portico in progress...

Ten years. We bought our little yellow house ten years ago this month. Ever since that day I've been aching to add a portico. Well, we've finally gotten around to doing it. A bit of curb appeal to celebrate our tenth year in the house!

Here's a photo of the house taken this summer after we tore out some giant arborvitae bushes, and before we embarked on the portico project.

It's still a work in progress but some of the pretty part is done and I'm excited to share it with you.  I won't bore you with photos of all the digging and concrete pouring but we expanded the concrete stoop by about a foot all the way around.

The mason finished installing brick and bluestone on the stoop yesterday morning. It was like Christmas, Pinky and I ran out and shot a couple of photos in the cold October drizzle.

We chose a tumbled brick for the sides and risers and thermal bluestone for the treads and landing. So much prettier than the crumbly painted concrete that was there before.

My father designed and is building the actual portico structure and has contracted and worked with us on everything so far. I know, how lucky are we?! The bases for the columns are in and the roof is started. It's exciting to see the beginnings of what it will be.

Here's a basic rendering that I made for my dad of what I want the house to look like when it's done.  I'll have to scan my dad's finished blueprint for you one of these days. I love me a good blueprint. It's much more detailed, but this is the general idea.

We'll also be replacing the cracked asphalt walkway (ick, I hated that thing) with a tumbled brick walkway and finally working on the much neglected landscaping. I can't wait until it's all done, I've been dreaming about it for ten years. It'll be such a relief to check it all off the list of to-dos and a bit of pretty always makes me happy. I'll keep you posted on our progress...