Home Reno: The Porch

For a year now, I have been saying that I would be posting updates on our house and all the work we have done since we moved into our fixer-upper last June, but that was a total fail. I kept saying to myself that I would post about this room or that room when another job was complete, but in reality I know there will always be something to do and if I wait until everything is perfect I will never post because let's be real that will never happen. 

I'm going to try (really hard) to post about a room each week. 

I figured let's start from the outside in with the house and front porch. 

When we moved in the front porch was a complete eyesore. I'm talking chipped paint covering the stairs and a dirty maroon rug was glued over the gorgeous hardwood on the porch.  I absolutely hated it, because it was the first thing you saw when you came over. I actually vacuumed the front porch just to get the dirt and leaves off of it. 

I also hated the red painted foundation which completely clashed with the brick in my opinion.  

In addition the landscaping or lack thereof was out of control and the porch swing wood looked gray and worn.  The first things we did were re-stain the porch swing and spray paint a bistro set that came with the house a bronze color.

Next DFH took on the porch floor. When we ripped out the porch rug we discovered a  perfectly maintained wood floor, however it was covered in glue. See the side of the porch that looks blue in the picture below?? Yeah that's all glue.  DFH hand sanded the entire front porch until it looked like the right side of the picture below.   It was a huge job.  I am so thankful for a handy husband.

Once the glue had been sanded off DFH and I stained and polyurethanes the deck  (see below).  What a difference that made!!

 

Our next project was to tackle the paint on the foundation and the stairs. We opted for a neutral tan, which I personally think looks great contrasted against the brick. DFH painted the foundation while I scraped the red paint from the steps and then painted the trim and steps tan. 

This spring DFH also mulched and landscaped the front yard and planted some additional flowers and plants.  Fingers crossed our hydrangeas survive. 

We still have several more projects we want to complete on the front yard and porch. My number 1 is the door. That "Threes Company" 1970's door and screen needs to go asap, I try to hide it with a wreath, but let's be honest we can all see what's going on, but alas everything takes time and money. Some other projects on our list are to paint the trim in our porch, paint or replace the white siding on the house with green siding, and to add another coat of paint on the steps and re-polyurethane the deck to give it more shine. I'd also love to replace the house number sign.  As I said there will always be something. 

 

Before and After

 

( Ignore my hanging plant on the step, I placed it outside to get some water and forgot to rehang it)

Next up: The mudroom. Stay tuned.