Finished front porch!

The front porch is done! I finally finished up this little project this past weekend. Which left me wondering why the hell I put this one off for so long?! Easy, peasy I tell you. It's amazing what little tweaks can give you all sorts of new curb appeal!

So let's revist how things used to look before...dangerous, trashy & down right embarrassing...

And then new steps were installed...

And the ugly storm door removed...

A little filling, sanding & paint...and voila! A new front porch!

SO much better, right? I had the paint matched with a sample from our house (which is two different shades of gray for some strange reason) & used an enamel from Sherwin Williams made specifically for porches & stairs. Our stairs are of the composite/man made variety, but it can be used on wood as well. Which was good to know, since I decided to cut corners & use the same paint for the door surround. Probably a major no-no (it dripped & was difficult to work with at times), but I did it anyway. I just couldn't see buying totally new paint for such a small area. What can I say, I'm a professional painters worst nightmare!

And just to give you an idea that not all grays are created equal, check out the night & day difference in color!

True to form, we're not completely finished with tweaking the outside just yet! I have plans to change up the exisiting light fixture, mailboxes, house numbers, as well as paint the pillars white (to match the new porch railings). Whew! And then I think we'll sit tight for at least a year or so. The pink & green trim is SO not our style, but that will have to remain until we can bring the professionals out to change things up a bit. One of these days...

All in due time, all in due time...

Nothing says welcome to our home like a new door...

Okay, so maybe the door isn't exactly new. But I vowed to make some changes this summer and changes I did make!

Remember what things looked like before?

Oh my god, awful & embarrassing...right?! I suppose when you don't use your front door and you don't welcome guests through it, you just kind of cast it aside and pretend that it doesn't look so bad. But it does.

So anyway, after the new front steps were installed, I decided the mangly (not a word, I know) storm door had to go. We had no plans to install a new one...which, come to think of it, is probably something important to have in Buffalo. But after surveying the neighborhood to see what others were doing, it was about half and half--some had storm doors, others did not. I prefer the look of the original door (sans storm door) anyway, so I don't know why I bothered with my informal neighborhood "survey" in the first place. My mind was already made up. Okay, enough with the rambling...let's get to it Katie!

First step was removing the door. I was on my own here, as the husband wanted no part of this process. After several stripped screws & try as I might...that damn door was NOT coming off. I was able to remove a screw here & there, but the door was not going anywhere. And that's no exaggeration...the thing was literally painted on & stuck to the molding. I swear, I think it was installed in 1909. So I gently begged asked the husband for help, tearing him away from Die Hard 45 (or however many Die Hard movies there are out there) and he very patiently removed the door for me. People, this was not an easy task! And I would know...I was watching!

So WHEW...the door was finally removed and I put it out to the curb (just in time for our Thursday morning garbage pick up), and I'm not totally positive...but I'm fairly certain it was gone by the time I left for work in the morning....and garbage pick up hadn't happened yet! The husband is super perplexed by this & wonders why anyone would want that stupid, ugly door. But hey, another person's trash is another's treasure! Even when it's a 100-year old storm door.

Okay, so much better, right? Bye, bye storm door! I don't miss you!

So then came the task of filling in all those holes. Which, for the most part was easy, minus a few larger areas that needed some help.

I'm no expert when it comes to this stuff, so I just did what I thought would work in this case (I learn as I go!), and that was to completely wood fill the larger gaps. I'm sure there is a better looking way to have taken care of these areas...but oh well. It's not perfect, but then again neither is our old house.

So that's where things stand as of today. I'll be back at it this weekend sanding & painting and ready to reveal the final results next week!

TGIF!

Don't sue me

That's what I typically tell people who dare to use our front steps...

Well that was embarrassing. I guess I never realized just how trashy these things looked...but I bet our neighbors did! Okay, so let's get to it. We're replacing the front steps! I know, you can hardly imagine why, but it's happening. I'm sure it's obvious, but there are so many things wrong with these things. For starters, they're rotting faster than an idle banana. Secondly, not one of these steps are the same height. I'm not sure who was hired to build them at the time, but nothing is up to code here (a detail I was kindly reminded of by every contractor who stopped by). Lastly, I'm a big fan of symmetry, so the solitary pink & teal iron railing is outta here. See ya!

If you successfully make it up the stairs without sustaining an injury...congrats! You've made it to the front door!

Evidently, the door mat blew away in a wind storm & left quite an imprint in its passing. And since no one uses the front door...this is the first I'm seeing this myself. Awesome. I had good intentions of removing the old storm door last summer, but then chickened out for whatever reason. But this year I'm doing it! I'm not sure if we'll replace the door right away, but for now I love the idea of being able to see the original door when you come up the soon-to-be new & improved steps.

Of course, removing the door means no more of this...

Nothing says welcome to our home like a good spear to the gut! Or we could always charge admission upon entry. Apparently, this piece of the door also serves as a stadium turnstyle.

And I'm fully aware that removing the door means no one will get to see my creative sign that directs guests to our side door...

Don't fall off the steps on your way back down!

But WAIT....there really are doorbells at the front door!

I kid you not, I had no clue these even existed until 2 weeks ago! Well, that only took 4 years. I suppose it's time to finish painting the entryway stairs...it looks like we'll be using the front door more often!

I'll be back soon with progress pictures! But until then...please use the side door/doorbells.