.

I'm praying that once we get this first of primer coat on the wall, that the next coat, which will be latex paint, will be much easier and faster to apply. And after we get the ceiling and brick wall all painted, we still have to paint the other 3 walls, bench, shelf, and interior door and window. Whew! Looks like this is going to take a while!

So, we'll continue to give you updates as we move along in the porch redo process, and maybe the next one will show some larger improvements!

Last, but not least, here's what Spike thinks of the porch so far....

Apparently cats prefer to watch others do the work for them.

Porch Project in Progress...

Say that 3 times fast!

We've decided to take a slight remodeling detour from the inside of our house to focus on the "outside" of the house. Not that the inside will be totally neglected - it still needs love too - but we figure that as long as the weather is nice and warm for a few more months, we may as well get some use from the outdoor space.... enter project Porch and Patio Renovation.

During our house hunting days when we toured this house for the first time, one of the spaces we loved was the 3-seasons porch off the back of the house. It is a great bonus space that is very versatile, and it gives us both extra indoor space and extra outdoor space - since the backyard isn't that big. When I entered the porch for the first time, the first thought that popped into my head was "this smells exactly like Grammie's porch in Maine" - that old farmhouse smell that I love (the Maine folks will know what I mean). The second thought that popped into my head was "boy, does this have a lot of potential!" - both in terms of overall design (the combo of 70's and bad-90's-redo design isn't working for us) and function (this can be used for much more than a storage room).

So, let's talk about the function part first. Even though the porch is in the back of the house, because of the way our garage is situated on our corner lot, you actually go through the porch to get into the house from the driveway - making the porch our main "entrance" into our home (who needs a front door anyway!). Hence, the porch is the perfect place for a mudroom - a place to drop off our jackets and shoes before entering the house, and store seasonal items like our hats, scarves, gloves, umbrellas etc...Plus, there is a built in bench right by the doorways to accommodate storage and seating. In addition to a mudroom, the porch will also make a great eating space - it's right off the kitchen and the soon-to-be patio area in the back yard. And although we have a formal dining room inside the house for year round gatherings, the porch will make a great casual eating space that we can use about 3/4 of the year. One other function the porch will have is a lounging area (aka couch) for reading a book or chatting with people or taking a good Sunday afternoon nap. So, porch = mudroom/dinette/sitting room.

Here's a picture where you can see the back porch in relation to the driveway/garage

The design of the porch is next on the list to discuss. The porch that we bought includes the following... badly stained berber carpet, beadboard that was nailed to the walls and ceiling and not painted or finished in any way, a mish-mash of trim pieces nailed to the walls and ceiling to cover the gaps where the beadboard doesn't quite come together, dirty exposed brick, bamboo blinds with lots of holes, and a little teal paint in between the windows and on the doors (plus a ton of junk everywhere).... not the ideal look we're going for here.

Here are a couple of pictures so you can see what I'm talking about...

As you can see, this place screams "makeover needed". So, besides clearing out the junk, we have already ripped out the stained carpet...

...and replaced the trim pieces on the ceiling with basic square pieces that will be painted to match the ceiling paint.

What's to come, you ask? Here's the short list of to-do's: new flooring, PAINT, some furniture, window upgrades, window treatments, and decor. PLUS a new patio outside the porch for more seating and the grill. And the process continues tonight!

So, stay tuned for the latest on this porch and patio project!