What a great house! I reminds me of my old neighborhood in NE Ohio. Anyway, what about having one step down from the door and then a landing extending out from that along the perpendicular bit of house, under the triple window and window box, and then bring the steps down from that onto the front walk at a right angle from where they are now? That would give you a slightly more generous landing area as you enter without a *major* deck-building project. You could add a wood railing to match and balance the color of your trim.

Wonderful house!!

I do think your original idea would be good. It would provide a landing in front of the door to stand on and I think steps toward the street would seem welcoming.

I'm curious what you would do if you had unlimited funds. Maybe the people on here could help you achieve the look within your budget. So many creative people here.

Two steps down, then platform at the 3rd step level up to the side where the tree is planted, then two more steps down toward the street. Will create a nice symmetry. I would also look into extending the roof of the first floor bump out to cover the new platform to make it more pleasant to go inside, out of the rain and other elements.

You have a really lovely home! And your idea for a small porch/deck with steps going out towards the street is fantastic.

What is the height from the flooring under the door to the bottom of the white trim? If that's within the code guidelines (maybe 7 3/4" - 8 1/4" max from a quick Google search), I'd do a single step down and then build a porch from there. If it's more than that, do two steps down to the porch.

I think wide steps down from the porch would look nice. Consider making them the width of the bumpout or the window maybe.

If possible, plan for (either now or later) an overhang over the porch. If possible, it would be nice to mimic the overhang above your top (dormer?) window.

I would use thick railing and trim that mimics the lovely white trim on your home.

If you could build it out of a material that mimics your foundation (stone?) that would be really nice. But I think either cement or wood would work well too.

I look forward to seeing what you do with the space.

I redid our front steps and liked them a lot but made one major mistake. I kept the riser height for each step the same as it was for the old steps. That was fine until now that I'm older, I REALLY REALLY wish I would have taken the opportunity to make those risers much shorter. This would mean it would be MUCH easier going up the stairs (with my arthritis). Since you want to keep costs low, I don't think making the risers shorter, i.e the vertical height between each step shorter, will keep your price low. But still wanted to mention this mistake that many may not have thought of.

When putting in steps in the back (later), I made the risers much shorter and wow, what a wonderful difference. I now use the back steps whenever I can.

Lovely house!! :) Really wonderful neighbourhood! :)

Yes -- another vote for adding a platform or mini-deck to act as a comfortable landing for family and guests. Consider using as much of that front garden area as possible -- to make a nice sturdy porch-and-stairs.

Then add nice thick sturdy wood railings -- painted white to work into the whole area.

Hope you post more pics of your project! :)

'Love your house. I like the idea of a landing somewhere, and lower risers if you can do it. ( Bad knees here too. )A more substantial railing in white would highlight the entrance better. My contractor needs to replace a post on my front porch and he wants to replace it with PVC which he says will look like wood when it's painted, but it won't rot. I'm a purist but in this case I'm going for the PVC because the water seems to stand in this area and I don't want to have to replace it again. The old post is only 10 years old and is all rotten on the outside. Luckily the solid core is okay and it's just the pine boxing it in that has rotted.

I would extend the porch floor by the width of 2 steps. That would give you a platform with which to drop any stuff you are carrying and then open the door. From there, I'd go down a few steps to a platform, having the platform sitting on top of the existing sidewalk. Finally, Turn right, facing to the sidewalk, and go down one more step and stroll on.

I agree with elphaba about the depth of risers. My idea is intended to smooth it out.

Be careful the steps are not too shallow. When we have built a wood deck, then later had a brick patio installed, I specificed the steps be 12 inches deep (front to back), so there is enough space for a foot to be on a step without turning partially or having part of the foot off the step. Much safer & more comfortable.

Thanks for all the tips! Especially for things I never would have thought of like riser height and step width.

Lesterd, I love that you're thinking outside the box. i hadn't thought of doing it that way. I don't think I can make the platform at the same height as the door because it would cover the siding and if we need to do repairs or paint we won't be able to get in, but I will look and see. I had discounted doing the whole platform at that height but maybe if it were smaller it would work.

My ideal would be to have it done as if it were original to the house. Have it be really solid and the whole width of the house and porch (with my lilac tree growing up through a hole in the decking. Instead of railings it would be solid up to that height and covered in cedar shingles. Instead of a roof, I'd have a pergola like structure extending over it (covered in vines of course).

