Outdoor Porch Plan Change?

11 years ago

As we get closer to breaking ground, we are having some doubts about our floor plan and see things we might want to change. (Tell me this is normal to second guess every decision we loved before??!)

One of the more major things is to possibly see about extending our covered porch 2 ft so that we could put a sliding door from the dining room to the covered porch instead of the windows. Note that although this is technically a "front" elevation of the house, there is a lot of woods in front of the house, and the drive will come up from the right side. That means that unless you are mowing grass in my front yard, you will never see this direct elevation. I realize one issue is that adding 2 ft to the right side makes the porch come up right on top of the right side window, which is awkward.

A few questions -

1. Does this seem worth it? We have larger outdoor space which is not covered on other side of house, but we are considering this because otherwise the covered porch seems like it may not be used at all. We would put ceiling fan and swing/chairs out there on other side of dining room. This is the north side of the house and will have woods on north side and great view on east side, so it would be a nice place to sit and relax in the summer evenings.

2. If we pursued this, could we extend 2 ft on each side of the porch, but not the front? Or will this screw up my roof plan too much? I figured it would be weird to only extend the porch on the dining room side, but maybe this is possible also?

3. Does this seem like a change my builder can do on site or I would need to have my architect redraw plans?

Or have I lost my mind and need to just stick with the plan as it is? : ) Thanks!

Featured Answer

Amber

11 years ago

I say expand it... I don't like the column right in the window!

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Comments (9)

farmdrmer
Original Author
11 years ago
I stepped away from this idea for a few days...our 2nd baby was born last week! Toddler at home, newborn last week, next week breaking ground and moving in with our in-laws - YIKES what were we thinking??! : ) Luckily all great things. We meet with the builder tomorrow to discuss this idea, and I wanted to see if anyone here had any thoughts. Should I even worry about doing this, great idea worth pursuing, something else I'm missing?
cpartist
11 years ago
Congrats on the building. I guess I'm not quite clear on what it is you want to do?
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farmdrmer
Original Author
11 years ago
Should I expand the covered porch in order to put a sliding door in place of the dining room windows? Or leave as is? Thank you!
chicagoans
11 years ago
I agree that the column in front of the window looks odd and like bad planning. I'm surprised the architect didn't catch it. Although you mention that it's rare that someone will see this direct elevation, I think the column would look odd from the inside too.

Ask the architect (or builder) what else would be affected if you extend the porch, and how they would achieve it.

And congrats on the new baby!!
farmdrmer thanked chicagoans
cpartist
11 years ago
I meant to say congrats on the new baby!. Ayes extend.
farmdrmer thanked cpartist
farmdrmer
Original Author
11 years ago
Thanks everyone! The architect did catch the column in front of window but didn't want to make the covered porch larger due to cost. The builder we worked with at the time had a different cost approach than our builder now, and budget was skyrocketing. We have a lot of things less expensive with new builder, so wanted to look to see if there was a place or two we might do an upgrade. We are meeting with builder today to see what it might take, and if it's feasible at this stage of game. Thanks again! Baby is wonderful but breaking ground with a newborn is not for sane people lol! :)
chisue
11 years ago
last modified: 11 years ago
It appears to me that you already have an enormous amount of *shallow* wrap-around porch. Are you saying you would only use the portion outside the DR? I find that I need at least 12 feet of depth to use a table. Will some portion be screened, or are you bug-free?

Congratulations on your healthy baby and toddler. Must this decision be made immediately?
farmdrmer thanked chisue
farmdrmer
Original Author
11 years ago
chisue - yes, it is a ton of shallow space. I'm not sure we would actually put a dining table out there, but I would love a swing or glider and some chairs and end tables. My guess is that the most used space is the space off the dining. The long end on front faces the woods directly, there isn't much there to see. No, we aren't bug free. : ( I was hoping to install ceiling fans to help with the bug problem, and possibly looking at the area outside of the dining room as a future screened in porch option.

Thanks for congrats! Yes, we hope to make the decision as soon as possible. We met with the builder today, who agrees it is a good idea if we can do it. But we aren't sure if we will have to enlarge the porch all the way around to achieve the space, or if we can just enlarge the one side. He is checking on it for us. It may be too much extra $ to enlarge the whole thing, not to mention then it really gets to be a lot of porch that I'm not sure we will use on that side of the house. It is a terrible design to have it end in front of the window, but not sure if there is something to be done now or not. One of the things in the planning stages we skimmed over, and now are regretting.