Front Porch

Well, Emilie has survived her first home reno project. You know we couldn't stay out of Home Depot for too long. We went back at it to DIY our front porch renovation.

You know how I've talked about that list of ugly, ugly eye sores when we first moved in? This front porch was definitely on the list. When we first moved in the front porch was carpeted. That's right- carpet- on a front porch. Naturally, we ripped that out straight away. The previous owners had a riser built on the front porch because they were short. Gone. Ripped that out too. What we were left with was a non carpeted, non risen, but still ugly as sin, front porch. And it stayed that way for almost two years.

Under the carpet was a concrete floor in pretty good shape, except that it had been painted a terrible color. It took a little elbow grease to get the carpet adhesive off in the spot where the carpet hadn't been on the riser, but after we (read: Jason) did that, we had a blank (and ugly) slate.

Aside from lightening up the walls (it's actually two colors, but I'm not sure you can see that clearly in the picture), I knew I wanted to paint the floor a sideways checkerboard pattern, to make a diamond affect. Jason either really loves me, or really loves math, because it literally took algebra and geometry skills to get those diamonds the right size, and all taped off. I think his exact words were, "Honey, I love you; but I'd don't care how nicely you ask, I'll never do this again."

It was worth it though. I love the end result. I still want to add a few more pieces of furniture, but you know, it's all about the dolla bills ya'll. Soon enough.

The porch is the perfect spot to sit in the Spring and the Fall, and is the perfect respite from the mosquitoes!

One more look at the before and after: