Looks beautiful! I think she made the right decision choosing grey instead of black- it is less drastic and works well with the existing brick. Also, nice problem solving with the damaged brick.

The wood work just screams elegance. There is no question, but this house now looks better than it ever has. Beautiful.

I wish I could see the whole outside of the home to compare with the before. I do like it though. Is it climbable, or are the slats super close together? You want to be careful with kids

FYI pic #2 with the Japanese maple in its full glory is a "before" shot.

This is a nice porch, but it looks absurdly out of place to me. I definitely don't prefer the before, but I think I would have tried to find something with a style that matched the rest of the home a little better. It does look very well-done and fancy, though.

@HOLLER, agreed. Maybe it will blend a little better once the wood gets a little older and isn't so much more fresh and new looking than the rest of the home.

I agree with Akay... Let the wood "age"

try to look at the picture and cover the grey part. to me thats the one make it look odd. the grey did not match at all.

awesome. i'm saving this in my someday file.

The updates help the curb appeal a lot but I find the wood slats seem too close together & create a visual barrier. You see less of the home from the outside than before. If the slats were spaced out a little more, the porch would feel more open yet defined & updated.

Wish we could see an "after" shot from the same angle as photo number 2; it is hard to see how well it relates to the rest of the home. It looks great though.

I'll be dreaming of that tree! (didn't think Japanese maples could grow that big in Canada!)

So lovely! Cheers from a fellow Canuck! That's a great re-do

I think the selected images are confusing the issue. In some the porch is in progress, in others the garden in front is in progress, there is no shot of the finished project with the whole house in view, with the maple in bloom. I think it probably looks absolutely beautiful in person, a huge improvement on the original and something a bit stand out from the other homes on the block.

i like it and would like it even more if the all of the brick were also painted the dark grey.

thought process -- "that would look great in Hamilton...WHOA that's IN Hamilton!!! Yesss....!" (Reading from downtown Hamilton right now.)

I think you have a combination of contemporary design mixed with craftsman. You should have stuck with something that blends in with the style of the house. Although the deck looks like it built by first rate carpenters, it does not fit with the rest of the house and looks odd.

I like the contrast between the painted and stained wood - looks fabulous!

I LOVE it.

Nice job Diane! I hope to do something similar with my deteriorating front porch which is of approximately the same vintage (and also in Canada -- London, Ontario).

I love Craftsman, but that is not Craftsman. As others have said, nice porch, but not on that house. Weird, weird mix of styles. The weird blue boards below don't match the modern horizontal wood lines, which doesn't match the rest of the house.

Great job! I really like the contrast and think the new porch looks awesome! I think the reason it looks out of place to some is that there's nothing tying it to the rest of the house. I would love to see all of the non-brick siding painted the same grey (or a couple of shades lighter) as the porch floor to really tie it all together. And then a full exterior 'after' picture, of course ;)

Personally I really liked the look of the 'In progess.' picture the best. For me, the contrast of color, age and positioning of the cedar railing against the weathered planks below was really interesting.

Regardless, turned out great. Keep it up!