One of my long time clients asked if I could help them with some ideas for making their kitchen more comfortable for visiting. They were thinking they might be able to expand into the porch which served as an entrance. As they had another entrance they could use on a daily basis, the conversion would be pretty straight forward. As we talked about how things would look they were very keen to have the extension look as original as possible. I did some sketches for them and showed them how we could use the window style from the existing house and repeat it in the extension. I also made a point to explain that it would be essential to match up the shingles and tie them into the originals.
Taking the porch apart was very straight forward, and I added insulation where ever I could in the rebuilding process. I was able to use an existing window from the kitchen and then made four new windows to match the sizes of the existing ones from the house. All the new windows were sealed units to minimize heat loss, while they wanted to retain the existing window as it was. With the framing and sheathing in place, I placed the windows and began the shingling process. There was a storage area under the porch which they wanted to include in the changes, so it got the shingle coverage and a new recycled door. When all the wood work was finished and filled I got stain and paint to match the house and finished the project.
My clients were delighted as the extension blended in perfectly with the house.
Jamie Stevenson
