FRONT PORCHES I HAVE KNOWN

 

Most of the places I’ve lived in over the years have had welcoming front porches.

This is the brick porch of the house I grew up in, in El Cerrito, CA in 1941.

And in 1957.

This was the first house I lived in after my husband and I were married.  It was a lovely 3 bdrm house on the Forest Service station in Requa, CA just north of the Klamath River.  It had stairs leading to a sort of duck & cover front porch.  Not really much of a porch and we never used it to enter the house.  We came in the kitchen door as that’s where we parked our car.

The front porch of a rented log cabin in Gasquet, CA in December, 1968.  After our first child was born, my husband, with the permission of the owners, constructed a safe railing around it.

Four years later we were living in a different cabin – still in Gasquet - with a large covered front deck.

From that cabin we moved into an old 2-room school house that had been renovated into a 5 bdrm/2 bath home with a generous front porch.  It no longer said “Mountain Elementary School” however. 

From there we moved into a 2-bdrm/1 bath bungalow with a nice-looking front porch, but we didn’t use this entry.  We came in the kitchen door because, again, that’s where we parked our cars.

We lived in the cabins, old school house, and bungalow over a period of 7 ½ years.  It seemed like we were always moving!  Trouble was, Gasquet is a resort community situated along a river.  People buy places there to retire to and rent them out till they retire.  So we’d rent a place for a couple of years, then have to find new ‘digs’ when the owners retired.

When my husband was transferred from Gasquet to Oakhurst, CA we bought this house with stairs and another duck & cover front porch.  Owning our own home finally meant we didn’t have to move again till hubby was transferred somewhere else and that was a nice relief.  And we did use the front door in this house.

In 1982 we moved into the community of Pine Mountain Lake in Groveland, CA.  We lived here for 28 years!  Originally it had a small utilitarian front porch.  I designed this larger one and my husband built it.  It was a little tricky as it had to skirt around stairs leading from the garage against the house up to the front door, but it turned out just fine.

In 2010 we left Groveland and moved to Soulsbyville, CA, and this is the front porch of the house we bought there.  When we first moved in there was no covering over the front entry.  Instead of building one, we decided on having an awning installed which worked out well when we decided to have awnings installed over all the front windows.

And although they’re separated a bit from the front porch, the house does have stairs leading to it.

This is our current front porch in Sonora, CA – just down the hill from Soulsbyville.  I like that the porch is brick like the house I grew up in  It’s decorated for Christmas in this photo, but in another month or so, my potted blue hydrangeas will be in full bloom. J

I believe this will be our last front porch.  At least I think so?  Then again, y’never know.

:-> 

La Nightingail