Tell Me About your Screened in Back Porch!

[DawnCt1]

Inspired by "tell me about your sunroom". I want a nice, basic screened in back porch. We would put it on our 16' X 12' concrete slab so we could tile that. Originally I thought that we would put our pool fence up to the exit door of it, but if we did so we would have to have 48" walls on all sides which would limit the light and airflow that we would like. It will have to have a peaked roof that cuts into the existing slope roof. Did you screen all the way to the floor? Small walls? Ceiling fan? etc. I would love pictures too.

 

[bigbabyblues]

Ours is screened all the way up. We have a sliding door on one end and a regular storm-type door on the other end. We have two ceiling fans with lights out there. We also have a concrete floor, which is easy to clean (garden hose, anyone?). The IL's have indoor/outdoor carpet on theirs, but I prefer concrete.

Sorry, I don't have any pics of it. I think it's about 12' x 24'.

 

[hoosll]

We added a small 8 x 12 porch about 3 years ago ... I just cleaned it this morning, I had to wait for the pollen count to drop ... We have a ceiling fan and a small gas stove. The ceiling has 2 skylights as we live in the woods and I wanted to get as much natural light as possible .... We have a shed roof which allows for clearance under the windows, better than a peaked roof for us. It is screened to the floor, there are railings and pickets but we removed the lattice that code required in the lower section ... It's feels very rustic but we painted the ceiling porch blue and I love sitting and looking up at the ceiling. I also hung a mirror on the wall of the house so that I can see the trees in the reflection and multiply the light. The mirror has a rustic frame so it looks like a window on the woods ....

We love the porch even though it is small as it protects from mosquitoes, provides a foreground visual that blocks the view of our neighbors.

 

[Muushka]

Ours is about 18X18. With 48 or so inch panels of screen (some wider). The screen goes from floor to about 7 feet high. We have a ceiling fan. We love it out there, but I think I need to get some shades for the west side of it because the sun gets kind of hot during summer. Ours is pretty high up because the house was built on a hill. It reminds me of a tree house!

 

[lucas]

Our entire lanai and pool area is screened in. Great for keeping leaves out of the pool and the bugs away from us.

 

[trip]

DawnCt1 - I'm too lazy to go back through your posts. Did you ever end up moving?

 

[wildernesslodgelover]

In our new home, ours is not screened. We have a covered part of the patio (roof extends) and then the pool. In our previous home, we have a screened in porch that was nothing fancy. It was tiled, screen went from flor to top and yeah, the top of the screen was pitched...I think you call it "mansard" style? Like kind of squarish at the top?

Anyway, just wanted to say that I think you will love your screened in porch, it is like adding another room to the house, but cheaper...and you don't have to pay to heat/cool it. Enjoy!

 

[kirstenb1]

We used to have a screened porch along the back of our home. It was 9 x 30. The one thing we did was replace the contractor screening with heavy-duty pet screening. You can get it at Lowe's or Home Depot etc. Our cats kept scratching at the original screening, which was too lightweight. Poor dh spent a weekend replacing the whole screening. Then a couple of years later, we decided to convert the space to an eat in kitchen/reading nook!

 

[RebeccaB]

I'm blessed with a professional carpenter dad, yay! We started with adding a deck...18x24ish....then decided it was wicked hot out there (direct sunlight all day). So, we roofed 1/2 of it. Nice, but decided it was too buggy. So, we screened in the roofed part.
Right now, dad is redoing the screen on the ends, as the wind has done a number on them. The room used to have two doors, one to the deck and one on the end. He's removing the end screen door and turning that into another window so it's more like a room than a pass through to get to the pool/front lawn. I will post pics as soon as he's done. I love my screened in porch!

 

[DawnCt1]

DawnCt1 - I'm too lazy to go back through your posts. Did you ever end up moving?

No. We actually had a year to move, which is up next month. One of the issues for us was DS#1 returning to college and graduating; which he did. DS#4 going to UConn, which he loves. He of course could continue there but our tuition would go up another $10K per year. The bigger issues are watching our property values fall here and not much movement in price commuting distance to the Cambridge area. For a decrease of 45 minutes each way in commuting time, we would have to spend approximately $300K more than what we would net for our home. I am still casually looking, and if we find something we will do it, but I am making plans for the likely scenario that we will stay. The winter and rain was hard on our steps to the pool area and the back yard, so I am having the railroad tie, pressure treated wood stairs replaced with concrete veralock blocks and a retaining wall. We took the house off of the market because we didn't want someone tripping on uneven steps plus they didn't look nice. The other improvement we will make is to the kitchen. Walking into our kitchen is like stepping back in time to 1985! When I know we are staying, I will 'OBLITERATE' the kitchen. Everything goes except for the hardwood floors. We can update the kitchen and bathrooms for FAR less than it will cost us to move. DH also travels a lot and being close to the airport (6 miles) is a huge convenience. He can work from home at least two days a week and if he has to stay, he can stay for $35 per night at Hanscom AFB. The more issues are, we have been here too long. It feels like home to everyone in the family. My mom passed away here. I love my neighbors, most of whom have been here as long as we have. I was cutting back a very tall burning bush last week, which I didn't particularly like. My neighbor came over and said, "Do you like that"? I said "I hate its guts". So not only did he finish cutting it down for me, he dug up the root. It took over an hour. That is the kind of neighbors I have. Last weekend, the neighbor across the street asked me when the "for sale" sign was coming down. My next door neighbor said, "Right now" and came over a pulled it out of the ground. With the construction going on in the back yard, it wasn't a good idea to have it up. Apparently when we haven't been home, people have gotten out of their cars and walked in the back yard.