A front porch you can chill on and a beautiful door are a great way to make an awesome first impression. Our charming 65 year old house on Cove was lacking both when we picked it up.

Confused tile, a drab front door color, and rusting wrought iron columns were all problems (I mean, "opportunities.") Although I found the multi-colored 4 X 4 tile under the "updated" tile to be a smidge charming, others didn't agree. And, truth be told we would have never been able to salvage it all with the demolition of the other tile...sigh.
So what to do with a troublesome floor? After much debate we decided to essentially deck it with pressure treated wood. This was accomplished by add a series of furring strips to the old tile with a gunpowder hammer shot to create a foundation.

After that step, the rest was relatively easy! We cut the wood to the correct length and used deck screws to place each piece. A little math and creativity was needed to create an apron front and to wrap the stairs. Overall, the project was inexpensive and basically took a full day of work (Christmas Eve day actually.) One of my favorite parts about the Cove house was the neighbors and the sense of community. Whenever we would be outside working people would drive by and holler, "looks great!" or "Keep it up!" It was encouraging and fun to see the neighbors enjoying seeing the house coming back to life. Or maybe they were actually screaming, "crappy color" or "shut up!" Just kidding, just kidding...they were awesome!
After the new flooring was complete, the next issue was the railing...more specifically, the lack of railing. It was a mighty long drop and I can't imagine that a family with small kiddos would want them to be on that porch...yikes! The old wrought iron columns were ridiculously heavy. And, although it should have taken three men and a boy to remove them, Jon muscled through it himself. We replaced the columns with pressure treated 6 X 6 which we wrapped in a vinyl post cover which made all the difference in the world. The process wasn't difficult, but I would recommend a team of two to line up the pieces.

In order to add a little safety and interest to the porch we decided on a vinyl railing kit from Home Depot. The railing went together easy peasy and we attached one side directly to the house and the other post. The new straight lines on the porch gave it a clean and updated look we were very happy with. http://www.homedepot.com/p/8-ft-x-36-in-White-Vinyl-Traditional-Rail-Kit-73003989/202084783
A new fixture, door hardware, and a coat of paint (Waterscape, SW6470, by Sherwin Williams) made the porch complete. But, perhaps my most favorite part of the porch is the amazing number sign complete with box to hold succulents. I call this a Pinterest Win! That's because Pinterest projects rarely work out (for me) to be the delightful end product to brag about. This one didn't disappoint though. I'll post a "how to" for this Saturday morning project in the near future.

When the porch was done I had to really resist the urge to load it up with some vintage porch furniture. I was reminded that the clean, beautiful open space would attract buyer and let them picture what life on their porch would be...good advice (thanks Jon.)


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