Bless This Mess › Life on the Farm › Building Our Dream House

Our Biggest Mess: Small front porch remodel

By Melissa

on Feb 12, 2013, Updated Jun 27, 2024

Remodeling is moving on its merry way and things that we felt like would never be done are slowly getting checked off the to-do list. We hope to be done in March. That is next month! I’m finally starting to feel like there is a light at the end of this remodeling tunnel.

Last week we had a little break in the weather and the temperatures rose above freezing during the day which helped the snow to melt. Thomas took advantage of the weather and worked outside on the front porch.

Here’s what the porch looked like when we purchased the house in August 2011. I didn’t even think about blogging then, so the picture is bad, but this gives you an idea.

When we put in a new front door Thomas took off all of the boards that were on the underside of the porch and it’s been open to the wood as you can see here since then (so for almost a year…).

The thin metal poles holding up the porch just looked kind of odd and yucky, so Thomas decided he could prop the porch up with boards, unscrew the pole at the top, bend the pole out slightly, and then slide a new square plastic post over the existing poles. He let the porch back down and screwed everything back together and the results were shocking. Who knew a small front porch remodel could have such a big impact?

He is seriously a ninja! I never would have thought to do this, but it was a cost effective and relatively easy fix.

The next day we had the same company that put our new roof on in November come and put new soffit and fascia (I think that’s what it’s called) on the underside and edges of the porch. Thomas installed a light later that night and the difference has just left us smiling. It looks so much better!

Again, I’m just shocked at how the little changes make such big differences. With the bushes gone, new windows and door, and the carpet torn off the stairs and foundation plaster over them it looks amazing.

Love the changes!

Things are really coming along and we hope to have the house on the market in April. It’s still such a bitter sweet thing to me, but moving is getting more exciting as it gets closer. Thanks for letting me share our adventure with you.