Porch Makeover
Our adventure of moving to North Carolina began in 2018. Our first home in our new state was a rental, which we had for a year while we were getting used to the new city and state, and were trying to figure out areas and schools. We love it here. Having moved from the Midwest, the much nicer weather and the southern hospitality are sure things we love. We were really lucky that we found a home two houses down from our rental! Thanks to a great neighbor that contacted us with the home’s previous owner (another neighbor we did not know). The house never made it to the market. We bought it in April of 2019 but moved in June, when our contract for our rental ended. That meant we had a couple of months to do the really messy projects without living in the house!
Since we knew it was going to be a mess for a while, we decided to start outdoors. Inside the house was such a mess (dust, paint all over and we even removed popcorn ceiling…imagine that) we were grateful we could relax in the porch. We also have an acre and 3/4 of land surrounded by woods, so it is very calming and relaxing to eat dinner or chill in the porch. We basically live there all seasons except not that much in the winter.
Here are some pictures of the porch from when we first saw the house (sorry for the bad quality of the pictures, I took it with my old phone)
It was in bad shape and had moldy algae all over, but it was structurally ok.
Main Problems:
- There was mold and algae
- It was smelly
- Very dirty: spiderwebs, dead bugs and covered in dirt
- Broken nets
- Scratched wood
- Loose paint and stain
- Had not been maintained in a while
- Outdated fan
Pros:
- Structurally good
- Beadboard ceiling
- Paneling on wall was in great shape
- Several electrical outlets
- Project is budget friendly
Where to begin?
The first thing I did was power wash it of course! That removed all of the loose paint as well.
There were spider webs, bugs and dirt all over!
Thank goodness the ceiling was in great shape. It is really charming because it has beadboard that really did not need re-painting, thank goodness! (FYI, I HATE painting ceilings! Since we had to remove popcorn ceiling from the inside of the house, this was one less project we had to do).
After power washing:
This is what I used, and it worked really well. I also sprayed bleach.
We let it dry and the next day I sanded all the loose paint and stain using my orbital sander (NOT fun). I filled all the scratched areas with wood filler, let it dry and then I sanded it using a 120 grit sandpaper.
I then applied a coat of odor killing primer and let it do its thing.
Here it is after applying a coat of primer. It cured for 24 hours.
Much better!
Before painting the floor, I worked on the railings. I applied several coats of Behr Ultra White exterior paint.
After much research on what stain to use, I decided since the floor is not in the best shape to use a regular stain, I needed something thicker to cover the imperfections. I used the Deck Over stain from Home Depot in Chocolate. I really liked how it covered everything! It is very thick! I totally miscalculated how much paint to use and I had to run back to Home Depot twice! I applied it using a roller and a brush for the corners.
Progress…
A mean, how about that view?! I get to drink my yerba mate here every day. After a long day of work in the house, I could finally relax in my “new” porch! Stay tuned for part two: the porch all decorated!
