Porch stains are semi-transparent, so that pink will certainly telegraph through the stain and effect the color.

Here are some progress photos. The room is trimmed out now and primed with BM Silver Cloud. My initial intent was to use that for the ceiling and then Mt Rainier Grey for the walls. Now, with the prime, it looks too cold. So, I'm going one further step down to BM Winter Lake and changing the ceiling color to BM Harbor Fog. With no natural light, it's tricky with these colors. I'll post more photos when we are complete. Any comments/suggestions are welcome!

Ava, I think the branch manager meant, if the concrete is raw or unpainted - then it is porous, once it is painted with any type of paint including an acrylic epoxy paint it is no longer porous. Therefore the type of sealer I would use would be different than if I had used a stain on the concrete - with a stain the concrete is stil porous but with an acrylic epoxy the concrete becomes non porous. Since that time I talked with the woman who originally put this treatment on her restaurant floor and she used an oil based varathane. However, I am going to use a water based or acrylic based varathane on mine. I have talked to several people and the water based sealer has less of a tendency to yellow than the oil based. Also I am thinking if I want to change the color or redo the concrete floor in the future, then I am thinking it will be less troublesome to redo a floor with a water based product. One point - I have tried using varathane with a roller before and it tends to put little bubbles in the finish, so I am going to use a flat sponge to apply the varathane. The woman doing the restaurant floor used a flat applicator to apply the varathane too. I am going to try my garage floor this week and will let you know how it turns out.

Dretutz, is that tree healthy? I can't make out the trunk very well. If not, its eventual demise/removal should be designed around. Thinking in big terms, the typical open front yard is regarded, and experienced as semipublic space. So is the typical front porch; privacy normally only beginning in the house. To create privacy and a feeling of comfort for the porch, my suggestion would be not just to interrupt the view to it but specifically to redefine the middle portion of the front yard as semiprivate space. Plantings of tree(s) and shrubs (pretty fencing?) toward the front of the lot and curving in along the driveway and other side boundary, taking the form of the suggested berms or not, will do that. The planted tree/shrub beds visible from the street would then be the property's semipublic area and the inside of these plantings and lawn semiprivate. The planting beds themselves don't have to be solid all the way across to perform their function and carefully positioned make a property more lovely to passersby, inviting their attention by framing the best views in and creating a little gentle mystery from other views so that people are intrigued. Gaining more privacy by becoming one of those houses people always look at as they drive by. :) Also, those on the porch will feel farther from the street, and vice versa, as the porch will no longer be semipublic space but private in the background to the middle and foregrounds between it and the street. If, in addition to any trees by the street, a small tree casts some light dappled shade in front of it (perhaps by the driveway in front of the path to the door?) sitting there will be almost as private as the back yard. The plantings, of course, create a view across the lawn from the porch that has little to do with the house opposite, and the inside edge is perfect for bulbs and other ephemerals. Berms can have the nice effect of making lawn they enclose feel like a little "pool." BTW, it might be nice to cast some dappled shade on the driveway/garage door with a similar tree to the left to help them settle into the background too. Thanks for the fun. Back to much more boring work.