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included scheduling the work. From that point, TreHus undertook a three-phase whole-house project spanning close to two years, on and off. e final piece of the project was the exterior work, which included adding an open front porch and rear deck, as well as re-siding and painting the home. ZONING IN Before undertaking the front porch and entryway that ultimately took about three-and-a-half months to com- plete, a feasibility study—the first step of the company's three-step design process—took into account any zoning issues or concerns to ensure such a thing was known be- fore moving forward with the design and trying to pull permits. Amundson says past experiences taught him this was a crucial step to do early on to save time, money and effort for all parties. "We knew zoning in the city of Minneapolis can get pretty particular about adding on to the front of a home, so right away we went to zoning and said, 'is, in general, is what we're planning on doing. Do we have any limitations we need to be aware of ?' In this particular case, because it is an open porch, not an enclosed addition, there was leeway, and they allowed us to do what we wanted to do without getting a vari- ance," he says. "We did the homework early on so we didn't get too deep into the process then find out [it wasn't feasible]." While the homeowners knew they wanted to im- prove their home's curb appeal and create a more func- tional entry, they also wanted to maintain the home's Craftsman style and ensure it fit into the neighborhood. A custom designed railing was modeled upon similar historic railings around the city, but despite its historic aesthetics, the railing still had to meet current building codes requiring no greater than a 4-inch gap because the porch is more than 30 inches tall, Amundson notes. e repetitive panels were fabricated from cedar and primed in the company's shop before being trimmed to length and finish-coated on-site. e porch flooring is fir tongue-and-groove, while the ceiling is made of beadboard. Amundson does admit the company sidestepped zoning slightly with one aspect of the front porch: motorized retractable screens. "e motorized, hidden screens were in the plans, but technically according to the zoning you can't do that because it becomes an enclosure at that point. So, we subtly prepared [the porch] for that, had the inspection done and then put the screens in later," he explains. "I don't like to do that kind of thing, but because they're motorized and [the homeowners] do keep them open a lot of the time we just thought, 'C'mon, let's not nitpick here.' at was an after-the-fact add-on that was pre-prepared for." Maintaining the home's Craftsman style and fitting into the neighborhood were two homeowner concerns about the exterior. The new porch features custom railing, motorized retractable screens, two access doors from the living room and fir tongue- and-groove flooring. PROJECTS: Design Solutions 26 June 2017 QR QualifiedRemodeler.com