Sheilajoyce has decribed our porch except our floor is maroon: "The porch was constructed of the brick which was used on the first floor of the house, with a solid brick "railing" about 3 feet high enclosing it. The wide cement flight of 6 or 8 steps that led to the porch and front door were flanked by wide brick sides, the kind on which a stone lion could have been comfortably ensconced. The living room windows formed the back wall of the porch, but the sides and front of the porch were open above the stone capped, brick mini walls. Tall brick pillars supported the solid roof, which was lined with a ceiling of varnished bead board. The floor consisted of 4 inch wide planks that Dad painted a blue grey every other year. The porch was furnished with a wide porch swing suspended from chains secured in the ceiling and those great springy metal outdoor chairs that also infrequently got a fresh coat of paint. When outdoor chaise lounges came into being, one was purchased for the porch too." Instead of chaise longues, we have vintage metal chairs that accompany our swing. We use our porch daily in warmer weather, including when it rains. Our neighborhood is fairly densely packed with homes. Including us, there are loads of walkers in our neighborhood. Families are outdoors most every evening and we are excellent friends with many in our neighborhood. Porches encourage friendship! The second major expense we incurred after moving into our 1919 bungalow was to have our porch stabilized. Underground water through the years had started to move the porch sideways from the house, cracking the mortar and moving the bricks out of line. Major excavation was needed for the installation of underground anchors and alot of masonry work was required to realign the brick....but we knew we didn't want to lose our porch! This summer we'll be stripping white paint off the bearboard ceiling which we know was originally stained brown. After this project, the porch will be as good as 1919 new!

We have lived in our 1913 Foursquare for over 7 years now. I have definately had a love/hate relationship. When people ask, what are you doing this weekend, I just want to smack them. What do you think? WORKING ON THE HOUSE. It's ALWAYS something. There's also the question, why don't you just hire someone? Sure, we could hire someone to remodel the kitchen. But what about the roof? and the siding? and the deck? and the bathroom? and the floors, walls, attic, basement, on and on and on. If you hire someone to repair everything, then you've put way more money into the house then you'll EVER get back. It gets overwhelming at times. I seriously don't know what I'd do with my free time if I didn't have this house to work on. I really resented it until one day, a few years ago my kids told me I could never sell it. That they loved this house and one day I would have to sell it to them. I was shocked. THIS house? The one we slave over and that is constantly in chaos? The same house that tells you it's NOT okay to invite your friends over, until the deck is rebuilt, b/c it's too dangerous for guests. THIS HOUSE? And that made me really rethink it. The house is huge. The house has 8inch tall baseboards and working pocket doors. The house has 2 acres of wooded yard and allows them to do what they like in the yard. This house isn't so new that they have to worry about denting the floor. But it's much nicer than the smaller ranches that some of their friends live in. The basement was remodeled for the three boys and their friends. They have sleepovers there (with extra insulation, so I can't hear them!). If they want to change their room, or we need to add something, we just knocked down a wall, or build it in. Can you really do that in a new house? This house has sucked us dry, financially and emotionally. But it also has made us rely on ourselves even more. We find out how to fix things and we teach our kids that you do NOT have to be dependant on others to get things done. In the end, it has been worth it. And with at least another 2 years (hahahahaha, isn't that funny) worth of work on the house, we will continue on. What also made me feel better was watching my friends and family with their NEW houses. I have already see two people who built houses within the last 7 years need to replace ALL of the windows in those houses. Really. Also the furnaces. One friend needed to replace the exterior doors in his 5 year old house, built in an expensive neighborhood. PLUS, the siding. Just b/c it is new doesn't mean it's done right. Watch 'Holmes on Homes' on HGTV. BIG eye opener. Sometimes, you forget how your house looks nice. I find that it's good to take pictures and look at them on the computer. When you're walking into your living room every day for a month and only see the floors that need refinished, you miss the antique fireplace mantel you bought and installed and the stone tile you added. The walls you redid and the built ins. When I take a picture and look at it, I see the beauty of the ROOM, not the damage to the floor. Also, it's good to compare the new pictures to the old ones. Were there really hearts on the country blue wallpaper? hahahaha Lastly, dealing with the PO's previous mistakes are always What were they thinking? Just when we thought we got all of them corrected, we take down the deck to find they didn't use flashing on the ledger board. Sigh. I always worry that once I remove every last trace of the 80's, it will be time to remove every last trace of this decade. :) Sorry to go on and on, but I just found this forum and I'm glad there are people here that are just like me. Working on their old home, loving it and hating it. I wonder if everyone has lists for every room, if by the time you get to that list for a room you change your mind, if you have more than 4 projects going on at a time and if you think you'll be done by the time your youngest time graduates high school. If your idea of a great Sunday afternoon is going to Menards/Home Depot/Lowes and shopping. If the guy from the local wine/coffee shop knows your name very well (coffee in the morning/wine at the end of the day)and his first question is what are you working on now? If your friends/family come to you first when they get bids from their contractors, to see what the materials would cost vs labor, because why in the world would they put in a new door by themselves, let alone go on the hunt across the internet and two states to find the perfect 100 year old door for their house, then build it into the opening? Is this a disease?

I love old houses - the quality, the history (I was THRILLED when I saw the names of the owners of our then under 5 year old house on the 1930 census), and the style. If I don't win the lottery, I will never live in another "new" build (80's and up) because the vast majority of non custom built homes are just not up to my standards. Of the 4 new builds I lived in in my life, only two were decent. The last decent one had been built by a guy who had previously done commercial building. It was built to last and I have no doubt that one would still stand after a tornado. Because of the commercial background, the finish "prettyness" wasn't there, but those details were added later, by us. The last new build was a nightmare. The "quality" semi custom build was so lacking that I can't even imagine how much worse some of the mass produced really poor quality houses will last. Within the first 5 years the deck was partially rotting (no flashing between the house and it), the roof leaked at the chimney, many of the windows wouldn't work well and/or leaked at the top, lots of the trim wood was rotting out and the floors of both 1st and 2nd floor creaked in almost every spot as did the entire staircase. And then of course you had the "minor" issues like one couldn't use a hairdryer in the master bath before resetting the outlet in the upstairs bath if someone had used a hairdryer in it before the master bath. And the defective shingles requiring a complete reroof at 3 years is hard to forget. My brother has a friend who last year moved into a house in one of those new mass built neighbourhoods in South Carolina. Brand new. 6 months after moving in, a water pipe junction burst (iirc, they thought it hadn't been correctly connected or something) in the attic while they were on vacation and ruined most of the house and their items. The builder denied responsibility and the insurance company was blaming it on the builder since the house was still under "warranty" and it was turning into a huge mess, to say the least. New does not equal free of work and I'd rather strip wallpaper than deal with finding out what corners were cut.

I would do the 6x12 slate in the kitchen and run it in the correct direction for the kitchen. I think a good tiler could make the transition work. I have seen plenty of tile floors run through different rooms where the tiler has cut some to make it transition. I am not explaining it well at all. If you go that route make sure the tiler draws you up how he would transition.