One Room Challenge: Week 3
Week Three was a very slow one for our One Room Challenge porch project. With a spring garden that desperately needed planting before the intense late-spring Florida heat sets in, we prioritized that project. But that’s not to say nothing happened!
What exactly did we accomplish this week? For starters, my husband removed most of the rotten siding off the back of the house. Last weekend, I was able to identify the siding (Dutch lap). The local lumber company we are using to supply our composite decking also carries this cut, so it’s just a matter of placing a call this week to have replacement pieces cut.
My husband also off the frames from around the porch footers and repositioned where needed before a final concrete pour this week. From there, he’ll go ahead and begin installing the posts.
I finalized my vision for the porch, which I’m sharing today! In theory, I’ve always known what I’ve wanted to do with the porch. But the details, like paint color for the furniture and fabric pattern for the cushions, have remained sort of elusive.
We also decided on a house paint color: Sherwin Williams Rainstorm with Sherwin Williams creamy Maison Blanche to trim everything out. For those who have been following along for awhile, we have been so torn about the color of our house for months.
It feels good to be settled on something. The color wasn’t my first choice, but it came about as we started toying with doing something different with the ceiling on our porch. If we follow through with my new idea, the house color couldn’t be my first choice (a deep, moody green) for it to look good.
But I also knew I wanted to somehow still incorporate green somewhere in this porch design. So I toyed around with the idea of choosing a green for vintage wrought iron patio furniture. Right now, it’s all black and in desperate need of sand blasting. I’ll go source spray paint colors and a sand blaster attachment this week to get started.
Earlier on my social media channels, I alluded to the fact that we still have two big decisions to make:
- Flooring: Our original plan, when our porch wasn’t going to have a roof, was to use WearDeck composite decking for the entire porch. However, now that we are incorporating a roof structure, we are wondering if we shouldn’t use traditional wood decking and stain it to match the color of the WearDeck we are still planning to go with for the portion immediately surrounding the pool.
- Roof Material: A few weeks ago, I saw a fabulous porch created by ??? They used an opaque polycarbonate sheet for the roof, which still let in natural light. But my concern is about the temperature of the porch. Will it still get uncomfortably warm? I toyed with metal, but I was also afraid it would transfer the heat to whomever was directly underneath. I am really leaning toward the metal with wood beams underneath painted “haint blue,” a tradition for Southern homeowners. I really think this will come down to budget, but I created a mood board with the concept in case we can make it happen.
This week should involve much more work on the porch. Check back in next week when I officially update us on the halfway point. Let’s hope we can officially say we’re at the halfway point at that time.
