The past month was a busy one. HB and I were working on projects around our home, which included making one of our dreams come true. We live in a little suburb area of Sacramento; it’s one of the typical post-war era subdivisions, filled with your basic and functional ranch-style homes that were popular in the late 50’s. Most homes, in our area, have large front yards with big trees, so we’ve always enjoyed sitting out front on our little porch.

The country girl and boy in us has always dreamed of a real porch; meaning, a big, comfy, wood porch. You know, the kind that becons you outdoors to sit for a spell. To drink a cup of coffee or sweet iced tea and wave at the neighbors walking by.

So, we decided it was time. We sat down, wrote out a plan, and made it come to life. It’s amazing what you can accomplish with a bit if brain, a lot of brawn and the local Home Depot.

We had an old and cracked cement porch that we decided would be easier to cover than to break out and build from scratch. After some research, we found that we could use cement screws to put down the supporting boards that would hold our future wooden porch. Once he got started, it just began to take on its own life.

I am amazed! Instead of writing it all out, I’ll share some visuals with you.

The porch area over the old cement went down fairly easy for him. The bigger job would be the wrapped section where there had been a row of bushes, along the wall, and old brick that weeds grew through. The ground was rough and uneven and he wanted the porch to be flush with what was already completed.

I love this picture of HB as he contemplates his next move.

The next day, he started work on leveling out the ground and soon, it all began to come together. Once again, I am absolutely amazed – and talk about some solid framing!

Here’s the wrapped section…

He sure did a nice job, didn’t he?

It needed to be stained and sealed, so here are the finished pictures…

We put these barrels at the end of the porch to give us a little bit of a privacy screen from the sidewalk and street.

Even the neighborbood cat loves it. In fact, we believe Coffee Bean (our name for her) thinks we built this just for her because she treats it as if it’s her new livingroom.

So…our dream has finally come true. It’s my favorite place to read, blog, drink coffee and watch the world. And now, neighbors passing by, tend to stop and chat. Friends have stopped by, out of the blue, just to sit on our porch…and we love it. It has done so much more than add some curb appeal…it has opened the door to many conversations about life outside our front doors.

Hope you’ve enjoyed my first little post from my porch.
To be continued…

~CindyLu