Porch House // Introductions & the Exterior

THE PORCH HOUSE **update: I got a little ahead of myself in sharing the exterior transformation of the Porch House with you guys. I've been asked to wait to publish the photos until after our pilot airs so that you guys can see the transformation first on HGTV! Thanks for your patience :)

The camera crews have gone home and life has *almost* returned to normal around here. Even now, we're still catching up on sleep and family time from all those looong days. Filming a pilot for HGTV was a whirlwind! Exciting and exhausting but soooo much fun. Our whole town seemed to find out about the pilot, and excitement was palpable in the community. While we felt so lucky to be in the talented hands of our film crew, production company, HGTV exec, and contractor, I wouldn't have minded a couple more days in our 16-day filming/renovation schedule just to cut down on all the late, late nights and to eat dinner sitting down once or twice. If this pilot airs and you notice that I look a little disheveled, know that I was in do-makeup-in-the-car mode, was up at night a lot with a sick kiddo, and I fully admit that you're seeing 8-day hair with plenty of renovation dust in it (don't worry, I did shower every night). Ha!

HGTV pilot aside, I wanted to introduce you guys to the Porch House because it is an awesome house in its own right. I'll be sharing more of the renovation that we completed in front of the cameras if/once the pilot airs, including the kitchen/sunroom, living room, and master bedroom. You may have gathered by now that we didn't actually complete the whole house renovation in those 16 days, so we'll be continuing the renovation over the next 2 (ish) months at a more reasonable pace while we prepare the house for sale.

The Porch House was an off-market property, meaning it wasn't listed for sale, but our realtors had an inside scoop that the owner might be interested in selling. The house had been a rental for many years and was in a bit of disrepair. Thankfully lots of the original charm was in tact like moldings, windows, tall ceilings (except where they had been dropped), and a wrap-around porch. The home was built in 1900 but the history is a bit of a mystery. We've heard from previous owners and neighbors that the home was actually built somewhere else in Ellensburg and moved here in the early 1900s by oxen cart. The house definitely has the look of a farmhouse, so I wouldn't be surprised if it was originally built in the country, but one neighbor thought it was built in the historic district by the university, which is where I grew up.

With this renovaiton, my goal for the exterior was to highlight the farmhouse charm and historic feel of the home. What that meant was improving the landscaping, replacing anything that had been updated in the 70s (i.e. the front door and the upstairs windows), and giving the color a drastic change. The original wood siding was in okay shape, but blown-in insulation holes, cracks, and general wear over the years had left it in less than ideal condition. Garrett had the great idea of painting the body of the house in a dark, matte color to hide some of the wear, which I liked because it would also serve to give the HGTV cameras a big 'before and after' transformation without us having to do a ton of big changes. Turns out the painters and pressure washer did such a nice job prepping the siding for paint that we wouldn't have needed the dark color, but I'm so glad we did because the end result is stunning (if I do say so myself)!

The landscaping also went through a big change. We are lucky to have some great friends who are killer landscapers (you may remember Julia and Garrett from their kitchen renovation last year). Julia and I designed the landscaping to fit in the space and use what was available locally at this time of year. Julia and Garrett put in some loooong days with us, and by the time they left, the landscaping was done!

Soon I'll show you guys how the exterior turned out (spoiler: it's SO good!). In the meantime, here's a look at the colors and materials I selected.