A Screened Porch Home Addition Designed For A Pool

Our clients, Jason and Nicole, are not only personal friends but also former neighbors, and now repeat clients! After moving out of Abe Degnan’s neighborhood, they bought a rural home near Waunakee. Not long after, they called and hired us to refinish the basement, creating egress windows and bedrooms for their growing family. A little more time passed, and they contacted us as they planned a connection to the backyard and future pool. They wanted us to design a screened porch home addition overlooking the future pool area, integrating the design of the pool’s future location with views and connections to the home.

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Challenges and Workarounds

The existing house had some challenges we needed to address when designing the new space. The late 1990s home addition meant we had to carefully and thoughtfully connect the rooflines. There was also a walk-up stairway from the basement to the exterior, which created an awkward doghouse sticking out the back. This limited where we could place the screen porch and deck. Because the house is elevated five feet above the backyard, it became important to have a view from the patio door to ensure a view from inside the home out to the pool area.

Creative Solutions

We addressed all these challenges by placing the screen porch slightly to the side and back of the home. We extended a small grilling deck over to the stairway doghouse and installed two separate patio doors. One patio door goes out the side of the house into the screen porch. The other goes out the back to the small deck down the stairs to the pool. This solution provides maximum visibility, connection, and safety for the family.

The Result Of This Addition? A Perfect Connection!

The screened porch home addition is designed with large, wide screened openings, providing as little obstruction to the beautiful views as possible. The home sits on a sloped lot, overlooking Waunakee to the west, and open farm fields to the north and south. The screen porch has become a focal point, visible from the road, while still providing a sense of privacy to the pool. For Jason and Nicole, it's mission accomplished, until next time!