Front Porch Remodel

Well it hasn't happened yet but some form of a porch remodel is happening this summer and I CANNOT WAIT!  We just met with our contractor tonight for our initial meeting and talked about what we want to do, what we could do and what we pretty much can't afford to do.  We meet again next week to get some estimates and pick a design.  I'll keep you all posted.  (I'm finally getting back into blogging again after a long hiatus and hopefully have some good posts coming.)

But back to the porch.  Our house has been lacking some serious curb appeal and it all comes down to our porch - our poor, pathetic, crumbly porch.

See what I mean?!  These were taken 1-2 years ago and this past winter has done some serious damage.  I wish I had a picture but it is 10:00 pm and too dark so just picture this porch literally in crumbles.  The top has been coming off in sheets so it is uneven, sharp and jagged.  The sides are literally disintegrating.    Those flagstones are pebbles and there is nothing holding it together anymore.  You even can now see all the bricks underneath the flagstone.  It is so bad.

Not only is it crumbly but it is tiny.  We got rid of the storm door but you couldn't even stand on our porch when we were opening our door to welcome you.  Now it is just the main door so one person can stand and wait to be welcomed but everyone else must wait on our terrible cobblestone path.  Oh and forget about Halloween.  Have I mentioned that this year we hardly had ANY trick or treaters!  I was heartbroken.  We are the scary, creepy house on the street and I cannot let that happen this year.  I live for trick or treaters but not in a creepy way.  I love kids and I love candy and I love eating candy while saying hi to the kids and seeing all their fun costumes.  I don't have kids yet so I have to live through everyone else's.

ANYWAY....back to the porch.  Brandon and I have been waiting for the time when we could re-do the porch.  And we have had plenty of time to dream, plan and be creepy stalking people's homes.  I pulled some images from myhomeideas.com too to share with our contractor so I will share them with you now.

I absolutely love this home and this porch.  

Swoon.

So something like this would be a dream but pretty sure this would not fit the budget.

I think this is a realistic possibility if we can squeeze a full porch.  

The steps would be a little different though.

This porch is nice too.  I like how the base is covered with brick instead of wood slats.  I would do flagstone to match the house.

But then I saw this picture and fell in love with the horizontal wood slats that covered the side porch.  Gorgeous.

Or even this one with close, clean, vertical slats.  I think this one is the most realistic.

Now the possibility of a full, covered porch is slim.  I just don't think we can swing it with our budget.  But a smaller, covered porch is second best.  We would gain about 2 feet on each side of our existing porch so it would still be significantly larger.

Ahh I am so excited but kind of nervous to change the look of our house that much.  What if it looks terrible?  Scary!

We'll know soon enough I guess.  I'll keep you posted.

Vintage Letterpress Pieces

I have boxes and buckets full of these EXTREMELY heavy lead, letterpress blocks just sitting in my basement.  About once a year I revive them and think....

Hey, these are cool.  I should clean them up and do something totally, amazingly creative and unique with them.  Or maybe I should organize them and actually spell and write things with them.

Or I could sell them.

Anyone interested?  Seriously, I want to get rid of the whole lot.  They are really interesting and very unique but they just sit in my basement because I don't have the ability to figure out how to best utilize them.  My brain is creatively overloaded and fried.  CAN'T      FUNCTION       ANY        MORE.

Here are just a few and seriously they aren't even the coolest ones. 

I think she is my favorite.

 No these are my favorite.

Umm a green stamp for real.  I also have all these postage stamps that say things like, "No postage necessary if mailed in the United States."  Is it legal to have a stamp like that?

Christmas!

I love these too.  They are the decorative pieces you use with a letter in the opening for the first letter of a book or letter.  You know, the fancy letter at the beginning of a chapter in a book.

Bible!

Jesus!

Real pictures of real people.

I love this soldier too.

Jesus's punctured palm.

 I love these letters.  They are a nice large size.  Maybe like a 72 size (Microsoft word style).  I would say they are about an inch long.  I think.  I have a bunch of each letter in both lowercase and uppercase.  Oh and I have numbers.

So those little guys up there are small, tiny little letters.  Like size 8 - 16 (like on Microsoft word).  I have millions and billions of these in all different fonts.  They just aren't organized yet.......

So as in love as I am with these, they are totally under appreciated right now.  They need love, they need to be used.  So I think I am going to sell them.  Put them on craigslist or see if an antique dealer would buy the whole lot from me.  

Just needed to document them before I part with them.