The back porch was designed as a screen porch. We settled on doing it in cedar, even though it isn't the most low-maintenance choice. The bottom three feet or so of the walls are closed off, to keep kids/dogs/other stray critters from running through the screen. But there's still a wide open view to the south. I had the carpenter use butt-jointed 1x8s to close off the bottom, and he did a nice job of hiding the nails that hold it all together. This porch really adds to the look of the house, as well as the function. French doors open out of the dining room onto this porch, so in nice weather we have a useful outdoor room. I even have a ceiling fan for the porch. It's a Hunter rated for exterior use (obtained on clearance, of course).

You can see carpenter Tim hard at work putting the boards in place to finish the closed portion. Screens aren't in, they'll go in as one of the very last steps.

The front and back porch are integral pieces of the house, not add-ons that came later. We intend to spend substantial time outdoors, and both porches are concieved as outdoor rooms connecting our house to the property. The porches are as well-equipped as the interior rooms, with speaker connections, plenty of power outlets and lighting, the ceiling fan in the back, and network access via wireless access points in the attic.

Call this project "almost finished." The horizontal beam you see needs to be covered, and that will be done with vertical planks like the ones at the bottom, with a cap to protect the endgrain. We'll add a screen door near the house on the right side also.