Building a new house with a screened in porch

Try as I may, I can never get so happy and comfortable in a house that I don’t eventually think of moving into another one, preferably a new one.

I love a new house.  Everything fresh and clean and bright.  Shiny new faucets.  Kitchen cabinets that smell of wood and stain and varnish.  Floors that sparkle in their newness.  Soft clean carpets everywhere.

I have always wanted to build what I call a “New Orleans” house because the first time I ever saw one, I was in the New Orleans area where my sister lived at the time.

A white house with a dark green roof.  Large shutters across the front.  Narrow dormers across the top of the roof.  Deep, overhanging eaves that shelter lovely porches.  A front porch, a back porch, and a side screened in porch.  Long, large windows across the front.  French doors from the dining room onto the screened porch.  French doors from the master bedroom onto the covered back porch.

I found such a houseplan recently.  It wasn’t easy to find.  I am amazed that everyone doesn’t want a house like this.  We have a friend who would love to be our builder and who would do a good job.

I found a lot…a perfect lot, right outside of town.

I just haven’t found the nerve to dive into a major upset, the money to refinance, purchase land, or the time to sell the house we own (if we could sell the one we own).

Maybe I will someday build my New Orleans house with the porches and the screened in room.

There’s nothing like a screened porch on a summer’s day when a sudden rain shower blows in and cools the earth and afterward, the drip drip drip you hear from the leaves and the shrubs and the flowers of summer.  And you sit on the porch and you swing and you breathe in the cool rain-washed air and you hear the drip drip drip and you know that this is paradise.