Everyone seems to agree the railings should be white? Oddly I hadn't pictured it white, but now that you mention it, it would help to balance the trim wouldn't it.

And thanks to everyone for the compliments on our home. We got it for a song and it was a bit of a wreck. We've poured our hearts and souls into making it what we want on a limited budget. One of the biggest and most expensive things we did was to replace the two big plate glass windows in front with historically correct sash windows. I just love the way it looks now.

Thanks again everyone. Off to see what colour everyone thinks we should paint it.

I would come straight out from the door threshhold with the platform if I could (top of platform = top of trim). I am not sure why you can't do this, but I think its much more comfortable to step through a door at the same height rather than up and in. I would extend to the edge of the current railroad tie bordering the pavers, and make the platform as deep as the porch.Then come straight down with the steps facing front..

I agree about the comfort of the step, palimpsest and I worry about people tripping if there is the one step there, but if we do it even with the top of the trim board, we lose access to that board and the siding and trim in behind the mailbox. If those boards rot, there would be no way to go in and fix it. I just wouldn't feel comfortable enclosing it behind the deck.

There is another thread on page one right now - I think it is "fun colour for front door". I would love to have the deck look like the lower portion of her front porch that has the cedar shingles.

I am going to be the naysayer here.

I am also wondering if the door is your front door, or is it just the door into the front porch, and there is another door into the house? If it is the latter, then people aren't going to stop there, they are going to enter the porch area and then knock on the inside door.

I think your house will look odd with a deck on the front, which is what you are creating. You are also talking about keeping the tree.

I would rather see you rebuild the existing steps, using a blue-toned slate for the step surfaces and doing the rest in concrete to blend in with the stone all around the bottom of the house. If you don't want to spend that much, then rebuild them in wood and paint the trim color.

Do a railing in wood or a simpler iron style, painted to match the trim color on the house.

I would replace the walkway with slate or pavers in the color of the stone on the house.

I would paint the flower box and supports in the trim color as well.

Finally, I would take out the bushes in front of the house. They make the yard feel even smaller, and hide the stone bottom on the house.

Daisy, In my idea, I would keep the extension from the porch floor/outside platform to the width of the current steps (ie the part that is painted light brown). I think you'd still be able to access any of the house that needs painting/work. Plus, if it didn't butt right up to the box window, you'd still have air flow for drying the siding that's rained on etc. In doing this, I'd also be careful to make sure the ground elevation is such that water continues to drain away from the house. My neighbor did something similar to what I'm describing. I'll see if I can get a picture later today.

lesterd, driving around yesterday looking for colours to paint the house, I found a house similar to ours that, I think, had done similar thing to what you are describing. I'm going to go back today (if I can find it) and take a picture. I think I had read you wrong at first and your right, if that platform is only 2 steps wide, it should be okay.

The design depends in part on whether we pull permits. Our city is getting stricter about them and the regulations on front steps are that you need a 3 foot deep platform in front of your door.

Here's a vote for NOT doing the railing in white or any color other than black. Keep it traditional! There's nothing like beautiful black railings, not to mention, regardless of what you do with your house's colors in the future, black railings will work.

On to the steps: first thing is make sure you understand your city's codes and regs. You might not be permitted to reduce the height of the risers, as some have suggested, and I suppose it's possible that a deck-type construction in the place of the top step might not be allowed either. (It's really amazing the number of things covered by codes.)

With regs on the depth of treads and height of risers, doing any kind of deck or landing will require that the steps be extended, at least by the depth of a full riser to replace that bit in front of the door. (I think that's correct.) In that case, I think you'll have to go down sideways and then right angle straight down toward the street -- there isn't room to go all the way down because you'll cut into the sidewalk. And that's probably against code as well, not to mention displeasing aesthetically.

