Changing the front entry (floor, how much, window, heat)

[mrs1885]

I'm seriously thinking of changing the front entry of our home. Right now you enter between two posts and go up ugly concrete steps and turn to the left to enter the house.

I'd like to move the entry right out front so you walk up a set of steps to a small deck and straight in. I've started pulling off rocks from the hideous rock flower bed that lines the front of the house. Ultimately both beds will be removed. The one to the left of the entrance will be completely gone and a stone patio will take up the entire front area in a circular shape. The flower bed to the right will be landscape timber stacked with a tiered plan, and have lights in it to light up the plantings.

Anyway, this is the entry as it is now. How difficult do you think it will be to cover the steps and the existing front porch with a wooden deck and rail and move it so you enter from the front of the house, walking straight in the front door?

[JimRom]

Not sure that covering that front porch with a wooden deck would be a good idea. First, there isn't any way to tie the deck in at the door side. Two, there isn't enough space to allow air flow under the wood, which would lead to all sorts of moisture/rot problems.

If it were me, I'd either:

a) Extend the concrete porch outward into the front yard, moving the steps out to the un-roofed section but still on the side (which would lead to less concrete work on the sidewalk than moving the steps to the front).

b) If you really want a wooden deck, take out the concrete porch first, then have the deck built.

Neither of these options is a diy job, btw. Either of them will call for skilled tradesmen to make sure you keep the structural integrity of the porch. Can a homeowner build a deck or pour a concrete porch? Yep, but why not invest the little bit extra so that you don't have the headaches of the job or the worry about future instability.

[sj08054]

First: What's up with the post on the left in the first picture? Is this sitting on temporary block? I wouldn't do much with that porch except defining where the entry is. I thinking the biggest problem is the lack of rain gutter in the front of the house. I don't think the rock are bad and if you power wash it, you may be suprise how "new" it may look. Adding rain gutter in the front will prevent it from going green in the future.

I would also leave the steps on the side and add a white railing to the front to tie in with the post. You will be suprise how much nicer that porch could look if you clean it up a bit.

[Okiekajun]

If you are wanting to enter directly from the front.

a. take the rock from in front of doorway, put aside to reuse.

b. bust out sidewalk turn to porch and extend to move steps to front/add steps

c. reuse the rock taken from front to extend bed from left side of exsisting sidewalk to new sidewalk, you'll end up with two beds one
on either side of sidewalk.

d. add deck from left side of existing porch, covering steps, to complete left side of house.

e. extend the porch post to solid ground, get off the block.

f. add railing from left side column of new porch to far left side.

you'll end up with two beds on either side of new sidewalk and stairs going straight into house. a nice extended elevated porch all the
way across front of house for chairs and table, and a railing banister set to finish off...

[mrs1885]

Originally Posted by JimRom

Not sure that covering that front porch with a wooden deck would be a good idea. First, there isn't any way to tie the deck in at the door side. Two, there isn't enough space to allow air flow under the wood, which would lead to all sorts of moisture/rot problems.
If it were me, I'd either:
a) Extend the concrete porch outward into the front yard, moving the steps out to the un-roofed section but still on the side (which would lead to less concrete work on the sidewalk than moving the steps to the front).
b) If you really want a wooden deck, take out the concrete porch first, then have the deck built.
Neither of these options is a diy job, btw. Either of them will call for skilled tradesmen to make sure you keep the structural integrity of the porch. Can a homeowner build a deck or pour a concrete porch? Yep, but why not invest the little bit extra so that you don't have the headaches of the job or the worry about future instability.

We're trying to get rid of all the concrete that's there. It looks like a concrete jungle. Because we're doing a flagstone patio and the flower beds will all be landscape timbers I was hoping the wooden deck would tie in to the look we're doing better. We'll also eventually be getting rid of the brick facing too. Whoever did it must not have had a level because it flows up and down and looks 'wavy'. It's horrible. And they never put any brick along the back of the house at all. It's just plain bare exposed concrete block. Hideous!

