Help me decide on a portico & sidewalk?

[Accountingcat]

I am scheduled to have my front step and sidewalk replaced this spring. Both are sinking and I can move the new sidewalk to anywhere I wish. My portico is going to be replaced also (sinking & rotten). I think I've picked out a design but I definitely would like some outside perspective on this project. Please excuse my poor photoshop skills.

This is my house currently... The landscaping was new in this picture and has filled in now. You can't see my current sidewalk from the street because it's so low. It's in front of the flower bed and goes right to the garage door/in front of the car. The garage door and front door/sidelights are on the list to be replaced too, hopefully this year. The railroad tie driveway edger is going away at some point too. I think the current portico and step are too small compared to the scale of the house. Also note that I actually do have two front porch lights, one was just hidden behind the pole.




This is what I have mocked up... 1) pull the sidewalk away from the house and curve it towards the driveway, with a little flare where it meets the step 2) widen step 12 inches total 3) new curved portico that will be as wide as the step and about 12 inches higher 4) new door & sidelights (I'm not set on the black door/mailbox, it's just what I copied from my idea picture) 5) The white flashing above the garage and portico will be tan to match the brick.





If this looks terrible, please tell me! I have looked at every portico in the neighborhood and even hired a designer but this is what I have narrowed it down to.

I will post my inspiration pictures below.

[Accountingcat]

My inspiration, these are both my same house design from my neighborhood.

I basically want to copy this one:




This one is nice too. My future garage door will look like this:

[froggy76]

I think both look great. I maybe slightly prefer the second? The first is very pretty but without sidelights on your front door I wonder if it will look too wide.

I'll warn you that I'm in portico hell right now. We're adding a portico as part of a whole-house renovation. The architect basically designed it as a gable resting on a box made of 2x4s. When I asked for a nicer design, I sent pics from Pinterest, and they designed a pretty one with a barrel ceiling (like your examples) and it was a big jump in price ($2,300 more). So now I'm trying to get them to show me some middle ground with a nice design but without the barrel ceiling.

[Accountingcat]

froggy76, Thank you for the feedback! Luckily I'm not too worried about cost, my relative is a carpenter and doing it for free (except materials). I actually had it priced out back when I did windows & siding though and had some sticker shock...hence why it's been neglected for a few years haha

[simpsongal]

I really like what you mocked up! I wasn't sure what you were planning on painting tan to coordinate w/the brick, I like all the white.

[froggy76]

Feb 22, 2021 15:16:34 GMT -5 Accountingcat said:

froggy76 , Thank you for the feedback! Luckily I'm not too worried about cost, my relative is a carpenter and doing it for free (except materials). I actually had it priced out back when I did windows & siding though and had some sticker shock...hence why it's been neglected for a few years haha

Oh that's awesome.

I just re-read your post and realized you're adding sidelights. I think they both would look great. I think the higher roof peak height of the second one is nice, though!

[redheadk]

I love the portico you chose! Both options, actually, but I don't feel strongly about one over the other. Have you considered painting your front door blue to match your siding?

I'd prefer for a front walk to go all the way to the street. It's awkward trying to squeeze by people's parked cars to use a driveway entrance front walk. Our current house has both a front walk to the street plus a stone path (not stones in grass, an actual walkway) to the driveway) and I really like it. Both are used equally.

[InBetweenDays]

I like your design for the portico a lot! I'm not crazy about the small patch of grass between the path and the house. I like it better how they did it with the second photo you included where the path abuts the garden bed. So personally I'd probably either move the path back closer to the house, and/or enlarge the garden bed to meet the path.

[Accountingcat]

simpsongal, Thanks. The part being painted is the white pieces you see above the garage roofline and current portico.

redheadk, Yes, I am thinking about matching the door to the siding. I really haven't given that part much thought yet. I also get what you are saying about the sidewalk going to the street but it's not allowed in my city! It's one of those rules someone put in place back in 1950 when there were only a few houses and now all of the residents complain about it.

InBetweenDays, I agree about the patch of grass. It's a pain to mow and it's dumb. I was planning on making the flower bed meet the sidewalk but I think I'm going to leave the limestones where they currently are. So it would look like a 2 tier bed, Do you think that would look okay?

[redheadk]

Feb 22, 2021 17:40:11 GMT -5 Accountingcat said:

redheadk , Yes, I am thinking about matching the door to the siding. I really haven't given that part much thought yet. I also get what you are saying about the sidewalk going to the street but it's not allowed in my city! It's one of those rules someone put in place back in 1950 when there were only a few houses and now all of the residents complain about it.

Well that's aggravating!

Our path to the driveway has landscaping between the house and the path. I think your 2-tier bed sounds great.

If you have 2 garden hoses handy, you can use those to sort of lay out your pathway ideas and walk them to get an idea of what looks and functions best. Sometimes what looks best in a picture isn't actually the best choice IRL, you know?

[expectantsteelerfan]

I thing the plan for the portico looks great and really fits the size of your house much better.

I'm not sure why you'd plan to move the sidewalk so much though. Do you park on the driveway and walk to the front door a lot (I know lots of people do this, but I've always parked in the garage and gone in through the internal door). If you have a useful reason to move the sidewalk, then that makes sense as long as the convenience is worth the trade-off of the annoyance of cutting that patch of grass. But in your current mock-up, I do not think extending the flower bed on that side only to meet the sidewalk would look good, even with a 2-tier'd bed. Personally, I would keep the sidewalk up against the limestone, but maybe make it wider than it currently is.

[dr.girlfriend]

We did a barrel-vault portico in our new addition and love it:

[Accountingcat]

expectantsteelerfan , I already have the weird patch of grass. I think the sunken sidewalk doesn't show where it is very well.

Here are some other pictures that show the current location and where I want to put the new one.

What it looks like with grass...



My mock up of the new sidewalk location...sorry we have a little snow

[divanerd]

I like the angled sidewalk.

[nicolewi]

I love all of your plans and I think it will look great!

[ellipses84]

I love the larger portico and think your mock-up looks great. I know the smaller porticos are typical for that type of house but I’m definitely a fan of better defined entries, big porches, etc. I don’t care for the pathway though. I think I’d rather see the sidewalk widened, but squared off like it currently does, and the area between the sidewalk and the house changed to decorative pavers so you could put a little seating area or some sort of feature planting area there. If you don’t want to use hard pavers, you could do something more permeable or a planter area. Just not grass.