Clare!!! Welcome, Welcome, Welcome, Thank you for such a geat Christmas tour at your home!!! Your efforts have made a wonderful Holiday experience for us all. You are the 'Christmas' bomb girl!!!!!!!!!!!! I especially love all kinds of trash to treasure endeavors! Your wheelbarrow is so charming!!!!! We had an old metal wheelbarrow that needed a front wheel. I got a discarded child's small bike wheel (a tricycle wheel would have been even better, but what'a ya gonna do? Free is Free. I couldn't just knock on the door and ask if they had it in a different size.). Then I tore the rubber tire off of the spoked rim. You'll need one of those darned men with his 'Man tools' to help remove the center of the wheel if you do it this way. I spray painted it white, then ran a rod through the middle and attached it to the wheelbarrow cart. I'll post a pic soon because it really made a huge difference to my old metal cart. It would make your wooden cart even nicer. I bet you did work for months on the Venician plaster it looks so rich!!! Great idea to toughen up the heavy traffic areas. Loved the glow when the lights were turned down low. The fresh greenery is wonderful on the door. The ice skates brought back memories of my childhood immediately. It was all so lovely. Susie

This is an issue for me, too. We've finally (after 25 years here!!) got the front porch off in December. And we will NOT be replacing it. But I do intend to reuse the substantially intact columns, entablature, frieze, roof and deck framing etc. on a porch on the other side of the house - north side where there won't be any loss of light. Can't believe I suffered through 24 winters in the near darkness in my first floor due to that damn porch. Removing it made a tremendous, and completely positive change in my experience of my old house. I spent way to much time agonizing about altering an "old" element of the house. I was hoping that when we excavated we'd find it was a later addition. Alas, there it turned out to be no evidence to support that, and no evidence that the parts of the vertical wall framing that had been covered by the thickness of the porch roof had ever been covered by siding. So the porch must have been installed before it was first sided. By the time we could see this, however, we had already removed a good chunk of the roof decking and ceiling and it was nearly dark. The next morning I stumbled downstairs and I had sun streaming in through my front windows in my sitting room and dining room. It was around the winter solstice when, as you know sun is so precious. I couldn't get over it. When my DH asked for a decision about whether to continue, or not, I just said let's get it down. So there, I did it. I tore off and orginal, important element of my antique house - a half-height, but full-facade, Greek revival porch. And I am not the least bit sorry. But I did salvage everything and will allay any lingering guilt by re-erecting it on the back. What were they thinking when the blocked all that light since 1849? But the far edge of my decking is unsound, too. I have considered making the new porch narrower. I was hoping to find new replacement material, but it sounds as though I'll be out of luck. So my fall back plan is this: put the replaced (new material) section inboard, next to the house and install the salvaged floor boards turned around so the old, formerly protected parts will now be on the weather edge, and the seam between the two will be deep under the porch roof. That butt joint will be a place for development of problems in the long run (and with houses as old as ours, the long is run everything.) Therefore, the drier it stays, the better. I may also turn the salvaged boards upside down as 160 + years of use have worn out the grain a bit, but the undersides are still fresh. Also the old face nail holes would be less visible. I realize this will put the "seam" between the two surfaces in a somewhat more prominent place, but considering that I plan to paint it, and normally have a big door mat and an old settle against the wall of the house, I think it will be OK, and mostly hidden. What choice do we have, anyway? No way would I want to think I was using any freshly harvested old-growth Doug fir. Nor do I feel comfortable with any of the tropical hardwoods (primarily teaks), notwithstanding the "certification" system. I considered using one of the fake outdoor flooring materials (i.e. Trex). Can't go there for a flooring surface that I would want to walk on in barefeet. Though I do have a couple of pieces in very damp place in my spring house and I've been satisfied with them. L.

Thanks, me too! That photo has a very romantic quality about it. I also love a bunch of the colorful decor on some of the very old fashioned porches. I always wanted a house like that.

The ceiling looks fairly low - do you have the height for ceiling fans? If not, fans can be placed in upper corners of the porch. Since the porch is so long and narrow, I'd alternate furniture placement, for a serpentine walking path. For example, maybe a bistro table and two chairs against the railing, and then a couple of rockers next to the siding, followed by a loveseat at the end. As mentioned above, everything easy to reposition for conversation. You could consider outdoor rugs to partition the space too. i would paint the door a welcoming color, and add some pots or flowers to complement.