Americans, tell me about porches

I prefer the ones with screens.

Porches are an essential element of American uber-frautitude.

Back in the day, it was a place to catch a cool breeze at night, and watch the neighborhood. Sometimes neighbors would stop by and you could sit out there and have some iced drink and chat.

This was before central air and gigantic TV screens.

I live in a LA suburb that was built in the 60s, no porches. There are about 7 styles of home in my neighborhood and none of them have porches. We have backyard patios.

I love a nice Southern veranda.

The main purpose is obsolete now: enjoy pleasant weather and socialize.

People sit inside with their electronic devices.

Oh, and now they’re mainly a way for fraus to show their “creativity” for every single goddamn holiday.

Most European countries are more temperate in the US. A porch is space you just can't use in most of the Northwestern states for six-eight months out of the year when it gets cold, so it's wasted space.

They are great down South, though, and in southern California.

Swiss clinics hosted wounded soldiers from enemy armies, for care and convalescence. It looks heavenly and uber gay.

They are like undiscovered rooms.

I live in the Mid-Atlantic and have had a porch on every house I've lived in, they're a way to get outside without having to actually be outside. We used to eat dinner in the spring and summertime in ours when I was a kid, plus it acted as a go between between our backyard and house, we didn't have a garage.

A delight for the mind and eye

Porches are where I do my most unhinged and spiteful work.

R5 I grew up in Winnipeg, Manitoba in the far north and I recall that older homes had what were called verandas. If my memory is correct they were not open but had screens.

The house I grew up in and still own has a big "sun porch" but it's on the back side of the house. It was screened in until the late 70s when the screens were removed and replaced with glass as my mother wanted to be able to use it in the winter months and not have to move all the plants into the house. It's now used as a Florida room and has been a favorite part of the house for everyone I've leased the house to since my parents died.

That's the other trouble--in the states and provinces shaved flat by glaciers (like Manitoba and Minnesota), there are so many remainign lakes from the glaciers that there are mosquitoes everywhere in the summer, so you need a screened in porn/veranda.

My father and stepmother in Minnesota converted theirs to a glassed in "three-season" porch. It wasn't like the old kind of vernada in the South that's open so neighbors can come up and have a chat with you.

I totally agree R15. I much prefer my porn to be screened in.

Sorry, but it just had to be done. LOL

[quote] Why didn't they ever take off outside the US as well (people seem to prefer balconies everywhere else)?

In other countries people empty their chamber pots out the second storey windows so you'd get constantly splattered with poo. That's why a balcony is safer. Here is a picture of Scotland. It's obvious why porches didn't take off there.

Porches were important in the Deep South and Texas before there was air conditioning. There are also porches in the Caribbean.

Both sets of my grandparents' homes had porches. One also has a sleeping porch on the side.

Porches are great to have. Front, side, back or all three, aka the "wrap-around."

The demise of porches directly corresponds to the disintegration of the neighborhood. When people had front porches, they were able to talk to neighbors, sit listening to baseball games in the summer, and have casual get-togethers. Now, houses are built with back decks, isolating the family ( on HGTV, the millennials all want privacy), and making the social interaction much more difficult. Former impromptu get-togethers have been replaced by planned events in the open concept kitchens and back decks.

I love my screened porch.

Amazon needs a place to put all my packages

[quote] The demise of porches directly corresponds to the disintegration of the neighborhood.

I call bullshit. Most middle class people live in suburbs and have for 40 years. In porchless suburbs people find ways to socialize all the time-- at pools, while walking dogs and so forth. If anything "millenials" are outdoors more than older people. Nostalgia for small-town 1950s America easily misses the extreme racial segregation, short life spans and other social ills. I'd rather not go back to that time, ever.

I can't believe the stupidity of this thread....[R23} wins a special prize.

Porches are a way to get fresh air and relax in warm weather.

Are you people idiots or something?

What better place than a wrap around porch for your gender fluid nonbinary adolescent to throw Zir's16th day of non-privileged unremarkableness and reparations unparty.

Growing up, every house on our street had a porches. Was great in the summertime to sit out there day or night, play games,share stories, have picnics, listen to the radio. It was part of growing up making friends, meeting and socializing with the neighbors.

Kids growing up today don't have a clue what they're missing.

I was directly responding to a quote from another post about the "disintegration of the neighborhood" and "privacy-seeking" millenials. If anything stupid it's that post and your inability to make connections between posts in a thread.

Eddie, you've left Tim (r27) tied up naked on the porch long enough. He's getting screechy.

They were for sleeping (even in northern climes)---usually on a second floor or for catching a breeze in the summer. The modern equivalent is the deck--often too exposed to sun and frankly impractical because of that---which may be why screened porches became a thing for awhile. I miss having a porch--but I don't live in a house anymore, so it's not really a choice.

