Well, my plan for yesterday didn’t quite work out. I had planned to hit the ground running on our new bedroom, starting with the installation of the hardwood flooring. I had actually hoped to get quite a bit of the flooring installed yesterday so that I could have it all finished up (the installation, not the sanding and staining) by the end of the week.
Did that happen? Nope. I wasn’t even able to start because Matt had a horrible day yesterday. I mean, just awful. There was about an hour around lunch time that I was sure he was going to end up in the hospital. I had to spend my afternoon checking on him about once every ten minutes, and it’s very hard to work on and concentrate on a project when I have to do that. But by bedtime last night, he had pulled through and was feeling much better. This morning, he’s still not back to (his) 100%, but he’s almost there.
So instead of getting any work done, I spent most of those 10-minute intervals walking around outside, dreaming, planning, admiring what’s been done, and thinking about next steps for getting the outside of our house looking like I envision it in my mind. One of the first things that stands out to me is the skirting around the front porch. The unfinished skirting shows in every picture I take, and it’s just plain ugly.
I just hate how that unfinished project (along with the two shutters that came down during storms) detracts from our new driveway and the entire look of the front of our house.
I started that project six years ago. Yikes! I started it in September 2018. If I remember correctly, I didn’t finish it because bad weather rolled in and stayed for a while. I needed the concrete to dry out before adhering more of the faux stones (I used Airstone from Lowe’s), and while waiting for that to happen, I moved on to other projects and never came back to it. And now, here we are six years later, and it’s still unfinished.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like this is a project I can just finish and check off of the list. It looks like it’s going to have to be redone completely because this is the current state of the Airstone.
Do you see all those little hairline cracks? Those cracks are actually affecting the integrity of the stones. I rubbed my foot across one of them to get a leaf off, and the stone crumbled. One thing I didn’t realize with this product is that Airstone, when used outside, has to be sealed with a sealer or paint. Now that I know that I don’t think I’d ever recommend using this product outside.
So now I’m on to Plan B for the porch skirting. And for some reason, I really want the skirting on the front porch to match the skirting that I use on my workshop. I don’t know why those need to match in my mind, but I do like continuity. I don’t like it when lots of different materials are used and nothing seems to be consistent.
So whatever I use as the skirting on the front porch will also cover the open area between the workshop and the ground.
My initial thought was to try to recreate that stone look that I was initially aiming for. I found these stone panels and considered using them.
I liked that they kind of match the real Austin stone style and pattern on our house. And since our Austin stone is painted (it was painted when we bought the house, so I repainted it the current color), I knew I could paint this the same color and it would probably look like the same stone. But this was $84.71 per panel, and I’d need six panels just for the front porch. I didn’t want to spend that much on fake stone panels.
And then the second is this lattice look, but I only like this style of lattice. I’m not sure what it’s called, but I like the horizontal and vertical lattice pieces. I’m not really a fan of the diagonal lattice designs, at least not for my house.
Photo by Crisp Architects – Search porch design ideas
I think the first one probably wins by a slim margin in my mind. The style seems to go better with the interior of my house than the lattice design. Plus, I wouldn’t want open lattice, which means that I’d have to find a way to create that lattice look while actually creating a solid barrier, and that’s just added work.
So as of now, the plan is the use PVC board to create that look on my front porch. I love PVC boards because they seems to last forever. That’s what I made my shutters out of, and those look as good today as they did the day I made them. I want something that’s going to last and not require yearly maintenance, so PVC boards fit that bill.
The funny thing is that today, six years later, this style appeals to me far more than the look of the stone skirting that I chose back then. And I know for a fact that I considered this style six years ago and passed it up and opted for the stone instead. Personal taste and style are always evolving, and that’s not a bad thing! It can be an expensive thing, but it’s not a bad thing. 😀
Addicted 2 Decorating is where I share my DIY and decorating journey as I remodel and decorate the 1948 fixer upper that my husband, Matt, and I bought in 2013. Matt has M.S. and is unable to do physical work, so I do the majority of the work on the house by myself. You can learn more about me here.
