Ever since buying our home, we’ve always thought that the porch and little brick outbuilding was just begging to be incorporated into the house. In fact, many of our neighbours already have made these outdoor storage spaces into part of their kitchens or living spaces – either using them as a utility room, an enclosed entryway or even as part of a conservatory-style room.
At the moment, our porch is just an open entrance into the house, with brick walls and a built-in cupboard, with a section of it bricked off and previously used for storing coal – with a tiny little wooden door at the access point. The extra brick outbuilding is attached to this porch but accessed only through the exterior doors.
If I want to renovate my porch and outbuilding, there are a few structural changes that’ll need to be made including a window replacement for the old window with crumbling white wooden frame and a new window to replace the mini coal shuttle door. Plus, I’ll need to add an eternal door or patio doors to enclose the open porch and make it secure.
The main consideration is whether to knock through the built-in cupboard and create a doorway into the brick outbuilding. If so, this would involve a lot more building work and, if the outbuilding was part of the entryway, we would need to block up the existing double doors, or replace these with exterior doors.
You may remember that I recently painted these doors and I loved how fresh they looked afterwards but, ideally, I think they need replacing anyway. And some of the brickwork will need to be repaired so it might be a good idea to complete the whole task at once.
At the moment, the outbuilding has had a mini-makeover because, when we took out the old kitchen, we decided to reuse the cupboards to give us extra storage outside. We gave the space a coat of paint before hanging the units and adding the old worktop.
This has created a kind-of utility area, but without it being an internal part of the house. We just keep cleaning products, birdseed and pet food out there so, at the moment, there’s no need for it to be incorporated into the house. But it would be handy to be able to access those items without having to step outside the house to do so.
So, my plan is to research options and costs for new doors, windows and any building work that might be needed. That way, I can make some plans knowing exactly what will be involved in the project. The good thing is that I already have the flooring ready for this project!
I know that seems rather premature, given that none of the building work has been done yet but, when we were renovating the kitchen, we made sure that we got enough of the flooring to be able to continue it into the porch if we went ahead with incorporating it into the house. So we’ve got those off-cuts, ready to go!
Let me know if you’ve ever incorporated an outbuilding in your home or enclosed an open porch. I’d love to hear how you got on so please drop me a message with your advice and hacks in the comments below. 🙂
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