Enclosing our rear porch, just in time before the snow hits

We have been attempting to cover and enclose our front and back porches for several years. We had the front porch enclosed a few years ago and part of the back porch done. We just added 3 more sections of enclosure to the back porch, getting it nearly enclosed before winter. Excuse the messiness as all the furniture is piled into corners right now while we are working on it..and blankets on things to keep cat hair off of them ..yes the cats love the warm dry furnished area.

this area is just outside our rear sliding door (which you can see to the left). In front of me in this photo we put plexigalass outside of the railing, framing it in with treated 2x4's. eventually we'll get this painted. In the summer I hang lace curtains here to block the sun when it is too bright in the west.
The area to the right is two doors that we salvaged. One was a 15 pane glass door that we laid on its side and braced with 2x4's between two of our posts, eventually the 2x4's will be painted and caulked..above the 15 pane glass door is a full glass storm door that was hung sideways by the hinges from a 2x4' attached to the ceiling..this can be traded out for a screen if we want to in summer. These will look better eventually when the framework is painted and finished off. You make do.

This next picture I'm standing in our dinette looking out the back slider door area (opened) at the doors you see on their sides above. They are a bit rough looking but you can see how much wind and snow will be blocked by these doors (become windows). We have a nice view through the clear view storm door on the top of our back yard, there is a bird feeder just to the left of the photo out in the back yard that is always a draw to wildlife.

Here you can see some more of the back porch, it is shaped like a backwards L, this is where the leg of the L goes North, there is a shed built up on the back porch to the right in this photo, you can't see it here, and then the back wall of the porch is glassed in with a salvaged picture window and scraps of plexiglass left over from the front porch enclosure. To the left the side wall is made up of two slavaged sliding door panels framed in with 2x4's. the hanging hooks are where we had lace curtains hung in the summer to block excess sunshine. We had to pile the furniture  back into this area while we worked on cutting the plexiglass and frame lumber and installing it so it was out of our way, eventually I'll rearrange the furniture and clean it up so we can use it on nice days.

You can also see that right in front of me when I took this photo above, is an open unfinished area. Eventually there will be a cat door framed in on one side of this opening with a plexiglass scrap framed in above it to narrow this opening up some (it is 4' now)..and then we will build some kind of door to fit into this space to give us access to the steps and back yard here. In the photo to the right you can see where we have a bunch of furniture piled out of our way while we worked on the porch enclosure. you can see the shed wall on the right and the salvaged picture window on the far end. Outside there is a deck walk 4' wide along the left side and on the far end. On the far end we have built a small roofed area to put our propane generator under so we can use it if there is a power outage, and the walkway gives us access to it. we also will put our compost tumbler out on the porch as well...for winter compost storage. I'll take pictures later when we get the furniture rearranged again and the decorations back up and the porch usable..still have that door and cat door/plexi panel area to finish up to have the porch totally enclosed.

This photo is looking to the east toward Joel's house. There is a working salvaged sliding glass door here with a screen that will close for ventilation in the summertime. You can see the shed that is built up on the deck to the left and our house wall to the right. This is where we place our bbq in the summertime. The place you see the chimney there is our shed that houses our outdoor wood boiler and you can see the roof of our greenhouse which is 4' down grade on level ground over the buried pex from the wood boiler (to give it in ground heat). The hammock has a blanket on it now to keep cat hair under control, but it can be folded up out of the way..still have our sawhorses handy as we are still cutting lumber and plexi to finish up the last opening and cat door/plexi panel area and then the entire porch will be enclosed and we can set the furniture back to normal, we do use it in the winter when it is nice although it doesn't get a lot of sun,just early morning and late evening as it is on the North side of our house off the kitchen/dinette.