We had a very similar situation here with our back steps, the ones we use all the time: door to a mudroom, with concrete steps going sideways (but each was as long as the mudroom!) from a concrete landing (equally long, or wide if you will -- the whole thing looked like some kind of loading dock!) We now have: a small covered porch in front of the door, about 3 feet by 7 feet; one step going down sideways along the side of the house onto a landing that is about 4 feet by 4 feet; then right angle down straight 3 more steps. The porch, landing and treads are native bluestone; the sides of the whole thing look like dry-laid stone but are in fact cemented in; but the inside consists of the broken-up concrete. The railings are black. They are hand-forged in a design of the fabricator's making, and look 18th century. They had to be done according to code, i.e., a certain height, a certain distance between each spindle or whatever it's called, all around the porch,and then down from the landing to the last tread. Not cheap, unfortunately, but when the building inspector came by to check on the finished work, he didn't even get out of the car....took one look, said they were among the most beautiful he'd ever seen, gave us his blessing, and left.

I got the idea for stone steps and iron railings after dealing with always-rotting wood and/or always-deteriorating paint at our former house. I was so sick of having to paint at least every other year! Our stone steps and iron look gorgeous, and they are virtually maintenance free, so I suppose the cost is something I no longer think about! And in fact, given the cost of wood and the labor cost in doing the construction, it's not clear what the marginal increase in cost of stone/iron over wood actually was.

which leads, in a rambling way to this: what direction does your weather come from? Our wood steps at the old house were directly in the line of storms, and snow would collect and sit on them. Hence the rot and peeling paint. If you decide to go with wooden steps, I strongly urge you to use the absolute best paint you can. Something like Fine Paints of Europe. I finally used FPE on the wood porch railing at the old place, but never used anything but Benjamin Moore on the landing and treads. Year after year, the latter had to be redone while the former looked as good as when I first painted.

Sorry for the ramble today....many things going on around me!

No need for apologies, lynxe - all good things to consider. I'm trying to find our cities regulations online (almost impossible), but I do remember the 3 foot rule in front of the door for some reason.

Yes, I think I would love a stone look, but it's just not worth the cost. We are very limited in budget and the list of projects is as long as my arm. Just can't justify spending that kind of money on this particular project.

I should also mention that we are painting the house this spring and so I should probably leave any decisions on railing colour until then. If it weren't for code rules, I probably wouldn't do any railings. There are 2 homes near us that have the most gorgeous little decks and steps with no railings but either bushes or massive flower pots instead. Aesthetically, I find that look very pleasing. Also the interlocking brick (HATE IT!) is going this summer as well, so we are not limited by its location at all.

And,yes, our weather comes straight at those steps, but they are a little protected. Good tip on the FPE paint. The floor of that little porch peels every couple of years and I am so sick of painting it. I'll try the FPE if I can find it.

I would build a landing all the way to the right corner of your house, then build a set of steps, about the same width as your current set, that lead toward the street. Leave just enough deck landing space to the right of the steps to build a built-in bench or place a freestanding bench perpendicular to the street.

If you decide to go with a white railing, there's no need to paint the decking white too. I think it looks nice to combine a white rail with a natural or stained deck.

What kind of tree is that? Just wondering how big it will get which could have an impact on any decision you make. I am guessing it is a small tree/large shrub since it is so close to the house.

I know budget is an issue, but have you considered or priced brick? Since you plan on replacing the walkway it might be worth the investment (in the long run) to do everything in brick.

First of all, you have to realize this is the ugliest time of year here. Our city is actually quite lovely (for 3 months of the year, at least). I really like the simplicity of the first 2 pics, but the 3rd house is most like ours and kind of what I think might work (without the railing).

I know I should take the deck right to the edge of the house, but then I'd have to cut the lilac down and I don't think I could do that. Our neighbours to the right just had a tree cut down in their front yard and it made everything look so stark and cold.

I guess I should start getting quotes on different materials before I make any decisions.

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I'm surprised no rails on the first two. That's an accident waiting to happen.

Okay, I'm sure everyone's lost interest, but I had the first company come by to give me an estimate and it didn't go well. No idea of cost yet, but realized I don't have much idea of what I want and he wasn't bright enough to help. On to the next company, but trying to pin down exactly what I want.

What about if the stairs came down the full width of the decking with a railing only on the tree side. I could set big pots on the stairs closest to the porch? The stairs would be 10 feet wide instead of 5. They would have to extend a little past the foundation of the porch and I'd have to widen the walkway a bit near the stairs. Thoughts?

There are many brilliant suggestions here, but I didn't see this one. The first thing I do when I have an "outside decor" question is jump in my car and take slow ride around the neighborhood. What looks great in one neighborhood might look out of place in another. I'm sure you'll see some that you like, which will help you form your ideas. Worth a try?