Should I open a closed-off breezeway/ porch?
5 years ago
last modified: 5 years ago
I know most people are tying to get more square footage from their home, and not trying to reduce it like me... but hear me out.
We recently moved into a 1954 colonial revival ranch. At one time it had a lovely little breezeway. At one point a laundry room was added on the back side, making the once breezeway a porch. Fine, I get that. Years later however someone decided to make an ”office” out of this space and bricked in the opening. However the dumb-dumbs never insulated the space, nor connect it to the HVAC, or raised the floor from what was there previously; so you step onto a carpet covered concret. It’s now a COLD awkward dead space that is currently being used as storage for our unpacked boxes.
Both the kitchen and dining room connect to this room with glass doors, I imagine when there was a breezeway it was lovely. We plan on building a walk-in pantry from the door in the kitchen. However we haven’t been able to decide what to do with the “dead space”. We have discussed making it a room, but it’s very narrow, the space is currently 16’ x 9’-the pantry would take up six of those feet.
I want to make it into a porch again, knock out the brick wall and screen it in (we live in Tennessee so a screened off area would keep out the bugs). It was never meant to be a room or office. We also have plans to add a pergola in front of the house to create another porch.
So does it make sense to take away square footage for ascetic? We aren’t planning on selling anytime soon, we want to raise our kids here and perhaps make it a forever home. But you never know what life will bring I suppose.
I have included pictures of the “room”, our plans for the house, and a breezeway from this time period.
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Comments (7)kathsgarden, Would it be useful to make a deal with your son, that he owes you a given amount for the car, with a given amount to pay monthly? That gives him an idea of how the real world works for adults, which he's getting to be - one doesn't get things free. Does he have a part-time job? Then he should expect to start paying for stuff that he gets: stuff that comes free isn't respected nearly as highly. It would be nice if he could keep all of such employment income - but in future, some of it will need to go for education, food, housing, auto (purchase plus repair), insurance, etc. The sooner that he learns of that reality, the better. If he hasn't income to be able to afford it, would it be relevant for him to get a part-time job, in order to pay at least part of it? And you forgive part? Even if the job were in the summer only. A safety factor: it seems to me easier for young fellows to be more easy-going about driving less carefully if they received the car at "no cost" ... ... than if there are XXX hours of being sure to get his tail our of bed, to get to work on time, and sweat and toil, involved with the ownership. You could use the income to help pay for the costs related to your next car purchase ... ... or you could put it into a bank account, for a while, then invest it carefully when a reasonable sized amount has been gathered. Maybe have the account in joint names, so that he knows that it's to be his, and the investment, as well. Or, just in his name, with the understanding that he's not to blow it for frivolous purpose. There's an advantage here, as well. When this car dies, and he needs to get a replacement ... if he has a few thousand dollars' worth of mutual fund or stock certificate to use as part of the collateral for his loan, along with the car, I'll bet that he'll get a much lower rate of interest cost on the loan. As for your future car ... ... if you want a new or fancy one, for purposes mainly of image ... ... there's a price. A vehicle is part of one's capital, one's assets, yes - but it's a poor investment: costly, but it crumbles to dust in 15 years (or less, for most folks). And, if you don't keep it for the full amount of its life, there are friction costs associated with trading (especially if one does it through dealerships). How about putting out the word among friends soon, saying that you'll be looking for a car, soon? Preferably one bought new by a senior who trades every three or four years, drives few and gentle miles mostly on Sunday afternoons? Do you know some mechanics, who'd be willing to check cars that you were considering? Have you read my Christmas gift offered here for several years (yes, I admit, the same one, retreaded)? I figure that it should save folks hundreds, more likely thousands, during their lifetime. See it a few pages down on "Money Saving Tips" - or I could send you a copy, if you ask. How about going into heavy-duty savings mode from now till the purchase of the replacement car (at least), in order to pay cash for the next car? If so, here's an idea. When you save some money that you'd have spent before, put that amount into an empty coffee can. Actually - better if it's a bottle, so that you can see the accumulating asset. Label it, "Kontemplating a Kar for Kash" - or something with a bit of a humorous twist, to ease the pain. And keep it in a corner of the kitchen, beside the bed, (by the lavatory in the bathroom, visible from the seat??) so that you get the message several times daily. You're paying yourself for the privilege of auto ownership, rather than someone else. After purchase, figure out how much you'd have borrowed to buy it and add the cost of the interest to the bottle monthly. Such is my suggestion - and I've been a shareholder in a bank for 40 years ... which makes auto loans, as far as I know ... and it's profitable, by the way. A share cost slightly over $4.00 then, now saleable for just over $100. (lower tax rate on capital gain) ... and has paid about 3% dividend through those 40 years - tax advantaged, as well. In fact - if I had only that kind of income in 2005, I'd have no tax to pay till over about $25,000. - 30,000. ... and it increased to between $40,000. - 50,000. in 2006! (Don't expect a similar increase anytime soon!) Canada's best personal money management magazine carried a story last year about a guy who retired at 34. Have a great weekend. ole joyful...See MoreWall down, should we close it up a little or leave wide open?
