porch & exterior, part 3: porch swing & light
05.05 no porch is complete without one
click to see the full photo galleryWhen we went to the Home & Garden show in October, the stars thing wasn't the only thing we splurged on that day. We also broke down and treated ourselves to a porch swing from a vendor we met there, after being seduced by the demonstration model he had there. He actually had several variations on the model we bought, as well as one of the first ones he made about 20 years ago that had been left to weather without any maintenance. It still looked great and was as sturdy as the new ones. What really sold us on it, however, was how comfortable it was.
It took about two months for them to build it and ship it out to us and since it was the middle of winter, there wasn't much point in hanging it then. It stayed in its box in our basement all winter. But once our porch rails were done, we couldn't wait to get it hung.
It took some careful measuring to figure out exactly where to place it and to be sure we were attaching it to something that could take the weight. It also took a couple of trips to the hardware store for the quick links needed to attach the chain to the big eyebolts in the ceiling. The first quick links ended up not fitting around the eyebolt, so Sal made another trip to get a larger size quick link. But as we started to hang it, we realized we now couldn't get the chain links around the larger quick link. So then it was back to the hardware store again for the smaller quick links we'd bought and then returned; the chain was hooked onto the small quick link, then that was hooked onto the large quick link, and that was hooked onto the eyebolt. (For the record, this kind of Keystone Kops routine is nothing new at our house. Unfortunately.)
Anyway, we now have a comfortable place to sit on our front porch to take in the view. Which we did. For most of the rest of the day. We also finally got rid of that crappy plastic porch light that we've hated from the day we moved in. Little details, but sometimes those make the biggest impact.
Hall House is beginning to come to life on the outside.