Calling it done!

It took me 11 months, over 8000 lbs of concrete, 116 concrete blocks, 1300 bricks, pressure treated floor framing, tongue and groove flooring, about 80 2x6's for the roof framing, and now I'm calling it done. I had to do a test brick bench in the backyard and a test roof in the driveway just to get ready. This is one of the largest and certainly one of the longest projects I've ever done. Plus, usually Kelley helps me out on most of these things with the house, but this one was all me. Kelley helped me paint some but this was really my design, my digging, and my woodworking. I am very pleased with the way this came together. And I took lots of pictures.

Before pictures are from 6/10/2018. This tiny concrete stoop was falling apart. The stone path was getting breaks in the concrete and weeds growing through it. The beds outlined with those azaleas were not supposed to be pruned like that, and it's a poor landscape design. That handrail made it impossible to load a couch into the living room. Not functional or attractive.

8/6/2018 I started digging

Fast forward from August 2018 to July 2019 and we get this

amazing!

The last weekend of work, I finished painting the ceiling blue and installed the ceiling fans. Then all that was really left was painting. I touched up the handrail walls, then put a final thick coat of floor paint down. Once it dried everything was ready for furnishing.

How many colors can you put into one porch? White trim, red (brown) cedar, sky blue ceiling, red brick, dark gray walls, pink front door, light gray floor, and brown (red) stairs with gray concrete. Some designer is going nuts over that. it's too much!

Full porch, standard view. Note the rain chains on the gutters

not every house can pull off a pink front door

Floor is painted

Fans are installed

Left side walls, column, and roof

Finished ceiling with fans

The stairs are 8' wide, solid brick & concrete

This is a tough seating space

Right half of the front. This is going to be a great space to landscape

Right walls, from the shed side

This is going to be an easy space for seating

We really love how well this turned out. It adds an amazing amount of curb appeal to the house. Done is kind of a strong word at this point. There is still a hole in the roof where I was clearing out framing before I fell, I'm going to hire out someone to finish that off for me. There is decorating. We want to put a porch swing on the far side but they are having a very difficult time finding one. I might have to build the right front porch swing. There is landscaping - the fun part. Now I get to rebuild the entire front yard!

Happy people on a happy porch

We did get a couch for the strange side