I am so excited

[Claire]

On Friday, hubby and I got home from our monthly errand running to Dubuque to find our construction guy's trailer in front of out house. I'm so happy. We've saved to replace the front porch on our house! We have an 1854 old Federal house that hasn't had a porch in years, but we have old pictures of the porch and are now having it replaced. Our town is something like 85% OLD (by US standards, for our European friends!) and they're very cautious about letting you do something to your house that doesn't keep it within historical accuracy. As it happens to be, we have a few old photos of the house when it had a porch, so we got permission to build it. THen we had to stand in line because the people we trust to work on our old house have a lot of customers.

So ... in a week or so, I'll have an old-fashioned old porch on my old house.

 

[Ishbel]

In the UK if you live in certain 'conservation' areas of the country or towns or cities - you cannot make changes without permission. It can be a nightmare. Permission for the installation of replacement, double-glazzed units can be a nightmare.

Can you tell I live in a conservation area?!!

 

[thumpershere2]

Good for you, it sounds great what you are doing. I love old homes and especially porches. Nothing like sitting on the porch after a days work. Whata great project you have going.

 

[bethzaring]

Hey Claire, that is great! I have been looking at old porches recently . I will try to attach a photo of my grandmother holding my father in front of the house she was raised in. What a lovely porch!!

I think this house was built around 1870 and sadly, this porch is no longer on the house.

 

[middie]

I wish I had a porch on my house. Love sitting outside during the late night- early morning hours.

 

[Chef_Jimmy]

I grew up in a historis district and you had to have permission to do ANYTHING. As far as having to wait, hey, at least you know the people are good and in high demand.

 

[Claire]

Yes, when the construction guy came by to see if he could put on the porch, I had two pictures of the porch taken circa 1890-1910, and could identify the people in the picture and told him their names, and told him who their living descendents were who could vouch for it. It is very, very difficult to do things to historic homes. As, I suppose, it should be. Our guy was thrilled that we had photos for him to take to the city when he applied for the permit.

I love old homes and think that the city is right ... but it can be frustrating, not to mention expensive. My porch will be smaller, (it is a long, narrow shotgun house) but quite similar to your photo, Beth. A little less ornate, and one thing we insisted on was railings for the steps. We have too many friends who have bitten the dust in the past couple of winters.

Since the house isn't very wide, when we have the guys put hooks in for our porch swing (can't do without one), we're going to have them put three hooks in. That way the swing can face the front of the house or the side (where there is a view, but the swing would be facing wrong for a party).

This has been our dream since we moved here (5 years ago). I don't know how to attach a photo to something like this, hopefully by the time the porch is done I'll figure it out and send y'all both a photo of the porch similar to Beth's (it will be of a woman and her children at about that era) and the new porch.