In my most recent DIY house update we talked all about working on the exterior of our house. I shared the design, the window trim and James Hardie Plank siding we chose in this post. In this post, we’ll recap building a wraparound porch and laying the stone on our DIY Dream Home.
But, before we get into it, let’s look back at how we got here!
How we started on this DIY dream home build journey
As most of you know, my husband Aaron and I love a good DIY construction project. We gained the skills and confidence we have now from 20+ years of tackling all different levels of renovation projects. Those years of hands on experience eventually led us to self building Fletcher Creek Cottage back in 2017.
FLETCHER CREEK COTTAGE (below)
Building a cottage from scratch
Not only did we hand build our cottage, but we built it from scratch for only $70K. It was a new build, not a renovation. It was one of the hardest things we’ve ever done and took us a full year. I realized this would be impossible to do again, especially for that price (post pandemic). Somehow, by the grace of God, and with a lot of help from family, we did it!
When we built our little cottage, we planed from day one to build our dream home (eventually) on the 65 acres. We wanted to take time to save up, design a home, and then build it by hand.
After a few years living in the cottage and saving, we broke ground on our dream home. We’re currently in our third (and hopefully final) year of hand-building our forever home.
This new home is four times the size of the cottage and the design is much more complex. Building a house of this scale as DIYers has been quite the learning curve. Especially since we’re more comfortable with standard 2×4 or 2×6 framing. Building with ICF was a whole new ball-game leaving little to no room for error.
Facing challenges and setbacks
As you’d probably imagine, we’ve had our share of setbacks along the way. That’s life. Life doesn’t slow down just because you are trying to build a house. Unforeseen variables have definitely played a part in slowing down the build process the past few years.
Despite the challenges we’ve faced, we haven’t stopped plugging away. It hasn’t been easy, but it’s been good and every day we get closer to our goal. We’ve experienced a ton of growth and it’s all required us to have a lot of grit! With all that being said, we are very grateful for all we’ve accomplished together despite the setbacks that we’ve faced!
Now that you’re all caught up on a bit of what’s been going on along the way…let’s get into the porch build update!
How the design of the porch has evolved over time
The front of the home faces east. The front porch goes across the north east side and then wraps around corner. We wanted a porch space for chairs and side tables so we only needed it to be 8 feet deep. The porch is 8 inches thick of reinforced concrete poured over ribbed (b-decking). We built storage space underneath the entire porch when we poured the basement walls. I think I’m just as excited about all the extra storage as I am our covered porch!
The original porch blueprints were drawn with a simple design, exposed rafters and treated lumber (unfinished). As we’ve been building, our desired outcome has evolved a little moving away from a traditional farmhouse style.
We modified it a little by forgoing the exposed rafters. That way we could frame it out in a way that could be trimmed out. This will give it a little more of a colonial look rather than a rustic farmhouse look.
DIY Dream Home Wrap Around Porch Build
Aaron and I worked on building the porch late last fall. We installed the 6×6 posts to the concrete. We bolted the treated ledger board into the ICF/concrete. Then attached the header beams to the posts and rafters before sheathing and roofing the entire porch.
We considered using cedar shakes for the porch roof. We ended up using the same shingles as the main house for the roof to save on time and expense. Aaron said he’d be happy to install cedar shakes someday down the road if I really wanted him to. I honestly love the way it all turned out…so I don’t think we’ll be swapping the roof out for cedar shakes any time soon.
Next, we worked on laying the stone across the front center section of the house. We had already poured a brick ledge the below frost wall to set the stone on previously. We spent quite a few evenings working really late into the night .
We used a mix of three different sizes of stone. Aaron cut the stone with a chisel when we needed certain sizes to fit.
He worked with the stone and I worked beside him with the mortar. We wanted a very over grouted look. I used a brush and a burlap cloth to work the mortar until I was happy with it.
We capped off the top of the stone skirt, just under the windows, using a limestone ledge with staggered joints. Stonework is slow going and such an art. Even though we’re beginners, we’re still really happy with how the stone skirting turned out. Especially since we laid it all in the dark using flood lights!
To see more of the details, you can watch the entire process of the porch build in the video below!
Finishing Out The Wrap Around Porch
Since finishing building the porch structure and laying the stone, we’ve moved on to the interior of the house. We spent the cold winter months working on mechanicals. We are excited to get back to working on finishing out the porch now that spring is almost here. We’ll be wrapping the posts, adding a tongue and groove ceiling.
Trimming everything out should give it more detail and some historic charm! I can’t wait to finish it up and see our vision come to life! I’ll be painting the front entry doors and the shutters (we haven’t installed yet) to bring in some color as soon as it warms up enough.
Building a new home from the ground up is totally different than renovating an existing home. For this build, Aaron and I are restricted by our budget and by our own DIY skills. A remodel has an existing footprint and more perimeters to stay within. With a brand new home, it’s so much more time consuming to narrow every little detail down. For every day we spend actually building, we spend days researching, planning and ordering materials! It’s a lot to juggle, but it’s going to be so worth it in the end!
Follow along with DIY DREAM HOME BUILD updates and other DIY projects over on my YouTube channel!
There are thousands of decisions that go into designing and building new home. These little design decisions mean a lot to us. Most new homes these days are void of character, especially when the homeowner is working within a really tight budget. When budgets are tight, corners are cut, and when the home’s done, it looks like it. That’s why we’re doing everything we can NOT to skimp on quality or character (even with a tight budget).
Designing and Self-Building a new “Old” home
The longevity of the home is equally as important as the design and materials. We want our home to stand the test of time. We built it using ICF blocks and we’ve poured close to 1 million lbs. of concrete, which is crazy to think about! I’m happy to say, this home is solid as a rock.
We’re on a mission to do the best we can building a new “old” looking home! We’re bringing in character by using natural materials wherever we can. Our home may be a DIY build, but that doesn’t mean it’s “builder-grade”, on the contrary. We are determine to make it look as historic as possible! Using the real limestone (not stone veneer or a man-made stone product) on the front helped a lot.
It’s going to be fun adding more historic materials like beadboard, moldings and crown on our wrap around porch. I’m sure we won’t get every detail just right, but we sure are going to do the best we can to create a new “Old” looking home.
Thank you for following along on our DIY dream home build journey!
Building a Porch with Simpson Strong-Tie
I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to partner with Simpson Strong-Tie to build our porch on the dream house! We featured the CPTZ™ concealed post tie to the LRU28Z face-mount rafter hanger. These products helped us create a sturdy, long-lasting porch that’s both functional, beautiful, and that will stand up to the high winds and snow storms we get here each winter. Be sure to head over to SST to learn how Simpson Strong-Tie made this DIY project easier and more efficient for us, all while providing the strength needed to withstand the high winds of Michigan.
