Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Screened Porch, Finally Done!

We started building our addition on the foundation on February 15, 2008. It was a long haul to get the 985 sq ft addition finished, still some final things need finished. Along with the addition we added a 16 x 20 deck with an adjoining 16 x 16 covered porch. The roof and deck was long ago finished, we finalled the job in mid November 2008.

Just yesterday I put on the final touches to the porch. Having bought a warped treated lumber screen door at Home Depot I had to add 2 more hinges to straighten it out, 4 hinges seem over kill, but it is much better. The door has the old type Stanley solid brass knob and handle, something you can;t buy at Home Depot. The other last touch was adding more railings as Dot The Wonder Dog ran right into the screen, the bars will hopefully keep the animals from going through the screening.




Please excuse the clutter inside the porch. All we need now is a nice set of outdoor furniture for enjoying relaxing at the end of a warm day.



Notice the sign at the bottom left of the above photo? We are a certified wildlife habitat, posted right there!


Above is a view of the porch from the garden. Notice the pair of French doors inside the porch, those open all the way up into the master bedroom. If we want fresh air in the bedroom or a master piece frog concert we just open those doors. The walls inside are 9 foot tall and give a 8 foot high view of the outside.



Above is what you see from inside the porch our pond and the road we live one, two other houses are down at the end of our road so it is fairly private on our porch. You notice the chrome railings? The railings are actually 3/4 inch galvanized electrical conduit, we used it because you can see through it better than normal railings. I added the divider to make sure the railing would be very strong and never sag as I've seen on other poorly made railings. Note the stair railing our architect designed the stairs so they would not block the view of the pond. Look at the top of this photo see the real beaded board ceiling painted sky blue.

There is our veggy garden. See the poles those are our Sugar Snap Peas getting ready to be strung onto those poles.
To answer your question YES I built the entire porch. I had two helpers with the main framing and deck and did all the finish work myself.

17 comments:

Heather said...

Randy- that looks so nice and the function should be wonderful for years to come. Beautiful work. I also love the old rustic garden bench. Nice deck to listen to the evening!
-Heather

Shady Gardener said...

Randy, What a wonderful addition to your home! You will certainly enjoy it. :-) Our porch is not nearly as large, but I hope to be doing a little work inside sometime this Summer! I like your blue ceiling idea.

Catherine@AGardenerinProgress said...

It looks great! What a nice view you have, I bet you'll spend lots of time out there!

NotSoAngryRedHead said...

That's a good lookin' screen porch. It'll be fab for the summer.

Tatyana@MySecretGarden said...

That rocking chair looks so inviting...

Anonymous said...

Beautiful. Would love to spend a whole evening in there.

Chandramouli S said...

What a wonderful place! You did an awesome job, Randy and Meg. How great it'd be with a screen of some fragrant vine on one side!

Meems said...

Very nice, Randy and Meg. Love all the details you thought of and did yourself. Screened porches are just invaluable for enjoying the outdoors in summertime. Love the way yours overlooks the view.
Great job.
Meems @ Hoe and Shovel

Just Jenn said...

You are quite the handy guy! It looks so inviting! Funny too, I wasn't thinking "mess" I was thinking, Well look at that nice rocker in there; I wish I was sitting on that looking out at the pond on a hot summer's eve with a cool drink. What a nice place to relax.

...and here I thought it was a butterfly sanctuary, turns out it's a certified wildlife habitat!

Unknown said...

You've got a great view, and my, building the porch yourself...!

Lona said...

Randy, I just love it! You are going to get so much enjoyment from it. The view is wonderful. I am so jealous :)

Jan said...

My goodness, Randy&Meg, you have done a wonderful job there, Randy! I like all of the features you highlighted in your post-just perfect. We added a screened in porch 2 summers ago...this will be our 3rd summer enjoying it. I just love it. However, it doesn't have the thinner rods at the lower screen level. It has the wood rails that DO block what I want to see (my birds at the feeders!!). Also, it does NOT have overhangs around the edges of the roof! So, some rain DOES come in while sitting out there. I dislike that feature immensely;-( It isn't off our bedroom either:-( It's attached to the house off the kitchen, but we have to take a couple of steps OUTSIDE to open the door to the porch:-( Just a 'slight' annoyance, especially if it's raining! However, it is what it is...and I do enjoy it very much. I would enjoy yours a lot more, I think...but we do have 2 skylights overhead and that is a nice feature!! It's so nice to see your new porch and the rocker looks so inviting. I also love your pond...your whole environment, yard, etc. allows for so many more ideas to come to fruition than I am allowed living in the suburbs with a Homeowners Association! I honestly Hate the word Hate; but, I Hate our HOA!! Have a great spring. (sorry I haven't visited regularly...I do read you in my Google reader!)

sweetbay said...

Very nice screened-in porch. You will enjoy it!

ChrisCandJonJ said...

That whiney noise you hear is me whining that I want a screened in porch.In Florida that is a must and we don't have one.
Congrats on the Certification!That is great!

themanicgardener said...

That's beautiful--you must be so pleased. What a wonderful place to sit in summer!
--Kate

CiNdEe's GaRdEn said...

The deck and screened porch is absolutely beautiful! You did a super job building that! You should be very proud of yourself! I love how you can see the pond from there. The conduit was a great idea!!!!
CiNdEeS' GaRdEn

Tony Destroni said...

hi good day! nice post great place for an event .. thanks for the idea. i think that it is also perfect p to have a special events on a garden . very impressive! . attraction of the plants and garden accessories such as windspinners and other garden accessories . very nature theme . anyways thank you i hope to read more post from you . my friends gonna love this !