Screen room (Winchester: how much, home, calculator)

[CaseyB]

Originally Posted by sparklingforest

ha ha, my house came with a jumbo deck. I wish it was a screened in porch. In fact, the owners I bought from took down a screened in porch to put in the big deck with built in hot tub. I hate it so much. I can't wait until I can rip it out and get some of my side yard back. I think screened in porches make great transitions from inside to outside.

I have both a screened in porch and a deck. We use the porch much more than the deck. I use it every day from late March to the end of October. It has a ceiling fan and 4 outlets (code). I can plug in a heater when it gets chilly.

[MikePRU]

Originally Posted by sparklingforest

ha ha, my house came with a jumbo deck. I wish it was a screened in porch. In fact, the owners I bought from took down a screened in porch to put in the big deck with built in hot tub. I hate it so much. I can't wait until I can rip it out and get some of my side yard back. I think screened in porches make great transitions from inside to outside.

Originally Posted by Parsec

Haha, my wife wanted the screened porch and I wanted a deck so we had to find a house with BOTH. Now that we have lived in the house for a while, we would've preferred a 60' deck that spanned the entire back of the house instead of instead of 1 porch and 1 deck. Or a deck plus a patio and firepit. Sometimes you think you want something, but you end up never using it. Live and learn.

At some point, I'm definitely going to add a deck next to the porch. I think it will be a great combination. I have a number of other projects that need to get done first though. I need to sell a lot of houses to fund all the projects on my wish list.

[495neighbor]

I love homes with big screen in front porch rooms. Those are a rare find in New England.

[KKay9]

Our house came with a screened porch. We really don't use it that much. Mostly, it holds plants. We used it last fall when cleaning/sorting gallons and gallons of wild grapes we'd picked to make jelly. My son sometimes uses it for messy projects. Otherwise, it is a place for the dog to hang out and watch rabbits. Maybe we'd use it more if we had something other than a picnic table and a few uncomfortable wrought iron chairs in . But, a lot of snow gets in there in the winter (it faces north), so anything out there has to be weather proof, as I'm not carting stuff down to the basement every fall.

[CaseyB]

Originally Posted by KKay9

Our house came with a screened porch. We really don't use it that much. Mostly, it holds plants. We used it last fall when cleaning/sorting gallons and gallons of wild grapes we'd picked to make jelly. My son sometimes uses it for messy projects. Otherwise, it is a place for the dog to hang out and watch rabbits. Maybe we'd use it more if we had something other than a picnic table and a few uncomfortable wrought iron chairs in . But, a lot of snow gets in there in the winter (it faces north), so anything out there has to be weather proof, as I'm not carting stuff down to the basement every fall.

We have all-weather wicker furniture. It stays out there all year.

[johngolf]

Originally Posted by CaseyB

We have all-weather wicker furniture. It stays out there all year.

I assume plastic/resin, artificial wicker would work just fine. Remove/store any cushions in construction grade trash bags and leave them on the porch during the winter.

[Peabody99]

Originally Posted by 3cents

Oh wow. Does it cost so much? But to clarify, I meant a screen-room, not a sun-room. It will be unheated. But I should pause, given your note about the poor returns.

Perhaps I should fix up my cracking bluestone front entrance walkway first.

We love our 3 season room in the spring, summer and part of the fall. We eat dinner out on the table there, held a small party in July with all the food in the room and then the party moved to the backyard. In the first house we owned, we had a front porch and loved it. We moved a little over a year ago and at first thought we would really miss the porch, but we use the 3 season room even more, its a place to eat and entertain. 60k to build on is crazy!

[CaseyB]

Originally Posted by 3cents

Oh wow. Does it cost so much? But to clarify, I meant a screen-room, not a sun-room. It will be unheated. But I should pause, given your note about the poor returns.

Perhaps I should fix up my cracking bluestone front entrance walkway first.

I think ours was more like 10K, if that. Just a screened-in porch. No windows, no heat.

[Parsec]

Originally Posted by CaseyB

I think ours was more like 10K, if that. Just a screened-in porch. No windows, no heat.

Wow, that's cheap. The quotes I'm getting to extend my deck are more than that!

3cents: Just get 1 or 2 quotes for a ballpark figure so you can prioritize your projects.

[CaseyB]

It was part of a bigger renovation project and really just involved enclosing one end of the deck and making that end a porch. We were paying for the deck flooring anyway and the crew was already there.