I’m trying to make my front porch into a thing. It’s nice to have an outside place to sit, and I think front porches are classier than back decks. This may be a juvenile reaction to the fact that we had a huge back deck and no front porch to speak of growing up. Our house was very cool – modern in design and open to a lot of light and air. Looking back on it as an adult, I also think of it as remarkably big, a nightmare to clean, and prohibitively expensive to heat and cool. But then, I’m a cheapskate.
Which makes transforming the front porch somewhat problematical. Like many things, I know what I want to do but struggle to justify the cost. How, for instance, does one come up with a rational for the outdoor love seat / sofa. (One does not put a couch on one’s front porch, one puts a sofa.) How, also, does one make compromises on cost that do not come off looking trashy in implementation? My approach is to take it in stages and be patient with the project.
I have taken a similar approach to several other projects on which I am working. There is no need to rush these things because there is no deadline for their completion. The only problem with this is that it can give other people the impression that I have left a number of half-finished projects abandoned in a house that really doesn’t have space for even the finished ones. Other people might be justifiably frustrated by this behavior. I’m banking on their patience with me, also an unfinished project with, God willing, no near-term schedule for completion.