Remember this photo that I shared with y’all back in the day? It was the picture that made Patrick & I come back and take a second look at this house when it came back on the market.
And, while the picture is not entirely accurate … we ARE building on and will finally have that amazing outdoor space we planned and dreamed about when we bought the house!
We are not building any interior space (so no den, as the above photo depicts). And, we’re not screening in the front porch (yet!).
But, we are building a covered porch with surrounding deck.
It’ll be all one, big structure; so, the flow from the covered porch to the deck is seamless.
We’re opening up the backyard by cutting down the honeysuckle and removing the split-rail fence.
And, the side yard will FINALLY be usable! (It’s seriously ⅓ of our lot and it’s never been accessible from inside the house??)
The covered porch is 16’x16’. The deck extends 10’ past that into the side yard, and additional 4’ into the backyard. The total new deck will be 26’x20’ (26’ into the side yard, and 20’ along the side of the house and into the backyard). The railing will go along the entire front of the porch & deck, and then wrap another 8’ around the corner. The rest of the deck side and the full length of the back of the deck will just have a single step down into the yard.
It’s 520 sq ft of outdoor space! We could not be more excited about any project currently in the works at this house (or in the planning stage for that matter). It is the project we decided to do for us; it’s a full-fledged investment in our happiness at this property. Outdoor living space has been our top priority for a really long time now … and it’s absolutely amazing that it is happening!
The plans also show the backyard patio being torn out and replaced with a deck, but we’re skipping that for now (for several reasons). But, either later this fall or next spring, we’ll be replacing that patio.
We’re confident (and hopeful) that we’ve found the right guy to build it. He used to build houses and now, as he’s easing into retirement (we think?), he basically focuses on decks and framing work. He built a friend’s deck, which turned out great, so we’re pretty sure on this one. [fingers-crossed] It took a while to get the quote and then the plans from this contractor. But, when we got them, they were all hand-drawn on architectural paper and super cool. Plus, he said it would only take about 10 days, once they get started!
Deposit paid! (No take-backs or cancellations allowed! 😊)
We bought patio furniture, and half of it has already been delivered. We’re narrowing down selections on outdoor dining sets. And, we’ve already been perfecting our grilling. So, once this thing is built, we can immediately start enjoying it. And we are so excited.
And, these are Patrick’s much more impressive drawings. (He cheated and used an actual program designed to do layouts. 🙂 )
The top one is a Visio of how the deck will actually be laid out, once built, with furniture. (Although, we didn’t buy a sectional, so it’ll be a bit different … but you get the idea!)
The bottom picture shows a to-scale replica of our property … with our house, yard area, and now the porch & deck. The big green circles are oak trees (which are really big, but those are not to scale … at least not in the truck size).
🤣 He actually used a measuring wheel to walk the lot and house perimeters to get this all to scale. 🤣
We’ll be keeping this updated as work starts and when it ends!
(Although, at my current posting rate, you’ll probably see 1 post when they start and 1 post when it’s finished. 😉 )
Welcome to our home ... our second attempt at a fixer-upper. 
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