Not sure I want to dump money into having someone come out and do all that work. I can have our handman guy give me an estimate. But if it's too high, I'll have to try to think of something else I guess.

Originally Posted by sj08054

First: What's up with the post on the left in the first picture? Is this sitting on temporary block? I wouldn't do much with that porch except defining where the entry is. I thinking the biggest problem is the lack of rain gutter in the front of the house. I don't think the rock are bad and if you power wash it, you may be suprise how "new" it may look. Adding rain gutter in the front will prevent it from going green in the future.

I would also leave the steps on the side and add a white railing to the front to tie in with the post. You will be suprise how much nicer that porch could look if you clean it up a bit.

There are three of those posts. When I started tearing out the flower beds I found they'd built a block wall along the back of the beds (there's a walk way from the garage to the front door behind the beds) and just put the posts on those to support the porch roof. Among the many plans we have is to remove those and run a support beam from the house to the very end post, just supporting it on each end and one in the center. The rest will be wide open. So if you're standing in front of the house you'll see a post on each end of the patio, then the 'deck' where the entrance is, and then against the house the other support post for the roof.

Rain gutters or the entire house are also on the list. Keep in mind, my county has no clue when my home was built. It's very old and sat vacant for over 15 years before we bought it. It needs a ton of work, both cosmetic and structural. We've had to rip out every electric wire in the house so far and re-do that. It had the old bare wire electric and screw in fuses when we moved in. We also just had central heat and air installed, something the house had never had before. We lost some square footage on the install just because there was no room between the first and second floor to run some of the duct work. We've got someone coming in to built cabinets around it in the upstairs bedrooms. And now we have to re-figure the second floor bathroom addition we'd planned on putting in, because one of the return units sits in the attic in the area we'd wanted to put it. I love this house, but it's getting on my nerves!

The rock is defintely going. We both hate the rock look. If it had been smoother stones or something we'd have been fine, but it's a sharp rough rock and we just don't like that look at all. Even clean it's not our style, so it's got to go.

We've got homes in the area with entries to the front and entries off to the side like ours. We just like the entry from the front so much better. Not to mention it's easier getting large items and furniture in and out of the house walking straight in than having to turn corners and work around posts.

Originally Posted by Okiekajun

If you are wanting to enter directly from the front.
a. take the rock from in front of doorway, put aside to reuse.
b. bust out sidewalk turn to porch and extend to move steps to front/add steps
c. reuse the rock taken from front to extend bed from left side of exsisting sidewalk to new sidewalk, you'll end up with two beds one
on either side of sidewalk.
d. add deck from left side of existing porch, covering steps, to complete left side of house.
e. extend the porch post to solid ground, get off the block.
f. add railing from left side column of new porch to far left side.
you'll end up with two beds on either side of new sidewalk and stairs going straight into house. a nice extended elevated porch all the
way across front of house for chairs and table, and a railing banister set to finish off...

You've kind of got the idea of what we'd like to do. We just don't want the deck / porch to go across the entire left side of the front of the house. I want a small entry 'deck' with a small bench that will sit pretty much over where the current steps are. Hang some rail planters off the rails. Then in front of the library window (the double window on the left behind that column and the flag) put up a porch swing. The flag will be moved to one post and the state flag will hang on the other.

The patio portion - which will be flagstone or a stamped and stained concrete to mimic stone - will extend from that left flower bed (which will be removed) to in front of the sidewalk that's there now, which will also come out. I'm thinking of removing the grass that's between that area and the driveway and putting in a smooth gravel or small pea stone to do a seating area. The entire front portion of the land - about an acre and a half - will have white picket fence around it.

We're in a very rural setting of most large farms of hundreds of acres. I want the house to blend into the area. I'm not trying to 'upscale' it, just soften it some and make it more of a small country feeling type of home.