Ahhh....The Season of the Porch!

What better way to spend a hot afternoon than on a porch with an iced tea or nice cold beer reading a good book or maybe a little nap.

Finally we got great warm weather here in the valley after a very cold winter and not so great early spring. It was time to dust off the furniture in storage, find the pillows, accessories and all the stuff required for my little slice of heaven.

I've taken a few pictures of my porch to share with you, this is the favorite part of my house, which was built in the 1890's. The original double decker porch pictured above (sorry I scanned it too small but you can click on it for a larger view hopefully) was destroyed in the 1962 Columbus Day storm. We were fortunate to obtain this picture of the first porch, taken in the 1920's, from the original owner's daughter who was still living and in her 90's. I love how they had the vegetable garden right out in the front yard!

We enjoy a lot of meals at this table!

.I recently bought this cool pull-out sofa bed from Cindy (Tarte), the burlap pillow was
made by Natalie (Sparrow)

We used the picture as a guide to rebuild the porch, it's still a work in progress as anyone who owns an old house knows!

Still needed is the gingerbread fretwork and door to the balcony from the master bedroom, all as time and money allows. We added french doors, which were not original to the house and built the deck 10 feet wide rather than the original 4 or 5 feet.

There was a second porch at the back of the house, which was the service porch for doing laundry, etc. That area was converted to a mudroom and bathroom many years ago by a previous owner. Luckily I don't have to use a washtub and scrub board for laundry as the previous ladies of this house did, I'm so glad God invented front-load washers and dryers!

I hope you enjoy the pictures, my next post will be of my garden, which will be one of eight in a garden tour on June 28th. This annual tour is major fundraiser for one of my favorite causes, the restoration of an old historic victorian beauty in my community.

I just had to include a picture of the new man in my life, Nacho, who was rescued from a puppy mill. He's a pomeranian/chihuahua mix and is the sweetest little dog ever!