Random: Do You Have a Porch?

We have a small front porch, but I have porch envy for those who have full-length covered porches on their homes with a swing and such.

I have a porch-- I LOVE it and I use it but not as often as I would like. Would love to be able to sit and rock on the porch more. I have a great rocking chair that I love to sit in and watch my kids play in the front of the house.

We just purchased our home in August. It has a pool in the back with a outdoor kitchen, palm trees, waterfall, all that good stuff. AND they put down cool deck (the concrete looking stuff that makes the ground cool to walk on) over the entire back yard, SCORE!
The front has a porch that is about 4' by 5' and we hate it. Our neighbor hood is an older established one and in the evenings poeple are out walking and chatting and we envy that front yard time.
It's kinda like a mullet, business up front and party in the back! lol

The back yard I have a large concrete porch with a sitting area, fire pit, wind chimes, big foliage. BBQ pit, sand box, trampoline. White Christmas lights strung year round. Our backyrad is big fun but there are so many trees you can't see the sky..

Front yard I have a little tiny front porch, but right next to it, I planted cherry tomatoes and hot peppers, so I still love my little porch. There aren't as many tress so the view of the Texas sky is glorious. Some nights you can see 1,000 stars.
The stars at night are big and bright. dunt dunt dunt dunt .Deep in the Heeaaart of Texas! Yehaw Y'all

Oh, hindsight is better for everyone! We all get busy and distracted, and don't use what we have in the ways we could have done.

I wish we had a front porch. But our house was built fifty years ago when porches were considered old-fashioned. In the back, we had a concrete patio with a fiberglass roof - quite unlovely but, um, functional. Almost three years ago a tree came down and squashed it. Now we have a beautiful roofed deck. We use it for entertaining whenever the weather is acceptable. I also love to sit out there and read. I keep it simple, but there are chairs, a table, and (in the summer) lots of flowers in pots.

If I could have a front porch I would use it! I love to see what the neighborhood is doing. It would also be a good place for the grandchildren to play. I would decorate it (minimally - nothing with too much upkeep, but attractive) and put comfortable seating there.

(Tracy K., Colorado is a good place for stars, too!)

We do not have one, out front. I wish we had a giant porch....The ones you see in like Georgia....With the swings.

Our house is too small to have a porch. We have a step....Which is where I hang out alot during the summer.

My DREAM home would have giant floor to ceiling windows. That open outward during the summer kind of like a garage door....or a tiki hut bar.

Why you ask?? Because our lives during the summer plays out in our front yard....And I wish sometimes there were not walls...and we could just come and go....We are the neighborhood house to hang out...So that would give the parents total transparency....and maybe offer up to them, the idea of joining us:)

Then at night, we would scoop all the toys and imagination moving stuff back up...close the windows down for the day and ta da....wonder.

So that would be my ideal porch....Not typical at all, yet about the same thing as a normal porches function:)

I am a big dreamer...I drew up how I would want it too look...and eventually when time and money have met reality...it may happen:)

Thank you, This question put an early smile on my face.

**Added last minute..We do have a deck on the back side of the house. My brother in law built it himself. It is the best thing year round...The kids love it out there....They love ''camping'' out on it....in the middle of the day...so that the'' wolves and bears do not eat them'', as they normally tell me.

Ooh, I love porches. If I had my way, we would have a wraparound porch and a large deck. We just bought this house, and it has a nice medium sized covered porch in the front. I have a little bench there. I think maybe next spring I will get a little bistro table or something small and round for the porch so I can work on my laptop while I watch the kids play in the front yard. The backyard is just so hot (newer house, trees are not full enough yet) so nobody really hangs out back there. There is a small concrete patio back there that is uncovered.

No. We don't have a front porch. BOO-HOO!!! That is my dream house - a wrap around veranda or porch that extends the whole length of the house.

That's why I want to move to Georgia - those are typical houses there. Here in VA? Not so typical...lots of Federalist Style and Colonial...which are nice but I would LOVE LOVE LOVE to have a large front porch!!

We have a back deck that we like. We use it in the summer and sometimes in the winter...

My girlfriend has a 3-season porch/sun room - I've tried to convince her to actually USE IT - they have a really nice table and chairs out there and an outdoor style chair and couch...but it is typically not used but for the kids to eat....:(

I used to have a porch when I lived in PA. We had a little table with two chairs and a small bench. I would put some decorations up for holidays but other then that I never used it. I had always wanted a front porch, I see houses that have large wrap around porches and they look so inviting. I think we used the deck in the back of the house more, it was perfect for entertaining.
I now have a strange set up in Florida. My front door is on the side of the house with a small nook. I can't even see the street, it's weird.

