“I hate lattice.” My husband says to me.
“Wait, what? Is that a thing? Do people even have feelings about lattice?”
Apparently, yes. And he hates it.
There are some things that my husband hates that I get – he hates broccoli. I, however, love broccoli so much. But I GET why he hates it. It’s a pretty distinct flavor. When I found out he hated watermelon, though, that was a doozy. WHO HATES WATERMELON? There is absolutely nothing offensive about watermelon – it’s actually incredibly delightful. To this day, I don’t understand this.
“The lattice, under the porch. I hate it. Do something else.”
Ummm…. OK. Lattice is what people do. Are there other things? I don’t even know what you call that part under the porch.
After googling many, probably ridiculous, things, I learned it’s called a “Porch Skirt.” Since I’m quite a fan of skirts and fashion, this seemed a good thing.
Doug lets me pretty much do whatever I want. He trusts me, and knows that he will love whatever I design. So, he never really offers an opinion on anything aesthetic. So, if he offers an opinion on something like this, and uses the word “hate,” I really don’t have a choice but to figure something else out.
TO THE INTERNETS!
I started to research Victorian porch skirts, and stumbled onto this fantastic and VERY educational page: http://www.oldhouseguy.com/porches/
On it, I found this, from a 1903 Builders’ Catalog, just one year after our house was built :
I fell in love immediately, especially since I keep wanting to enhance the circles that are EVERYWHERE in this house.
I let the idea simmer, and decided I wanted to do a simple twist. I drew it out, and took it to Doug, and asked if he could build it.
He loved it, and said that it would take forever, but it was worth it.
The old lattice was rotted, and had to be ripped out, which exposed the wonderment of the area under the porch.
We sent out a plea to our friends for another set of hands, and Edgar and Veronica once again answered the call. Which is good, because Veronica was mad that we hadn’t weeded, and Edgar liked the puzzle of the math of the circles. Win for everyone (except the weeds).
Step one : cut the boards to length.
Step two : decide where the circles are going to be.
Step three : Make sure I approve. Like V, I give it a thumbs up.
Next, the hole saw blades went onto the drill press, and Doug and Edgar set up a fence to do each hole systematically. This took a long time, but it was a perfect plan.
I didn’t let them have all the fun, but they did almost all of the holes.
We drilled A LOT of holes. For A LOT of boards.
We put up the first pair of boards, and used a 1/2 inch piece of wood as a spacer in between each board.
Success! I was really, really pleased with how it all came out. Next up with the porch skirt is building the frames to go in front!
Also, since cutting the holes for hours and hours wasn’t really a four-person job at all times, Veronica and I decided to take down the archway, and paint the fence. WHAT a difference this small project made!
I was really not sure about losing it, but once it was gone, it just opened up the focus on the house so much more! And since we knew it was added in the 90’s, it wasn’t a heart-breaking loss.
The fence, if you remember was a reddish / brown color, and a seafoam green. I just wanted it to go black, like basic ironwork. I thought this decision would made the fence sort of fade into the distance, but it actually made it stand out – in a very good way.
We used large plastic sheeting to protect the garden and the sidewalk, and sprayed away! Since there was some rust, we used a wire brush to scrape away anything that was loose, and chose a Rustoleum paint.
Good decision, right?
It’s fun to see a before and after without actually using two pictures!
Sometimes, it’s the simplest of projects that makes all the difference!
