One of the rewards of being a designer/builder is making a house that is otherwise plain or unattractive into something lively, something that reflects the personalities of its owners. My company recently designed and built a new front porch on a 1920s Craftsman-style home in St. Paul, Minn. The transformation was so dramatic that, looking at our before and after pictures from the job, it's hard to believe it's the same house. Unlike typical houses of that era, which have many fine exterior trim details, this house was nondescript. The existing porch was dark and unappealing. Instead of opening the house up to the outdoors, the porch prevented