Who would ever want to share a porch with r24 and her anger management problems?

if you didn't have Watch Hill, RI, you had the fire escape.

You find porches in many hotter climates. The Southern US, Caribbean, Central America, Northern South America, Hawaii, Australia, India, etc...

Porches are a lovely place to socialize with your neighbors—as long as you like your neighbors.

Most people don’t like their neighbors. The last thing I’d want to after working all day is see that asshole’s face as soon as I step outside my front door.

In big cities most people don't even know their next door neighbor's names, even if they've lived next to each other for many years.

We lived on a small side street with houses close together. My parents had large bamboo roll-up shades when we needed privacy, or just to block out the sun. Worked just fine.

R34: This is nonsense, people are no more or less to know their neighbors than in the suburbs---it usually depends on the neighborhood.

I have a front patio and a back deck. My actual concrete front porch isn't that large and I didn't want to deal with the maintenance of a wood porch (the back deck is work enough) so I put in a flagstone patio.

When I had the front yard re-landscaped after the last drought I had the patio installed near the front window and along the front walk. There is garden between the window ant the patio and a rock garden around it and a lawn that extends to the street. I

I have wrought iron patio furniture and use it like a front porch. The result is similar to the attached photo only it's larger and my tree is to the side, not in the middle. I really love it. We have a nice long summer and usually wet winters, it's held up well.

I have a screened in back porch in my condo. It' s my favorite place. It's where I let my frau freak fly and have my morning coffee and evening glass of wine

simple stitchin' and gentle bitchin'

I prefer the back yard. I like privacy when gathering with friends and, ahem, other assorted acquaintances in the hot tub. Also, growing up in my parent's neighborhood, the front porch was where a lot of gossips and busybodies congregated -- no thanks.

Tall fences and thick shrubbery make great neighbors.

I have an air shaft 3rd floor, tenement. There is an Ailanthus growing in the narrow dark space, and it's almost to my window.

R41 The best part about living in a neighborhood, is the gossip.

I won't live in a house without a porch. Love them. They are the best on rainy days.

I have a front porch, facing South. It's now glassed/screen in, but when I was a kid, it wasn't enclosed. My brother and i had our bedroom on the second floor, and on summer evenings, we'd climb out the window onto the porch roof, and piss off the side of it. On really hot nights, we'd take blankets out and lie on the roof and look up at the stars and bats. The houses on my street all have porches, except for one that was built much later than the others. Back in the 60s, my Dad and brother would sit on the porch and listen to Reds games on the radio, and half the other porches on the street were tuned into the same game, and a big whoop would rise up when someone hit a home run. Later on, my Mom had a quilting frame out on the porch, and she'd sit out there and quilt, and chat with the neighbors who'd stop by to visit.

Since it's enclosed, I have to raise and lower the windows to help regulate the temperature. Right now, the plants are all moved into the side yard for the summer, but I move them back in onto the porch when it starts getting cold. The plants are all subtropical, not true tropicals, so they can take some cold during the winter. On really cold winter nights, I turn on a space heater. I like my neighbors on each side. The one young guy is absolutely gorgeous, and I love going out on the porch for a few minutes here and there when he's working outdoors, usually shirtless.

Front porches were more popular when people enjoyed socializing with the rest of the world. Today people are more stressed out by social interactions and wary of strangers. We prefer the privacy and isolation of the back yard now.

I never through about the fact that they dont exist outside the US. I guess we were less private people. And with so much space, there was room for air and greenery and extra square footage.

I live in a c. 1900 suburb and most houses have front or side porches. I love my side porch. View of a wall of trees, shade from the sun and a vague sense of connection to the world passing by on the street. For people isolated in a house, it doesn’t provide a connection. In contrast to a typical LA house where only the garage faces the street - so you can enter your house and never interact with a neighbor.

Many in my neighborhood have lived here a long time and there is lots of socializing and gossip going on. I like it.

This was my old porch, before my house was sold and torn down. It was Halloween when this picture was taken, so a ghoul is out. I loved that porch; it had a swing, too.

R41 Are you in Brooklyn?

DLers with porches — Are you familiar with the term “haint blue?”

R37 So what are you handing out for Halloween this year?

I have an old fashioned glider on my porch with overstuffed cushions that a mother and her kitten have claimed for their own.

Yes, I'm encouraging regular visits by feeding them, and with the plush throw that I've put on their favorite spot on the glider.

Yes, they'll be in my house before the snow hits the ground.

A cozy porch is a great place to build friendships. All types.

R50, Haint ne'er heard of it. So I looked it up: interesting story. I'm not Southern. i knew about the light blue ceilings, but didn't know there was a specific term for that.

