THE deck.

I feel bad calling it a "front butt", but that was the nickname it got while we had it. The front deck on our house was so big that it would have added over 200 sq feet to the house had it been part of the interior. The problem was, like most things with this house, it was weird and ugly.

It "dwarfed" the front door. It "confused" the entry to the house. It jutted out right to the edge of the driveway. At first I thought it would be a great place to play, eat dinner in the summer, etc. but the longer we lived here the more we realized how bad this deck actually was. 

It took us a long time to figure out what the best plan was. (Interpretation: it took us about two weeks, which in Mitchell-time was long). Ooh, notice the lattice in this picture. Finally, Neal did have to rip that off, he hated it too much. 

So, with a rough sketch in hand, Neal whipped out the chain saw and saws-al. Bye-bye deck.

Two little cuties.

Though I was kind of nervous to lose that square footage, when I saw Neal get more and more "into" the design we created, I just trusted his vision and skill for what we had decided. A "porch" we thought would be better. It would highlight the entry of the house better, and make more sense. We'd have a little room between the driveway and porch/front door for some landscaping, and we decided some big built-in planters would cover the open, dead space underneath.

We laid a path, build stairs and handrails.

I have a pink tool belt. I'm very proud of it. I was tempted to wear it in normal life because it would be so handy. I'd never lose my wallet, keys, gum, sunglasses, snack for the kids, extra diaper and wipes.

Ooh, so hard at work. 

The base-layer of the planters are built.

BUT, there's an awkward sliding glass door to the left; part of what made it a confusing entry. 

Now you see it...

now there's a gaping hole in the house...

and two little cuties.

The window makes much more sense both on the exterior design, but also for what's going to happen on the interior in that space (more to come eventually!).

Much better. Then Neal could finish the handrail on that side. We had to patch it together with random siding found in the garage.

From this:

To this:

To this, with stone on the build-in planters.