Architecture

Porches are like decks . . sort of

Posted on by Teresa Boardman

I love homes with porches. I have two of them and neither is enclosed. It is like having a couple of extra rooms during the warmer months.

What is a porch? I like to say it is just like the decks in suburbia but with a roof over it. There are a few flavors of porch and sometimes they can even be included as part of the total square footage of a home.

Here is a short guide for porch type identification:

4-Season Porch/Sunroom
A 4-season porch is a room that functions as an interior room, but allows you to take in the views of the outdoors year-round. It has permanent heat and is included in the finished square footage of the home.

3-Season Porch
A 3-season porch has windows with integrated screen systems and can be used for long periods throughout the year. They can shield you from outdoor elements such as rain, wind, sun and insects, but 3-season porches are not heated and can not be counted as finished space.

3 season proch
3 season porch

Screen Porch
Screened porches are a covered porches and enclosed with screen windows.  Screened porches are like being outside except without the mosquitoes and are not counted as finished space no matter how well appointed they are.

Open Porch

Just a deck with railings and a roof over it. A great place for plants and chairs or a porch swing. Not really even a one season porch here in Minnesota. More like a two month porch. These porches are very common in the oldest parts of St. Paul and are a wonderful place to hang a porch swing.

Bad remodels

Posted on by Teresa Boardman
Bungalo
Bungalow

There are renovations that are beautiful but they can also be what I like to call home wreckers. For example take a small historic home, rip out a few walls and put in a gourmet kitchen with granite counter tops and of course those ubiquitous stainless steel appliances. The kitchen now takes up 1/3 of the first floor and is done in one style while the rest of the house is another style.

The kitchen looks nice and so does the rest of the home but they don’t go together at all and I have seen a few remodels where the rest of the living space was reduced or moved to a lower level to make room for a larger kitchen. Yes it is true that the kitchen often sells the home but having fewer bedrooms and baths will hurt the salability of the large kitchen.

I think it is alright to do most anything to our homes to accommodate our lifestyles and our tastes but expecting to make money or even recoup the cost of a some of the strange renovations I see isn’t realistic and sometimes what one owner thinks of as an improvement keeps a potential buyer from making an offer.

There are two homes in my area that have been strangely and expensively upgraded. One took almost a year to sell and sold for 40K less than comparable homes and the other has been on and off the market for the last 18 months. They will need to drop the price another 20K if they want to sell it. The owners are trying to get the money they put into the upgrade back.

 

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Types of porches

Posted on by Teresa Boardman

I love homes with porches. I have two of them and neither is enclosed. It is like having a couple of extra rooms during the warmer months.

What is a porch? I like to say it is just like the decks in suburbia but with a roof over it. There are a few flavors of porch and sometimes they can even be included as part of the total square footage of a home.

4-Season Porch/Sunroom
A 4-season porch is a room that functions as an interior room, but allows you to take in the views of the outdoors year-round. It has permanent heat and is included in the finished square footage of the home.

3-Season Porch
A 3-season porch has windows with integrated screen systems and can be used for long periods throughout the year. They can shield you from outdoor elements such as rain, wind, sun and insects, but 3-season porches are not heated. Therefore, it is not a part of finished square footage, but is considered an enclosed space.

3 season proch
3 season porch

Screen Porch
Screened porches are a covered porch that has screened openings instead of windows. A screened porch may be less sheltered from the outdoor elements, but still offers protection from the sun and bothersome insects in the summer. Screen porches should not be included in the finished square footage.

Open Porch

Just a deck with railings and a roof over it. A great place for plants and chairs or a porch swing. Not really even a one season porch here in Minnesota. More like a two month porch. These porches are very common in the oldest parts of St. Paul and no they can not be included in the finished square footage.

Architectural styles in St. Paul

Posted on by Teresa Boardman
greek revival
Greek Revival

There are Greek Revival style homes in the oldest parts of St. Paul which are the neighborhoods closest to downtown. Most were built in the mid 1800’s. I live in a Greek revival house but it isn’t nearly as fancy as the house in the photo. These homes are pre-victorian, and were built during a time when everything had to be handmade.

There are many resources on the internet for learning about home styles. One resource is this guide from Realtor magazine. Once the basic style has been identified I like to do a Google search to learn more.