I grew up in Sherman Oaks and we had a nice long porch.

What's the difference between a porch and a verandah? I get balconies are not on the ground floor.

When I hear 'verandah' I always picture palm trees.

Porches are better for extraverts. I can see the appeal, for an extravert.

Also, the trend is toward more outdoor-type space in the back of one's house (e.g., a deck for grilling, etc.)

I don't think lack of porches leads to neighbor alienation. I've lived in a lot of different neighborhoods (no porch) and have always made it a point to be cordial to my immediate neighbors.

New houses in the DC and Philadelphia areas often have front porches, which no one uses except for decorating for holidays or greeting/saying goodbye to guests. They use the deck in the back for relaxing and socializing.

In the neighborhood where I grew up (built in the late '40s; we lived there in the '60s and '70s), all the houses had porches. Some were built with the porch on the front of the house. No one used these very much. Others had the porch on the side, and these were used often. Americans do like our privacy, but also there's a bit of a middle-class thing about the front yard and anything on the front side of the house being "public" and not used much except for display. Even in the '60s, in our neighborhood, all the socializing - whether within the family or with guests - was in the side or back.

R35, we had the same rollup blinds on either side when we wanted privacy on the front porch. But it was always great even just to wave and say hello to neighbors as they walked by.

R42=Lou Farigno in King of Queens.

In the South, a strong case can be made that the proliferation of residential central air conditioning killed the porch's inclusion on Southern dwellings. But thankfully there are plenty of "old stock" homes that have them!

A 1939 house I owned in Atlanta (Decatur actually) had a side porch with jalousie windows on the side and back. It was great to sit out there and read the newspaper in the Spring and Fall, two seasons that Atlanta does especially well.

Sitting in a rocker on a darkened porch under a ceiling fan on a warm summer evening is blissful. The fireflies blinking in the yard and the moon high in the sky. It's great.

R55 I don't think there is much of a difference in the actual definition. However, when I hear "verandah" I think of the grand portico style porches on Antebellum homes, especially if they have railings, since a verandah by definition has railings however porticos do not.

Why do Charlestonians call their porches piazzas? Seems affected ...

Most houses in South Pasadena have porches that's why they're used as exteriors for most tv shows and films set around cold states. They sit in for most suburban towns like in the wonder years and my so-called life all shot on Gledon way nearby my friends home.

Porches are the norm throughout Latin America this is hardly an American thing. "Verandah" is an amerizanized pronunciation of varanda which is literally porche in Spanish.

I like how Upper Midwesterners say "porch" with their "hard R" accents.

[quote] Why do Charlestonians call their porches piazzas? Seems affected

You answered your own question. Charleston is the affectation capital of the USA.

I grew up in New England. My grandmother's wrap around porch was the best. As kids, my brother, cousins and I would run around the porch, I'm sure to the chagrin of our parents. My grandmother had a hammock on the porch where we would lie and pass the afternoon. We'd sit out there in the summer evenings and have lemonade and enjoy the breeze. I love a porch. Hard to find nowadays.

I’ve always dreamed of owning a house with an American style porch. They’re so commonly seen in movies and TV but we don’t have them in here in the UK. It’s the only aspect of American culture I’d like us to adopt. Y’all are fucked! x

Then you don't know much about us R70. I've been to the UK, many times, and trust me there are many things besides porches about our way of life people in the UK could only dream of.

But then, porches in the UK would never work because no one in the UK likes anyone else. You people always look for the worst in everything. If nothing bad is there, you'll just make something up.

I think it’s more that the British are generally more reserved and private people. My (British) parents used to close all the shades to make sure no one could see into the house - and whenever we were in sight of the neighbors, they reminded us to behave “like gentlemen”. Of course, the “Love Island” / Big Brother modern British culture may have changed that.

No, the British are world renowned negative Nellies. If someone gave most Brits a bar of 18k gold for free he'd complain it wasn't 24k.

The British mostly have bucked teeth and poorly fitting suits, hate everyone, complain all the time, etc. etc. The list is endless.

Porches are an architectural style that originated in sub-Saharan Africa. They are not European.

Go to sub-Saharan Africa and see for yourself: porches are everywhere. People there build porches for their mud huts.

I’m grateful that porches became part of vernacular architecture in America as well. They are sociable and friendly and a great place for enjoying the late afternoon/early evening.

I don't think not wanting to congregate/socialize on your porch means you're antisocial. I'm very social in most situations, but I think keeping a little distance from next door neighbors whom you will see forever is healthy. I feel the same about coworkers.

I've learned my lesson with this one...

In upstate New York nearly all houses had porches. And it gets extremely cold there. I used to live in the Adirondacks, and it would regularly get to 30-f in winter, occasionally lower. We all had porches. And yes, the fireflies in summer were magical.

