I forgot to add a clickable link. Sorry

Here is a link that might be useful: Pictures of home

Why not put it where the deck is ( using it as a subfloor) and then make the deck a step down around it? well then I would want a step down to a patio as well LOL!

One idea would be to add the screen porch to the back side of the deck. In other words, you'd cross the open deck to reach, and enter, the screen porch. You could even stagger it a bit - shift it to the left (looking at the house from the rear).

Well, we had a somewhat similar problem (not wanting to lose light, etc.), and we ended up deciding on a covered and screened in pergola. You could attach the pergola beams over the door coming out perpendicular to the house for the entire width of the deck. Then, cover them up with clear polycarbonate sheeting and run screen between your support posts. You don't say how big the deck is ... my space is 13' out from the house and 17' wide.

You won't lose much light becasue the "roof" will be clear and the sun will be shining into the room between the beams.

I just posted some photos of our pergola (in progress) ... posting title is Ipe Pergola Progress w/Poly ... Photos (or something very similar).

I would be happy to post some more photos if you want to see a more complete picture of what we're doing.

Good luck,
Birgit

Amy-- Sorry I can't help with the screen pourch but--
What a great property and such a cute house!! Please find a way to make it work. Someone please help Amy

Robin, thanks so much for saying that. My house depresses me but I love the view so much. Part of me thinks we need to just recognize we can't afford all the changes it would take to keep me from going nuts. Part of me says we need to make it work.

Birgit, I am dying to see your pictures, but can't figure out how to go to them. Can you tell me how to get to them?

Amy

OH SHOOT, Birgit

I was looking for you pictures in a separate picture area. Some of the forums have them.

Now I see!!!
Not sure where to post this: with the pictures or here.

Hi Amy,

One more thing that we considered before the pergola concept was this:

http://agidomes.com/patio.html

Again, not sure how big your space is, but the quote for the 13x17 was ~$6000 if I remember correctly. Seemed like a nice easy solution for the "covered" part, and lets a lot of light through. You could probably pretty easily frame in the "sides" and add screen (which is what we were going to do).

Good luck,
Birgit

A few nights ago I spent forever Googling the idea. But, I never came across the agidomes site. It is great. They don't currently offer anything in my state, but I have learned that it is going to take a while to sell the idea to my dear husband. Seems he sees issues with keeping the glass clean (laugh).
I have bookmarked the site and some others for my "Future" file. If we decide to stay in this house, I think that this probably one of the best options for the screened porch if we put it on the current deck.

Thanks guys.

If I recall correctly, they ship to anywhere, and had a toll-free number for installation assistance. They also said it was about a 10-hour install job for what they were quoting me.

Birgit

Famly Handiman had an article this month about adding a deck off the corner of a deck. It was perfect for helping me visualize how a screened pergola or deck would look. We would definately have to hire out. I am filing the article with pictures of your screened pergola and starting the dream factory.

Mythak, I have much the same situation as you in that my proposed screened-porch roof will be above two windows, reducing light to the affected rooms. My contractor will install skylights in the roof above the two windows.

I, like you, spent a year trying to figure out all the possibilities while keeping the cost down. I spent hours with graph paper just trying to see how my wicker furniture and tables and chairs could be arranged in this-sized or that-sized porch. Like you, I couldn't imagine how my roof line(s) could be accommodated. Once I talked to contractors, it became apparent most of my "dreaming" was a waste of time.

Clearly, a 16' x 16' porch was the answer, making the furniture question moot. The roof line(s) problem wasn't a problem at all.

Unless you're familiar with all the ins and outs of construction and code, I heartily recommend you call in contractors and get bids if you're still living without a screened porch and unsure about the location of it. I have never heard of a contractor charging for this service. (In the year since you posted, the housing-market collapsed, leaving many contractors without their usual workload--and very competitive.) Once I started talking to pros with informed answers, a great sense of relief came over me. The project became exciting, not stressful. Fear of the unknown is the worst, and ignorance is not bliss.

In the meantime, you can prepare yourself to communicate with/understand contractors by using the internet to familiarize yourself with construction terminology and options you might have in the way of building materials, screening, etc.

As one who lives in Minnesota, where the state bird is the mosquito, I would never take the suggestion of likesdoilies to place the porch on the back side of the deck. You do not want to have to carry food, drinks, etc. to and from the porch in the rain, leaving mosquitoes into the porch and sunroom whenever their doors are opened--rain or shine. And juggling the same while opening and closing two doors would be a nightmare.

As for using clear polycarbonate sheeting over pergola beams as birgit was doing last April, no building inspector hereabouts would allow it. A contractor who knows your local building code might suggest you remove that particular idea from your "dream factory."

Unless your deck is sub code/not substantial enough to underpin your porch, using it would be a huge money saver. And you've already got a door to it--knocking out an exterior wall just to access a new space is expensive even if the interior of the wall isn't brick. Skylights are far less expensive than starting to build from ground up. And remember, you have one side of your sunroom, with its four windows, to provide light to that room. Your roof line is a piece of cake compared with mine; unless I'm mistaken, the answer is a simple shed roof.

I've had screened porches, three-sided sunrooms, gazebos, pegolas and patios in the many houses I've lived in during my 70+ years on Earth. I'm sure you, who have six months of mosquitoes as opposed to my three, would agree that nothing beats a screened porch and the sensation it gives of being out of doors--but without mosquitoes.

Columbusgardener would, like me, use the deck as a subfloor for the screened porch but would want to have a patio built, too. I say, What for? I and, I suspect, you, would never use it. Perhaps columbusgardener has never experienced the joy of a screened porch.

Good luck!

I'm in the middle of adding a screened porch...see the link below:

Here is a link that might be useful: porch

FWIW, going from screen to thermopanes is an expense, but it also takes your room from 3 season to 4. For me, it was a no-brainer. My house has radiant heat, and I removed a 15'x6' window (and the wall below it) leading into the new room. The result was that room was ~4 degrees cooler than the rest of the house, and heating costs did not go up (because the room is air-tight with only moderate insulation under the deck and in the ceiling.)

Its a 3 walled structure with operating windows on 2 sides and feels every bit outside during the summer. I highly recommend it.

Cheers,
Russ

Russ..we just bought a house with a screened in (3 season) porch on the back and want to convert it to something we can use year round in South Dakota. It has screened windows on all three sides..we are planning on replacing those with paned windows or french doors, but what can we do for a heat source???