Thanks, guys :) woodyoak- I do have an informal flagstone path cutting through the border right next to the side porch, did you see that? (Next to where I drew the Arctic Fire Dogwood). From a functional standpoint, that gets you into the lawn and could walk around to the front door (which is what we do now on the rare occasions we need to go over there.) Maybe I could lay some more flags in a much looser, "stepping stone" type pattern over around the crabapple and to the front door, if you think it needs that... So----- these are the questions stopping me from planting now, do you have any opinions? 1) What to put on either side of the front door? 2) Do you like the two evergreens I drew, one in the corner and one next to the bedroom french doors? Any other suggestions other than Chamaecyparis? Could the one in the corner be deciduous... if so, what (needs to remain narrow but with some height)? 3)Can you think of something with mid-summer fragrance to plant in front of the french doors -which will be open then :)? Thanks so much!

now you may want to ask "why would anyone ever want to build a porch INSIDE a building?!" I am a graduate student and am in a class where the end product is an exhibit, part of this exhibit will be a porch, where visitors can sit or stand and listen to oral histories from local community members. The porch will be inside the exhibit space in the library and will be up for approximately one year. The time period that I'm looking to recreate is 1940s, in rural, south-eastern, North Carolina. Typical houses in the community during this time were 4 room houses,with central fireplaces, mostly built around the turn of the 20th century, pine wood, and tin roofed. I am looking to rebuild the front of the house, and the porch. Because of space restrictions, I will focusing on the siding of the house and the flooring of the porch. What I've imagined is a basic frame structure for the base of the porch which is roughly 6ftx 10ft, which is secured to walls on two sides (the left and back if you are looking straight on) of the structure. Three 4inch sq posts attach to the frame in the front and rise up to support the edge of the roof. The roof is supported by beams that come out from the wall/front of the house and are attached to the three posts. The back wall will be have a frame attached to it so that we can attach the siding without tearing up the gallery walls. My questions are, --Is there a way i can 'finish' the edges of tin roofing material so that people won't cut their hands if they touch the roof of the porch? --A siding option that many people used during this time was paper-board, sometimes called beaverboard or Masonite. Is this still available for sale today? --We can not secure the porch to the floor, are there other methods that might work to secure the porch or will this even be an issue? --Are there any major problems with my basic plan? my main concern is safety and making sure that the porch is as stable and secure as possible, within my limitations.

Gazebos are typically free standing. You might try using that as a base and adding screening. Also, do you have Menards in your area? They have a lot of building kits for all sorts of structures.

We are also planning a screened-in porch on our new house and were initially considering using stone or tile on the floor. John, from your reply, and after some discussions with others, it sounds like we would need to pour a slab first? Are there any other options for stone/tile. If we have to pour a slab I think we will just go w IPE or some other durable wood as the porch will be elevated, above a walkout basement.