In Ann Arbor, in my grad school days way back when, we used to have a lot of “porch parties”. Everything took place on the lawn or the porch, and guests would only go into the house to use the bathroom. It was a less-intensive form of entertaining than a full-on house party, quicker to put together and faster to clean up. Don’t know if that was a Midwestern thing, or just an Ann Arbor thing.

There is also an epidemiological connection to porches. Tuberculosis was a leading killer during the 19th century and into the first half of the 20th century and it was believed that fresh air helped sufferers of disease.

"Designed originally as tubercular cure porches, sleeping porches gradually acquired new meaning as architectural embodiments of the open-air movement and were incorporated into the design of American homes as early as the 1910s. Although the act of sleeping outside seemed like a novel idea for many Americans at the time, it had been a hallmark of the tubercular patient’s experience from decades."

My parents had a big old 1907 house in Maine that had a large open front porch. We didn’t use it that much until my father screened it in and put up those bamboo roller blinds. Even then, we could only used it about 4-5 months a year, but it was wonderful. Sitting out there during a thunderstorm was the best.

A previous owner enclosed my front porch making it entirely useless. It’s too hot in the summer and too cold in the winter.

Can you economically un-enclose it?

My parents bought our house in 1963 that had a solarium on one side and they had the glass removed and enclosed that space to make another bedroom.

I'm originally from the Caribbean; we had a wraparound veranda on our house there. My parents used to burn those green coils to keep mosquitoes at bay and told the scariest ghost stories imaginable. Neighbors would come by after dinner and just sit and listen...talk; my parents always had an after dinner pitcher of lemon aid ready. Good memories; really good. Very lucky to have had that upbringing. My dad is 90 and dying; I'm going to let him know how lucky I feel for the childhood they provided.

That's a sweet memory R83.

R42, you might like certain parts of Italy then. Over there, the old clucking hens sit perched at balconies and windows and openly watch everything and gossip across the way. Forget installing a security sytem -- nothing gets past them.

The house I grew up in has a front porch spanning the width of the house, and wraps around half the side. As kids, we practically LIVED on the porch during summers when it rained. It had a lovely swing, on which I slept many nights. Dad installed ceiling fans one year, and that made a world of difference. Our house had no air conditioning, only fans and screens, so time spent on the porch, with its smooth tile floor, were a relief.

Pretty porches

I own an older, two story house with a widow's walk that I converted into a screened-in covered porch. I spend a lot of time out there and enjoy the fact that it's my private little hideaway. It's a safe haven, a place to rest and relax after a hectic day around people. And it goes without saying that my indoor cats love it too.

Isn’t a widows walk on top of the house? More like a roof deck

Yes, a widows walk is a roof deck originally meant for the wife of a sea captain to wait for her husband's return from sea.

Fabulous R90. Great views too. I want one of those.

I'm a Northeasterner who refers to my porch as a pizzaria because it's my favorite place to eat Vincenzo's pizza and sip cold beverages.

I am too poor to have a porch. A porch feels like heaven.

When I was young, we had a stoop and the neighbors would come over. Even in the city you can find stoops, a good place to drink your wine and have a conversation on a summer evening. Life can be good.

I live at the beach and have both a porch and a second-floor (1st floor to Europeans) balcony facing the water. I use them both as well as a patio in the back of the house with an outdoor kitchen.

You need a back porch too, preferably one off the kitchen.

Out there you can churn summer ice cream, keep the muddy shoes and boots from entering the house, a coat rack for snowy winter coats, and keep the laundry basket used in conjunction with the backyard clothesline, etc. A small table, chairs, and small glider too!

I mis-read the title and thought it said "pooches", clicked expecting a lot of dog pictures. You can imagine my disappointment.

Here R97. I've got you covered both ways. I want you to be happy.

There is a reason that the "Porches" calendars are so popular.

"On the Porch".

"Out on the Porch".

"View From the Porch"

Most of the pre-WWII houses on Staten Island have porches, but most of them have been closed in by their recent owners.

We used to have a porch, but the roof was extended and now it's a porte cochere.

R29. Has it right, at least in the South. A porch wrapped front to back, and during the worst of summer, was used for sleeping. Sleeping porches were screened in, and were most popular when tuberculosis outbreaks were common.

I grew up in Little Italy, and very few houses had porches, but almost evey house had a stoop. That was the place to congregate on summer evenings. The grown ups drank wine or cold beer, we had Kool Ade and pizzelle cookies.

A stoop in urban Yankee Land is not a porch so stop trying to horn in on this thread. TIA! XXXOOO

LOL He told you now, so he won't have to tell you later.

R106, dumb cunt at large.

You talkin' ta me, bitch ?