Building A Porch and Entryway Addition. Can I Have an AMEN?!?!

I'm a little over bathrooms right now so I'm sharing the NEXT project after that project.

It's a porch/entryway/half bath addition!

I cannot tell you how life-changing this addition is.

Building A Porch and Entryway Addition. Can I Have an AMEN?!?!

It has completely changed the way we use our house and has really helped to add some visual interest to the front.

Remember how the outside looked before?

And now after:

Even unfinished (that's like a theme with my husband), you can absolutely see how amazing the change is.

Here's how it has altered the inside layout (besides adding a much need 100-ish square feet on to the house's footprint):

The Floor Plan

See the change in the traffic flow (I used this site to create the free floor plans)?

Before, the door open directly against a wall (thus removing about 2 square feet of usable space) and due to the kitchen's layout, the dining area had to be shoved against a wall.

When we wanted to eat at the table, we'd have to pull it out and block all traffic paths into and around the kitchen and living room.

It was ridiculous.

With this new addition, we relocated the main entry to the other side of the kitchen – which now leaves a great space for a banquette and dining area.

It also allows traffic to easily move from the kitchen to the living room.

This has been so HUGE to our way of living, I cannot even tell you.

The Front Porch

I love this new addition, not only because it improves the flow and space in the house, but also because it adds more usable space plus it's just prettier to drive up to a welcoming porch than a bare door.

The addition's layout is small but simple.

The porch is just a big rectangle added to the front half of the house.

Then a smaller rectangle was framed out and created a new front door + small entryway with a half bathroom.

The new porch is fab.

It is completely covered and has a nice area for seating plus two sets of stairs – one to walk up to the house and one on the side to access trash and the A/C unit.

We added a new front door and I picked out a couple of tall, narrow stock windows to flank it.

The windows weren't exactly what I wanted but we're on a budget and could only afford stock (not custom) so I made due with what I could afford.

The Entryway

The inside of the addition is wonderful!

I grew up in Alaska where every house has an Arctic Entry – a small room built on to the front to collect the cold winter air and stop it from cooling down the main house.

A lot of people turn these areas into full mudrooms.

It completely weirded me out when I first moved to Texas to not have this little room on people's houses – you would open the front door and BOOM, be right in there home.

It felt so sudden and intimate to me.

So, I definitely wanted a mudroom/entryway added to my house.

Once this little room is done, it will have a bench and floor-to-ceiling storage along one wall and then a small console table and mirror on the other.

I can't wait!

The Half Bathroom

The other big feature of the addition was actually a wish list item that my husband totally made happen.

Our little rural area is starting to be up-and-coming and since this isn't our forever home, we're trying to make the house as appealing as possible to buyers.

And one of those things is to add a half bath somewhere off the common rooms.

Once we started talking about the layout, The Boy realized that we had just enough space for a 36″ wide half bath (the legal minimum for a bathroom in our area).

Since a half bathroom just needs a toilet and a sink and isn't meant for people to linger – we were able to carve out a small area for one along the side of the entryway.

We'll be adding a pocket door to make the floor plan work.

The Pantry

Also, while we were building, The Boy realized that we didn't need the full length for the half bath.

He figured out that 2-3′ could be stolen from the back and used as a pantry for the kitchen!

You guys. I just love my new addition.

I have all kinds of decorating plans and cannot WAIT to share this process with you.

I promise to be back next week to share my decorating plans and how this baby got built for only $1500 and in 4 days!

Have any of you added a small addition to your homes with great results?