Porch Project

[ncnative]

Hi,

This is my first post on this new forum. I am really excited about it and I know my husband will, too.

We used recycled granite block (from a street they dug up downtown Asheville) and recycled roof slate (from an old hospital building in Black Mountain) to build our porch. Retreaving the granite block took a lot of time because our little old Mazda Pickup could only haul about 30 of them at a time (they are REALLY heavy!!).

Anyway I am going to try to post some pictures here to show you all the end result. We are very proud of it.

Cyndi & Steve
Asheville, NC

 

[Beekissed]

How beautiful that is, considering what materials you started out with! That is gorgeous! Your hubby is quite skilled.

Welcome to the site, BTW! I can tell already you will have valuable input to this forum! I would KILL for a porch like that... Thanks for showing the pics!

 

[ticks]

That looks very nice!

 

[ncnative]

Thanks!

It was alot of work going thru all the slate to find the right size and thickness and then we had to cut the nail holes off, too.

We had previously used the same batch of slate to make a platform for our Hearthstone woodstove.
We installed it and had it inspected (so our homeowners insurance would cover it). Here is a picture:

My husband is very talented and while we always work on our projects together I have to admit he is the brains behind the operations.

Cyndi

 

[ticks]

That looks great too!

 

[Beekissed]

"Great", honey? That is a work of art! And the soapstone stove looks wonderful with it. That stove is awful pretty....almost got my hands on one once!

Must not covet, must not covet....

 

[ncnative]

Thanks BeeKissed - we really like it. My husband talked me into getting it because they are so efficient at burning wood. We can load it up before going to bed and it will still be hot the next morning. What I like about the soapstone is it holds the heat without burning the fire out of you if you accidently touch it. We actually got that one at a dealer but it had been returned - whoever bought it initially didn't have it installed properly and it wouldn't draw. So we got a little bit of a discount..... but not much. Had it on layaway...

We are very fortunate to be able to burn oak and locust - haven't had to pay for wood in the past 4 years. We have enough standing dead locust on our property for many years to come. But it will flat wear out a chain saw chain.

 

[BrookValley]

Wow. Gorgeous. Major porch envy here. We don't have a porch at all, and boy do we want one!

And way to re-use materials. Awesome!

And, OT, but I love Asheville. We thought very long and hard and seriously about moving there, but we couldn't find anything within our price range with the kind of acreage/set up that we needed--and we wouldn't have been coming into the deal with an insignificant chunk of change. I didn't realize that it had gotten so expensive. When we looked several years ago, there places all over that would've worked for us.

 

[karanleaf]

WOW Both projects turned out GREAT love them

You and Your Hubby should be very proud of your hard work

 

[Tutter]

Wow, Beekissed, I got here just in time; I see you coveting over there! Maybe we'd better walk into this section together from now on. You just close your eyes, and I'll tell you if the coast is clear, or not!

NCnative, those are absolutely beautiful! You guys did a great job!