A Porch That Says Hello

During our couples work with the Hendricks Institute over the years, we heard the phrase “turn toward” a lot. It means that to really be present with one another, we need to physically turn our bodies toward one another. That’s literally what we wanted our home to do—turn toward, engage, and be present for Drury Lane.

When our home was built in 1964, its formal front door was placed facing away from the street to the north—un-engaged, non-present, and turned-away. In the 20 years we’ve lived at 631 North Drury Lane, only one person has used that entrance when entering the home. So, when we first spoke with our architect, we expressed our desire for a front door.

I don’t want to see you…

… and I don’t want to talk to you.

During the initial design phase, our architect provided a smaller porch with a portico. That was certainly an improvement. But we also noticed that the addition of a new master suite created an almost sheer wall for the front of the house and the smaller porch didn’t quite break up the front as much as we liked aesthetically.

This was the initial porch design, but Amy just wasn’t feeling it and needed to voice her own desires, which she does here below…

During a heart-to-heart with my dad, whose fiscal conservatism has been drilled deeply into my heart and mind, he said “Kid this is your chance to really have what you want. You are already investing so much into this house. If you really want a porch, then you should go for it.” And that bit of encouragement from my dad made me realize, yes, indeed when I take walks around town, I do look longingly at front porches. I often have an image in my head of sitting on a front porch connecting with friends, with family, with neighbors, or just with myself chilling out in the quiet of the evening. And yes, indeed, if I really did want a front porch, then we should do what it takes to work it into the plans. There is certainly not going to be any other big house project we undertake in our lives, so this is the moment to go after it. Thanks Dad!

Amy’s chat with her dad helped us articulate that we really wanted to be able to sit out on our porch and interact with our neighbors, and the size of the initial design wouldn’t allow for that. So then our porch concept expanded to the full width of the house as well as an increased depth to accommodate furniture and to ensure we could walk on the porch without stepping off into the landscape. To get to that point, we enlisted the aid of our interior designer, Julie Ondo and our architect, Mike Kollman to come over and help us measure and arrive at a suitable depth — using spears.

How deep does it need to be?

“We will conquer this conundrum!”

Measuring depth the Dark Ages way.

We landed on a porch depth that would encroach upon the setback distance from the street, which put us on-course for a hearing with the Zoning Board of Appeals to seek a variance. It would add time to the overall approval process for getting a building permit, but we knew it was the right way to go for this project. Soon, Mike K had provided several options for what the roof over a deeper, full-width porch might look like.

Option 1 - Triangle with round window

Option 2 - Beveled roof

Option 3 - Triangle of clear glass

Option 4 - Shed roof

We pursued Option 2 and after a Design Commission public hearing and a Zoning Board of Appeals public hearing, we ended up with a roof that retained the side bevels but lost the central bevel — but most importantly, we were granted approval by both boards, each of which expressed enthusiasm for our overall project!

Final Answer (OK, not really… we ditched the yellow siding color. We’ll post on the siding later!)