We have a covered front porch that has a dog bed, water dish, flower pots, pumpkins, a skateboard, everyone's rain boots and my gliding swing. Yes, we do use it. I like to sit out on my glider and watch the kids on the swing set or trampoline.
We also have a large deck out back that wraps around the house. It has the bbq, fire pit, patio furniture and my flower pots which all need to be put away for winter too. And, of course, some toys. It gets used a lot.

We have a deck on the side of the house. It has a bistro set and a chaise lounge chair. I don't use it as much as I would like because it gets full sun all day and it's really hot. Great though in the spring when you are really dying for some sunshine. It also is the way to get to the backyard so the kids play on it off and on when in the back. I wish it had one of those sun awnings.

We have a cement porch with steps in the front of the house. I have two large planters on each side of the door that everything we plant in them dies. Right now there are 3 pumpkins that the kids had fun breaking, so it's a bit of a slaughter porch.

Covered porch out front. Bikes on one side, my two chairs on the other side. Narrow enough that I can kip my feet up on the railing. I'd prefer it was twice as wide as it IS, but it's nice being able to put my feet up.

A deck out back. Some day I'll sink some 4x4 posts in and trellis it up/ cover half of it. It's seattle. Rain 10 months a year. It needs partial covering!!! But before I do that, I need to add onto my house and "swing the deck around" to orient in the other direction.

We have a very large back porch , gated .smooth concrete, tin cover with skylight., we have all our bikes on it, a table with 4 chairs, another table with a chair, dartboard area 2 large garbage cans, a shelf thing for plants and a punching bag on a stand............and we still have plenty of room.

its what i love about houses older than the 80s, there is mre focus on outdoor living areas and room size than luxuries on the indoors.

I live in AZ and we dont have porches here. I have a patio in my back yard.

We have a side patio we built. It was just grass years ago. Now it is a 20 foot diameter brick circle, with a wooden arbor over the whole thing! I love it and my hubby is a genius! It also has an 8 feet wide (and about 45 feet long) sort of sidewalk along the house...the whole thing sort of resembles the Greek symbol for Omega?? On that straight part there is space for the large grill and many planter pots. There is a landscaped edge around the circle of hostas, but next year they finally come out. The deer jump our fence and eat them..its a salad bar for them and I give up. They used to get huge and lovely..are laid out with a few varieties to be very symmetrical, then the deer would eat them later in the year if at all. Its earlier and earlier as the years go on. LAst year they barely had a chance to grow. I give up. We will dig them up as early as we can in the spring and put grass in when we fix it all up for the big Grad party in June.

In the summer I use the patio almost every single day for my daycare kids. We have 2 kids plastic picnic tables out there and they eat lunch and most snacks out there! We also have an adult picnic table (benches attached all aorund it) and another see thru topped round table with 4 bigger adult chairs. We can seat alot of people I guess! LOL

The arbor, even tho it has thin wood slats on the top....it really provides ALOT of shade...way more than I had thought it ever would! It was a great decision on our part...

Not so much a porch as a covered entryway. I grew up in a 1919 Craftsmen bungalow with a 3 season front porch that spanned the front of the house, and we also had a 3 season porch off my upstairs bedroom, and a small back porch off the kitchen. My dad used the backporch as his smoking room & his "man cave." The porch off my room was my older sister's room in warm weather. Our front porch was for toys, coats, sports equipment, bikes, and later became a catch-all (after I moved out and my little brothers didn't do anything to clean it).

We have a large deck on the back of our house that we love and use all the time (when it's not freezing.) we have a front porch also. We have two wicker chairs on there and my husband and I love to sit out there. It's so comfortable and nice out front - quiet too!!

We have a 28x8 open porch across the front of our 1920s craftsman style home. We LOVE it and in the summer, especially, use it just about every day. We have seating areas on either side of the front door (in the middle of the house). We read out there, eat meals out there, and talk to all of our neighbors who walk by. During the holidays we decorate and Christmas is especially fun because we can put several trees on it.

we are going to moving to MN in 2012 and I hope we find a house with a porch again!!!!

We also have a patio in the back, and do use it, but we LOVE the porch!

We have a front porch, about 10x10 with a swing and some flower pots. I like to sit up there and read when the kids are riding their bikes up and down the six houses we let them ride to.

We have a small covered back porch that we use for most of our entry to the house. The only thing there is firewood and spent boots and umbrellas.

We also have a screen house in the back that we use a lot - especially in the summer, but that's not really a 'porch'.