The Porch...

Last year our front porch was showing its age.  It was drab and tired and the front steps were evolving from rickety and loose to downright dangerous.  The afternoon my son leaned on the railing and narrowly avoided tumbling with it onto the lawn four and a half feet below was my call to action.  I made a temporary fix that lasted through the winter but springtime illustrated that something a little more permanent needed to be done.

Last year, we had a garage/office built by an excellent contractor.  We knew who we'd ask to fix our porch.

This is how the porch looked shortly after we pulled down those deadly stairs and the aged and weathered siding.

Here's how it looks now, from pretty much the same angle:

We added a bit more deck area on the exterior landing of the porch.  Enough room for a chair:

And I've always resented the amount of wasted storage space under our enclosed porch.  I asked our contractor if there wasn't some way we could access that space.  We sussed it out and here's the solution:

If you look to the right of the steps you...well, you really can't see anything, can you?  Let's have a closer look:

This shot is a little blurred but the hardware is the only thing that suggests there might be a set of doors here.  Let's open them and take a look:

Access to all of the space under the interior and exterior parts of the porch.  He even came up with a hinged, fold-out ramp so I can roll the lawn mover and wheel barrel over the lip at the base of the porch.

Very pleased with the way the porch matches and compliments the garage.  There's still some landscaping to be done to bind everything together but we've got a good start on that.

Once the landscaping is finished I'll add some more pictures.