Comments (22)I think that small houses can benefit from boundary definition to a greater extent than larger houses can, sometimes. (think of Sarah Susanka) Many people here take out the small vestibules here in their 12-15 foot wide houses, for example, thinking it will make the front room larger. It doesn't, because with a wall there you can back any sort of furniture right up to the wall, where it is technically inches away from the front door, but with the wall gone, people will not put something that close to the front door, and Never something large that would seem to block or crowd it. In a large house it doesn't matter as much. You can leave a 3 foot gap for visual separation and float pieces away from the walls. In this situation I would easily place an end table or the arm of a sofa close to a small wall there, because the wall would indicate that it was "in another room/space". Without the wall there, I would not put it so close because it might visually look like it is straddling between rooms....See MoreEnclose breezeway vs leave open?
Comments (10)Well good news, it looks as though we may be able to make the area much more of a "screened porch". I had been looking into eze breeze windows, but thought they were more than we wanted to spend. Now looking at the website for our local home improvement store, They appear to be less than half the price I was originally quoted by them over the phone. I'm thinking they quoted so much because I had just threw a measurement out there to get an idea, and it wasn't one of their "standard" sizes. So custom must cost a lot more. Since we are starting from scratch we can just go with a standard size. We will be able to get windows that are 42"x84" and will open to expose 75% of the screen. The "windows" are a vinyl material that isn't supposed to insulate or hold in much heat. I am hoping this will provide a much better air flow and give the feel of a screened porch during the warmer months, with the ability to protect from snow and rain when needed. I don't think we'd use it much when it is very cold other than to take off our boots so I'm not worried about keeping it extra warm. We may put an electric fireplace out there for cooler nights. I do believe there is some downward sloping on that side. It is visible if you look at the picture above of the stairs. You can see the gap is bigger on the right than the left. I think I will measure it out a little later to see how much a slope it is. The other side Isn't a problem at all because it has a sidewalk that slopes quite a bit away from the house....See MoreWhat should i do with my front porch! I need help!
Comments (6)I see a porch on the front of your home and a deck on the side. A porch is a covered shelter in front of an entrance. A deck is an open wooden extension to a house. I was wondering if you wanted to add a deck to the front of your home, or redo the porch and railing. The posts for your porch are load-bearing as far as I can see. They cannot be cut off and capped. But perhaps you want to extend your porch out from under the overhang, in which case that part would be a deck, and you could cap those posts. Because decks are exposed to rain there is a gap left between deck boards so rain can drip through. Most means of hiding the area beneath a deck is therefore open to allow moisture to dissipate and prevent rots. The photo below shows an open horizontal board enclosure and also uses cable railing. You could, though, use the same rock as is on the front of your garage to close in the under deck area as long as sufficient venting is provided. I added this to your existing porch below. This would give visual continuity to the design as well....See MoreRelated Professionals
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5 years agolast modified: 5 years ago- 5 years ago
The laundry room is attached to the kitchen. The garage door is in the old breezeway/office; we making it part of the pantry. I drew up a quick blueprint to better explain to everyone our home layout. It’s not to scale...haha
5 years ago
5 years agolast modified: 5 years ago
This house showed up on a realty site on my Facebook the other day and it reminded me of your house. They call this a sun porch but it reminded me of your breezeway.
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