A praiseworthy porch

A porch is infinitely superior to a deck. A deck blasts the occupants with sun and heat and is completely unusable in the rain. A porch, however, is true outdoor living space that can be used rain or shine.

Jeff Mease and Marie Metelnick wanted a new front porch for their hundred-year-old home.

"The old porch really needed a new floor," Jeff explained. "I was originally just going to replace the floor."

But the old brick supports of the porch were leaning outward. To do the project properly, the masonry needed to be replaced as well as the floor. So Jeff and Marie asked designer Russ Herndon to look at their porch.

"So I got Russ over," Jeff continued. "And he said, 'How about going out into the yard a bit?'"

Enlarging the porch hadn't occurred to the homeowners.

"We staked the outline in the yard and put boards down to see how much yard it would eat up, and see if we could live with the size," Marie remembered.

Russ had another suggestion: a porch fireplace, built into the corner support. The home he designed for himself has a porch with a fireplace, as does the home he built that's now owned by singer Carrie Newcomer and Robert Meitus. Jeff and Marie took a look at both those fireplaces and were won over by the idea.

"The fireplace adds another month on both ends of the summer season we can spend out here," Marie pointed out.

The original roof and ceiling of the old porch were retained, but the walls, floor and foundation were all replaced. The length of the porch increased about one-third. And the new porch walls are limestone instead of brick.

"The original stone retaining wall around the yard was why I decided to go with limestone, not brick," explained designer Russ Herndon. "By redoing the porch in a more splendid way, it makes the house seem more substantial as well."

"From the outside, you can't tell that one of the corners is a fireplace," Marie noted. "And we made a conscious decision to use long pieces of limestone, an unbroken span, for the long seat-level sills that run along the top of the new limestone walls."

"Limestone is 150 pounds per cubic foot," Jeff added. "I got a whole crew from the restaurant to come over and carry it up with straps." (Jeff is co-owner of Lennie's, Pizza Express and Bloomington Brewing Company.)

The stacked stones in the supporting pillars were expertly hand-faceted by mason Tim Michl to taper as they rise toward the porch ceiling, reflecting the architecture of the surrounding older neighborhood.

The new porch flooring is dark, gleaming Ipe, a Brazilian hardwood often used for the decking of ships. It's so dense that it's capable of blunting the tools used to cut it.

"I had a picture in my head of a finished dark wood floor," remembered Jeff. "Dan Antes of Distinctive Hardwood Floors talked me into this. Ipe is rainforest wood, but they claim that it is sustainably harvested and it will last forever. It's a 200-year porch!" he added, smiling.

The single slab of grooved limestone for the hearth was hand-picked at Hoadley Quarry. To bear the weight of new limestone sills, the hearthstone and the Ipe wood, the footers for the porch were massively beefed up.

"The joists are close, and extra big," explained Jeff. "I was in a house in California that was first a barn and was overbuilt. When you walked in it, it felt so solid. When you walk on this porch you get the same feeling."

The porch furniture includes a vintage wicker tiki-bar, an old-fashioned swing hanging on chains, comfortable seating and a large coffee table.

"It's wide open but it's private," Marie noted. The space is excellent for daily living or for gatherings of friends.

"We had a dinner party out here several weeks ago, a benefit dinner for the Sycamore Land Trust," Marie said.

"We had two tables, with linens, for another party," added Jeff. "We put up drapes and watched movies in the dark."

"It really looks like you're in a room, with the breeze moving the muslin," said Marie. "We've had 30 people on the porch for one of our movies."

"Someone told us we should screen it, but then it would be a room again, inside," Jeff said. "We don't have air conditioning in our house. We like being a part of nature. It's brutal, walking outside from 65 degrees of air conditioning to 85 degrees outside. You dread going outside. But without it, you become more accustomed to it being hotter. We come outside and hang out. Even in winter, we throw on a jacket and come out and start a fire."

Jeff and Marie are now building a series of limestone-edged terrace garden beds in their front yard for edible landscaping. After their work they sit on their porch and watch their garden grow in shaded comfort, iced tea in hand and the porch fan on overhead.

"I like the textures," Marie mused, "the stone, the wood, the light coming through the trees, the breeze."

"We love it because we love to be outside," Jeff said. "This gives us a way to be outside, in the middle of town, up off the street."

Contact designer Russ Herndon at 345-0045. Also see www.russherndondesign.com.

This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: A praiseworthy porch