Porchity-Porch-Porch PoRcH PORCH!!!!

Ahhh...I haven't talked about how we're doing with our porch renovation since June.  That's almost a lifetime in renovation years!  We are getting very close to the end/final touches part of the work - which is actually my favorite time since I finally get to see how things will really look.  I have some pictures from roughly 2-3 weeks ago, and since then even we've completed more stuff.  Here's where we were around the middle of August:

We got the decking laid down and the columns wrapped in white.  We also took down the old siding.  In the below pics, you'll see the new siding mostly complete (although there's still some upper siding work to be done.)


























Since these pictures have been taken, we've completed installation of the ceiling (which required staining and weather proofing of tongue and groove pine bead-board) as well as the center recessed light fixture and one of the ceiling fan motors.  Greg also completed hanging the interior white PVC trim that will go around the entire ceiling perimeter, and he also took down the soffit panels below our gutter, added white PVC trim to the soffit, then reinstalled the panels at a slightly higher angle, giving the front just a bit more dimension than what you see here.  The second (and final) ceiling fan motor should be installed this week.  I'm excited because this coming weekend I'll get to paint our front door and our shutters - the door will be red! and the shutters will be brown.  I'm hoping the colors work with our house since we've already invested quite a bit of money in paint, and I don't fancy trying to do this a second time around.

We still need to get new gutters installed, hopefully with gutter guards to help us get out of some of our required but tedious gutter cleaning chores.  We are definitely going to hire a professional for that installation since it needs to be done before the winter time.  We still need to finish the stairs, install railings, and get the lattice up between the piers to really finish this off.  I'm very excited to almost be complete - there's still a lot of work to do but I think we're finally somewhere with a finish line in sight.  It's especially good since summer is unofficially over, and the weather is going to start cooling down and the days are going to get shorter.  I really like fall because the weather is usually pretty decent, but the plight of shorter days and the oncoming winter is a bit depressing.  Hopefully the finishing of our sweet front porch will be a bright light in the wake of the oncoming gray season.