I'm embarassed to post this it looks so awful. The front porches look a lot better, at least they are all straight tho missing some rails and skirts. We are also removing the narrow aluminum corner pieces and replacing them with appropriately wide wood or wood composite boards which we will paint dark brown. (Dark brown, light brown which you see onthe two windows to the left of the porch, and dark green are our trim and accent colors. Not sure what to paint the doors yet.) Thing to the right of the back door is a water heater which will be going down to the cellar. The main steps are on the leftt side, 2nd steps currently on right. Plan is to move 2nd steps to right hand side of the back, to go down into the yard. My dh removed the cheap skirts so the crooked support posts are exposed. I don't know where the yellow on the eaves came from. Its there in real life, guess its the sun!

Hi Ya Think, This doesn't address your question about the corners but, FWIW, when I was researching my deck project, I learned that one of the weaknesses of railing post connections is dependence on the connection of the rim board to the joist ends (usually just nailed into the end grain of the joist). One way around that is to put the posts inside the structure and block them in really well, as suggested and practiced by Brooklyn Decks. If that isn't compatible with your design, a solution that looked good to me is to use brackets to tie the posts and rim board securely into the joist structure. I found two commercial products designed for this purpose: DeckLok brackets (www.deck-lok.com) and Simpson StrongTie p/n HD2AHDG (www.strongtie.com/products/connectors/DTT2Z-HD2AHDG.asp). Both websites have illustrations that describe the problem and solution better than I can in words. Some codes may not require this strength but if you're looking for the ultimate build, this might be of interest. Gook Luck.

You only need a handrail on the knee wall side. If you try to add a tailing on the other side it will look out of place, unless you have little kids and you worry about them climb or walk the ledge, you can put something to prevent that from happening, but it would still be easier to teach them not to go up there.

you need to work with a pro who has a little creativity because your objections really shouldn't be a big deal. To keep the p/t lumber from being visible, use a stainless steel grommet in the ipe post trim with a hole bigger than the one holding the cable in the p/t post. for the cap rail, do a metal cap rail to meet code, then router a channel in the ipe and mount it to that. Done. It'll take a little bit of design time to ensure that all your proportions are right and everything ties together appropriately and structurally, but there are definitely ways to get the look you want while satisfying the permit store. Obviously not dimensionally accurate or really thought through in terms of attachments, but here's the gist.