My porch renovation is complete! Well, it’s mostly finished. All the big projects are finished, but as is normal for me, I went to take the final pictures and realized I had forgotten two small things. First, I forgot to replace the fallen string lights, so the old fallen string lights are still hanging on the side of the front steps. Pooh! Now I have to wait for the pine tar to dry before I can install the new ones. And then I realized I forgot to paint the small stone base area to the left of the front steps with the gray paint after remixing the paint to match the original color. But other than those two things, it’s done!
Here is a close up of the cedar porch boards with the new pine tar and linseed oil finish. I can’t tell you how impressed I am with the coverage and evenness of the color of the pine tar.
As I mentioned yesterday, the only downside to pine tar is that it takes much longer to dry and cure than any other outdoor stain product you’ll find at a big box hardware store, so I won’t be able to walk on it or put things on it until the end of the week.
I’m so happy with the result. And I’m even more excited about the fact that there’s a porch for the first time since we bought this house completely finished. I did a major porch renovation in 2018 and it did wonders to the front of our house. But even at this point, the porch baseboard was still plain, ugly concrete. But now is the porch complete finished, complete with a faux stone baseboard that actually matches the stone at the front of our house.
Before I show you more pictures of the finished porch, I’ll take a step back in time and remind you what this porch looked like when we bought the house. There was a lot to digest, and not in a good way. But I knew there was a diamond there somewhere.
And then in 2018 we got new siding, and that’s when I redid the original porch. This picture below was taken before I built the front steps, but it is the only one I could find that shows the porch redesign with the plain, ugly concrete baseboard.
And then the original porch renovation looked very worn and old over the years. I was dealing with rotting wood on the pillars…
And because I used real wood (and not even real wood), the end boards also rotted.
But now the columns have been repaired and repainted, the rotted fascia boards have been replaced with PVC boards, the concrete baseboards have been covered with faux concrete blocks to match the stone on the house, and the cedar boards have a fresh coat of authentic brown pine tar and linseed oil.
I also gave all the white trim on and around the porch a new coat of paint. I put new lights on the door. And the door has a new color.
Please ignore my fallen ribbon lights. I can’t believe I forgot about her again! I’ll try to remember to replace them as soon as I can get out on the porch, but if I forget them again at the end of this week or if I get too busy with another project, I’ll definitely replace them when I get back to my outdoor projects later this year.
I can’t wait until the pine tar dries enough that I can walk across the porch and put all the pretty stuff back in its place. The porch looks so pretty, clean and fresh now and I can’t wait to see it with the chairs, maybe some new colorful pillows, potted plants, etc.
And come fall, my main goal will be to finish the planting beds around the porch. I need to add more soil to make this area more flush with the sidewalk. Right now it’s about five inches from the sidewalk to the ground. I want it to be more level and then I want to cover the porch with mulch so I don’t have to deal with dirt covering my porch baseboards every time it rains. (Yes, I know I need gutters too.)
From a distance the porch looks so dark. I really love the dark color because I like the high contrast with the white border. But if you get closer you can still see the wood grain. I’m so glad I went this route instead of following through on my plan to paint the porch!
This porch has come a long way! It was a lot of hard work, but it was worth it.
It took a long time to get from this “before” to this “after,” but I finally feel like the porch is finished. I love it!
I have one more outdoor project that I want to finish first before I go in and focus on the storage space. I want and need to finish the stones around the bedroom door (e.g. more faux concrete stones).
Once that’s finished, my outdoor projects will be complete for now. And I’m ready! Our temperatures here in Central Texas are reaching the 100 degree mark. It’s expected to reach 103 degrees today and 105 degrees tomorrow. So I’m ready to finish this outdoor work and go indoors for a while where I can work on the air conditioning. But I won’t give up on this unfinished project. I’m determined to finish it before I call it quits for the rest of the summer.
