In the Winter of 2020 we stumbled across some land for sale. We had been looking and putting offers on houses for about two years. Before every single offer we would pray and each time, although heartbreaking, we would loose out for various reasons. There were a few that were SO odd that it was nothing short of God redirecting us just like we asked him to.  Anyways, we had JUST left an open house that was falsely advertised (why do people do that) and we were feeling so discouraged.

We stumbled upon this beautiful piece of property. 8 Acres up on a ridge that overlooked miles of State Land- It seemed to be perfect for what we wanted for our family. We prayed and purchased it just as the Pandemic started to swirl full force.

We meet with an architect and had our plans drawn up. We decided to wait out the price hikes and shortages thinking that it would all settle down shortly. As I am writing this things are actually higher than they were when we had Builders quote out our new build. I’m not going to lie and say its not discouraging. I LOVE our home and honestly would happily stay here forever but as we have updated our home we have done so with the mindset of selling, not staying longer.

Sometimes in life God knows we will be in a season of waiting but I do know that without a doubt he does not keep anything that is good and perfect from his children. Even when things don’t go as we planned God directs our steps and when we surrender our situations at his feet his timing is always perfect. Which brings me to our DIY Porch.

Last year with disappointment fresh in our hearts we decided to do some things to make our current house more our style. We replaced all our old 40s windows, added French doors, extended our back concrete patio, fixed a bit of our driveway, fenced in our entire yard, added the front porch and finally made a interior door a new front door.

I have always wanted a front porch and with the style home we have I knew that by removing this weird bump out entryway and adding a porch spanning most of the front of our home it would seem like it was always supposed to be there.

We had some quotes done averaging out to be around 25,000 for the removal and addition of the porch. With the thought of building in the near future we decided to save the money and do it ourselves. We are not afraid of some hard work but it did consume our Summer.

To do everything ourselves it was around $5,000-5,500. Lumber was up (not as high as it is now) and we knew it would add major curb appeal to our home and also called our realtor to make sure our return on investment was significant for resale.

I drew up the plans and submitted our permit application (I was pretty proud of that).  We got to work removing the old entry bump out.

We had a friend come and dig out all the landscaping pavers that I tried to break up with a sledge hammer and failed! He also dug out the concrete steps. One thing we didn’t do was to make sure our ton limit was enough haha- we had massive overages when they came to take back the dumpster because of all the concrete- oops.

I was worried that we would have to reside the entire house. This is all aluminum siding which dents easily and is a PAIN to get off. Luckily though were were able to salvage most of the siding we took off from the bump out and piece it all back together. I did end up repainting the entire exterior of our house (we did it once 7 years ago) because it was due to be painted and when we pieced everything back together we wanted it to be seamless. I didn’t blog about any of this because I was tired from actually DOING it + chasing my 3 boys around and toting my teenager to work everyday.

I decided that I wanted  a Metal roof to add interest and a different texture. We painted everything the siding Snowbound by Sherman Williams and all the trim + porch floor is Accessible Beige by Sherman Williams. My Front door is Emerging Taupe also from Sherman Williams. We actually just got our Exterior light delivered in February (ordered in July). I love it and its so unique.

We still have a few things to wrap up this Spring for it to be totally done but by adding this porch we totally transformed the exterior of our house and added major curb appeal.

Here are a few tips to make you money stretch farther:

1. The more you can do on your own the more money you save in labor ( We did hire out all our windows, doors and concrete work that we had done last Spring)
2. We bought all our porch supplies through Menards and saved all our rebate receipts for lumbar and ended up putting it towards our metal roof.
3. Shopping around and asking for a Price Match
4. Wait for items to go on sale

This year I am going to add a  24″ “diamond” pattern on the porch floor as well as add hanging chairs and large planters as well as add the bead board on the roof of the porch and finish up our copper gutters. I’m also expanding our flower garden this year which I am SO excited about and will share plans later.

Spring Porch Refresh

 

Thanks for stopping by,

 

Ali