Voila! A Porch!
Josh's long-term porch timber framing project is basically done... And the results are stunning!
To give you an idea of where we started, this is what the house looked like when we bought it (top) and in September of last year (bottom).
And this is what it looked like when we brought JJ home from the hospital (July 2017)...
The porch does so much for the curb appeal of this place. Especially when you compare it to the 1980's version of our house, the facade is dramatically improved! Josh placed most of these beams himself, and designed everything about the porch. It is a win-win, as it adds to the aesthetics of the place and also keeps snow and water away from the foundation and structure.
The original design of the house used cantilevered beams to support both the second floor and the second story deck, and those (non-pressure treated) beams sucked water right into the house, weakening the support for the second story and causing everything from the second floor down to get (and stay) wet. That wet wood made delicious carpenter ant food, which in turn caused us to have to replace every exterior wall of the house.
Here are some more photos because it is so pretty!
Josh placed a gable in the design at the end of the house where we have the "front" door. It will keep snow away from the door and the entryway. The entrance is pretty grand. There is an attic vent above the front door that Josh did some pretty carving into so even that looks nice.
This hip beam is on the right side of the porch when looking at it from the front yard. This is geometry applied in a real-life situation, as the beam itself is angled and each beam that joins to it is at an angle. Math for the win!
Zooming out, this is the same hip beam with the porch railing shown. We will eventually paint/stain everything the same color, but we are still in the "receiving input" stage of considering what color to paint the house and porch. If you have some ideas, comment them below, we would love to hear them!
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| The Porch circa early August 2018 |
To give you an idea of where we started, this is what the house looked like when we bought it (top) and in September of last year (bottom).
And this is an old photo from the late 1980's/early 1990's that we found (thank you, Internet!)...
The original design of the house used cantilevered beams to support both the second floor and the second story deck, and those (non-pressure treated) beams sucked water right into the house, weakening the support for the second story and causing everything from the second floor down to get (and stay) wet. That wet wood made delicious carpenter ant food, which in turn caused us to have to replace every exterior wall of the house.
Here are some more photos because it is so pretty!
Josh placed a gable in the design at the end of the house where we have the "front" door. It will keep snow away from the door and the entryway. The entrance is pretty grand. There is an attic vent above the front door that Josh did some pretty carving into so even that looks nice.
This hip beam is on the right side of the porch when looking at it from the front yard. This is geometry applied in a real-life situation, as the beam itself is angled and each beam that joins to it is at an angle. Math for the win!
Zooming out, this is the same hip beam with the porch railing shown. We will eventually paint/stain everything the same color, but we are still in the "receiving input" stage of considering what color to paint the house and porch. If you have some ideas, comment them below, we would love to hear them!
The best part of the porch has been the amount of space it affords us to be outside in the beautiful New Hampshire summer. JJ spends at least a few hours on the porch each day, playing with toys and pretending to do what his dad does. Josh even has JJ practicing installing driver bits into various screwdrivers and drills. I plan to write more in a future post about how JJ is doing, because he is an active, fun little human! He is a good eater and he is always busy doing one thing or another. We love having him around and we think he will be a great big brother too.
We had a birthday party and "porch debut" celebration at the end of July. Thanks to this porch we could host almost 40 people comfortably! My friend Emilee made a beautiful cake that JJ tried to eat with his hands... It was a lot of fun both for him and for us to watch!
We have loved having our family and friends visit this summer, and if you want to stop by we would love to host you! As long as you don't mind potentially using a bathroom that has a shower curtain instead of a door... :)
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