HOUSE AND GARDEN 
February, 
1914 
107 
The old woodshed was a wing of the extension, and when its sides were removed and suitable lattice and 
vines arranged, it made an excellent porch 
composition, and D. was to show me a clever solution of the porch 
problem; in fact she started on the porch herself without con¬ 
sulting me, or giving any chance for preliminary objections ! One 
afternoon I found her hard at work with a mattock ripping out 
the side boards of 
the wood-shed at the 
end of the north 
wing. 
“What the dickens 
are you doing!” I 
shouted. 
“Get a pick and 
help me and don’t 
stand there asking 
foolish questions. We 
are about, my dear, 
to change a wood- 
shed into a porch !" 
It was a very in¬ 
genious scheme, I 
think, and I was soon 
an enthusiastic con¬ 
vert. The shed was 
quite useless for stor¬ 
ing coal and wood, as 
we did not intend to 
have carts driving up 
there. It occupied 
the best situation in 
the grounds, for it 
stood in the center of the lawn with outlook northwest across 
Strickland Plains and up the valley, and to the east, down the 
hill to the Post Road. The lines of the old house were to be un¬ 
changed ; the roof and framing to remain as they 
When the boards 
were off we nailed 
lattice against the 
hand-hewn timbers : 
they were to answer 
until proper columns 
replaced them. Now 
there is such a mass 
of clematis, Virginia 
creepers and trumpet 
vines that a change 
seems of doubtful ad¬ 
vantage. The wood 
floor and sleepers 
were torn up and the 
space filled with 
stones and ashes well 
soaked with a hose 
and allowed to settle, 
then thoroughl v 
pounded down and 
concreted. It was 
not cut into blocks, 
for we did not want 
it to suggest a side¬ 
walk, but to prevent 
expansion cracks we reinforced it with wire netting, so the entire 
floor might expand and contract as a unit. Small stones were 
sprinkled over the hard surface of the ashes and the area 
covered with three widths of galvanized chicken-wire, each width 
lapping the next six inches or so. Then the concrete was dumped 
on and, the wire mesh being held up by the stones, it was thor- 
oughlv imbedded. A finishing coat of cement was put on the 
same day and left rather rough on top—“float finish,” as it is 
called. There is no sign of a crack so far. We might have mixed 
a waterproofing powder with the cement; perhaps it would have 
been wise since a 
float finish cement is 
as absorptive as blot¬ 
ting-paper. 
Our converted 
wood-shed has the 
qualities to me es¬ 
sential in a porch: 
not an entrance way, 
for that is too public; 
nor a veranda along 
the house-front, for 
that darkens the 
lower rooms; but a 
room itself, an out- 
of-doors room, open 
on three sides except 
for vines and shrub¬ 
bery. If it be near 
the kitchen as ours 
is, so much the better ; 
we sometimes dine 
and breakfast there in 
were. 
summer. 
This evolution of a 
porch occurred a year 
or two after we had been in possession. First came a general 
clearing up, and the tennis court. The offending out-house was 
sold and carted away. Half a dozen men with horse, plow, cart 
and scraper stripped the top-soil behind the house and filled the 
hollows with all the 
rubbish they could 
find. Our ash-pile 
disappeared; 
the neighbors’ ash- 
piles too. I marched 
about soliciting and 
the cart followed col¬ 
lecting. 
The stones we un¬ 
earthed and the pieces 
of rock we blasted 
were built into a ter¬ 
race wall at the far 
end; the fill was 
roughly graded, the 
top-soil spread over, 
leveled and thor¬ 
oughly seeded, and I 
fatuously thought we 
had created a turf 
tennis court. Well, 
this was several years 
ago; now I know 
that a turf tennis 
court is a luxury of 
clubs. Cutting, wetting, 
While our enthusiasm 
A stop net was 
The old driveway that led to the barn has been converted into a delightful grass walk, flanked on one 
side by a great lilac hedge, and on the other by a row of perennials 
the most affluent of individuals or country¬ 
rolling, week after week, seems the price. 
lasted it was not as bad a court as might be. 
hung to the trees around the further end; the house formed the 
other stop. Orientation was correct and length sufficient; but no 
one living nearby played and the labor of keeping it in good 
