I know this porch base project seems like a never ending project, but yesterday I put every single brick into place, including all the small ones that I had to cut and reshape with my hand sander. And for the first time since we’ve lived in this house, every part of the porch baseboards has a nice facade. I’m so proud of how this project is turning out.
I put the very last stone in place at 9:00 last night. I was exhausted, but I was determined to complete this part of the process before bed. Here’s the front of the porch with all these little stones…
And here is the side of the porch with all the stones in place…
And again, just like with the front corner, I cut the two bricks off at the end with a straight cut on my wet saw, attached them, and then hand formed a corner using the wet but solid caulk mix. But this time I didn’t put any cast stone on the other side. Everything you see on this back was simply made by hand using the wet grout mix.
And I didn’t forget the little area to the left of the front steps. Please overlook the rotting front boards here too. These will all be replaced soon. This area was so small that not even a whole stone could fit in it. I used most of one stone and a scrap piece of another stone that I had cut off for the other side of the porch.
And then I shaped the sides by hand using just the wet mortar mix.
I’m so excited about how this looks so far. Of course it’s not quite finished yet. I still have to apply the mortar between all the bricks and then I have to wait 16 hours before I can prime and paint the bricks to match the bricks in the rest of the house. But while I wait, I can have the panels replaced and painted.
And of course I have a lot of cleaning to do. My front yard around the porch looks like a construction site at the moment.
Throughout the entire project I’ve been dreaming about other outdoor projects – landscaping, hardscaping, etc. I really want to get the walkway done sooner rather than later. I’m talking about the walkway that will connect the front walkway to the driveway. I feel like I need to get this done before I can start landscaping around the porch, breakfast room windows, and front of the studio since this walkway separates the planting bed area from the grass (or weeds we have now ).
I looked at all sorts of options for these front walkways, from concrete to decomposed granite. What makes it challenging is that these walkways are part of a hiking trail that I want to continue as a complete loop around our entire one-acre property…
Concrete is the most obvious option, but it would cost a fortune to have someone else pour the whole thing with concrete. Of course, since I’m now an expert in concrete , I think I could also pour a concrete path myself, which would significantly reduce the cost. And it wouldn’t all have to happen at the same time. I could do one section at a time between other projects until everything is finished. It might take us ten years to walk around our entire property , but I think I could do it one section at a time. Now that I’ve done a fairly large project with concrete, I feel less intimidated by the idea.
The good thing about concrete is that it is wheelchair accessible for Matt. But the bad thing about concrete is that it really puts a strain on the feet and legs, and since I want this to be a walking path so I can walk laps around our yard instead of running around the neighborhood where there are always stray dogs, I don’t really like the idea of making the whole thing out of concrete.
But yesterday I remembered an option that I had been considering when researching options for our driveway. Of course, we ended up choosing concrete for our driveway and I’m glad we did. But I think one of the options I considered for the driveway might be the perfect option for these walkways and that is the gravel option with gravel grids. The grids are made of really rigid plastic that holds the gravel in place, creating a solid walkway. They can even be used as a driveway.
And once everything is filled with gravel, it will even be wheelchair accessible. This is a screenshot from their video about the product.
I really like this idea because it can be done section by section, it’s DIY friendly, but most of all I just love gravel and the extra texture, color and charm that gravel adds. I like the look of gravel much better than decomposed granite.
Therefore I think this might be the option I will choose. I’m still looking at options and I’m not 100% decided yet, but I can picture it in my head and think it would look so pretty.
