Home Renovation – The Head Start

About 20 years ago, the original home owners put on an addition off the back of the house that I keep calling a porch. It is more than a porch, really; it is a 16’ x 20’ three season room. It is on a concrete slab and has storm windows with screens all around it, plus two screen doors. There is a real nice Pella sliding glass patio door separating it from the rest of the house.

My wife and I have chatted since we moved in back in 1999 of what to do with this room. It worked well in the spring or fall as an outdoor “tent” for parties; someplace you can put the food during an outdoor party. However, it worked better as a storage shed for things that had no other home, like old furniture, outgrown kid toys, and the snow blower in the summer.

Tired of that eye sore, we started thinking more seriously what to do with it. We thought about insulating the ceiling to keep out the heat in the summer and continuing to use it as a screen room. We arranged some furniture and tables, put down an area rug and cleaned it up best we could. It might have sufficed as a nice place to eat “outside” and still keep the bugs out. It had a great view with the

3 exposed walls so you really did feel outside. However, it still had major problems as a screen room, namely, 1) temperature control, 2) electricity/lighting, and most significantly, 3) ambiance. It just wasn’t a place you said, “I just want to go hang out and relax in the screen room”.

We started to consider trying to make the room year round, and subsequently, how we would use it if we did. The imagination can start to go wild with what you could do. My thoughts included, a place to play games with the kids, a place for craft projects, a cozy fireplace for ambiance, a place to snuggle on a love seat and watch movies, a place to have coffee in the morning and enjoy the fresh morning air, a place to entertain guests, a bar, a bar with a TV, a very large TV, the ultimate place to have a super bowl party, an Oktoberfest party room complete with multiple gaming consoles, a pool table, darts, a refrigerator and a beer wench!

The idea of changing it to a year round was an immensely daunting prospect, but I have obviously been spoiled by Octoberfest…