Enhancing a 1981 half Brick Home: Adding Depth and a Welcoming Porch
michaelmm123
2 months ago
last modified: 2 months ago
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Sigrid
2 months agowoodrose
2 months agoRelated Discussions
My front porch needs....something.
Comments (52)Hi Jenny, I'm from Georgia too (Villa Rica)...west of Atlanta. Your house is lovely, congratulations on being a one year homeowner! What town/city are you in? The mock up pictures are great, esp. shows what landscaping can do for a home. I love the lamp posts and plan on doing this when we move to our retirement home. The only thing I see wrong with your porch is the posts are really too small. I would budget money in the future to get those replaced. Our builder tried to do this same thing to us and we just happened to be at the house and said he could use the smaller ones on the back porch. We wanted bigger posts for the front porch....a huge difference! I don't know anything about spirea bushes. All I have to say about bushes/hedges, you don't want anything you have to trim all the time (speaking from experience here....and you can tell from the overgrown hedges in my picture below, LOL.) I would wait until next spring and plant azaleas between the bushes. The azaleas will grow and mix into the bushes. You can mix pinks and whites but I planted some of the red azaleas and they aren't near as pretty as the pinks. Also, when you buy azaleas, get the ones with the longer slimmer leaves. They always have a lot more blooms. As for the railing, I like it both ways, but I prefer railings because it's where I put my tea glass and my coffee cup when I'm swinging, LOL. About five years ago, I felt the same way you do...something was missing, so I got landscaping bricks at Home Depot, curved them and made a perennial bed on the right side of my steps. Next spring you could plant a perennial garden and they come back every year. I just love it! Put down landscaping fabric before you plant the flowers and you'll have less weeding. About those hostas in the sun, they would bake here in Georgia with our heat and humidity, LOL. We do have a lot of hostas at the side of the house and one huge one to the left of the steps. I do love the hanging baskets and the idea of one added lamp post, the one closer to your steps, is a fantastic idea! After 14 years here, things are still missing from my front porch, LOL! I need planters also on both sides of my front door. I'm finally getting three rocking chairs for the front porch this week. Good luck! Dee Here is a link that might be useful: My Home...See MoreNeed help adding curb appeal on a 1960's ranch
Comments (14)I think that some of the suggestions wouldn't be an improvement and suggest that you think about whether those changes will enhance the home's appearance and period details. The dark stripes of the shutters add interest to the facade from a distance and I don't think I would change them unless you are going to add similar wide dark trim. The glass brick are appropriate to the architecture and were common in that time period, so unless you want that to be a window that you can look out, don't change them. Similarly, the wrought iron porch supports are typical to the time period, so unless they really bother you keep them. On the other hand, I don't like the jalousie windows and consider them to be more common on beach houses and back porches, not on windows to the main house, so I would switch them out. The low wall doesn't bother me since it is so low, but if you don't like it, I don't think removing it would be an issue as long as doing so won't damage the porch or house. I think replacing the door with one more in keeping with the house's architecture would be nice, and painting it something that contrasts with the masonry while still coordinated with the house would look good, so rich deep brown or black, or a shade like the brightest brown in the masonry, or even some shade of orange. The main issue to get an appealing entry is the plantings and walkway, both of which are currently narrow and cramped feeling. So I would move the walkway to a minimum of 5' from the garage so that you have room for a row of small shrubs underplanted with groundcover and a few bright flowers near the drive and where the walk turns toward the house. The walk should be at least 5' wide so visitors don't have to approach single file, and 6' would be better. You have a lot of different masonry surfaces going on already, so I would choose concrete to match the porch surface. I like the simple squared off shape of the walk and how it relates to the building, so I wouldn't change the shape or add curves. The current plantings seem rather random with regard to the architecture, so placement when you add plants will be important. Don't put plants that want to grow tall in front of windows, and center plantings with regard to architectural details instead of the current placement of being half in front of windows and masonry details. You don't say where you are in zone 6, and soil pH, texture, and moisture are different in Cleveland vs. New England vs. Oklahoma, so at this point it is difficult to make specific plant suggestions. You will want some evergreens for the backbone of the garden to provide year round interest. If your soil is acid and has reasonable drainage, look st some of the smaller and more densely growing members of the Heath family such as smaller Pieris or mountain laurel/Kalmia, heath/Erica, Heather/Calluna, or some of the smaller Rhododendrons. The Rhododendrons and Kalmia will tolerate a good amount of shade but the heaths and heathers like full sun. Other evergreens to consider with varying tolerance for shade include: Yew/Taxis which is your current plant, but has other shapes and sizes available and has the advantage of being very shade tolerant Junipers range from groundcovers to large trees and different cultivars have varying foliage colors, but like a good amount of sun Chamaecyparis has quite a range of foliage color and texture as well as plant size, depending on species and cultivar. Doesn't like all day shade, but tolerates a range of pH....See MoreHelp needed updating exterior of brick home. Not painting brick.
Comments (26)"Ideally, a primary or entry walkway should be at least 48" wide and even wider is [often] better." I concur 100%. Another consideration in addition to sheer usability, is that a walk's width needs to coordinate with the building architecture ... size being one of those characteristics. This walk does that in that it is equal to the full width of the opening at the porch. My guess is that the walk is 5' 4". I have no arbitrary opposition to straight walks, thinking that many of them are equal to curved walks in their potential to be beautiful. From what we are shown in the picture, either seems like it could work well. It would probably only be worth the expense of changing it if a person developed a compulsion about it, as compulsions cannot be explained by reason alone....See Morepaint faux brick exterior?
Comments (204)CC There should be covers for the base of posts. (newel post). the covers hide the screws/fsteners at the base. Maybe call the supplier of the railing or the hardware store, big box store. I will try and find a photo for you. Thompson's will last for a year and is easy to apply will roller. The benefit is it doesn't build up and a quick sand with a drywall pole sander will have it ready to seal. I wouldn't seal the parts that haven't greyed down. It will peel if it is not ready. it appears that whoever built the railing forgot to finish it. They snap on and finish the job. do you know where he purchased railing supplies. below is an example https://www.homedepot.ca/product/railblazers-aluminum-railing-post-base-cover-in-black/1001006802 https://www.homehardware.ca/en/search?query=aluminum+post+base+cover...See MoreK Laurence
2 months agomichaelmm123
2 months agolittlebug Zone 5 Missouri
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2 months agolast modified: 2 months agoSigrid
2 months agomichaelmm123
2 months agolast modified: 2 months agomichaelmm123
2 months agomichaelmm123
2 months agolast modified: 2 months agolittlebug Zone 5 Missouri
2 months agomichaelmm123
2 months agolittlebug Zone 5 Missouri
2 months agomichaelmm123
2 months agolittlebug Zone 5 Missouri
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