Two weeks and about $2500 later, and our house has received its long-awaited (ok, not really, just two years) and much needed (well, by some definitions) facelift. The entry way has been expanded to the full width of the existing porch, allowing enough room inside for the inner door to be closed before opening the outer door. The outer door has been relocated to line up with the inner door to facilitate movement of bulky items in and out of the house. A new deck has been built to replace the existing porch that was sacrificed to the entry. Gutters were installed to prevent the rain from beating a grove down the middle of our garden (or the back of your shirt as you walk out the door), and finally, snow breaks were installed on the roof to keep the snow from sliding off onto the porch and walkway. You can see the high(ish) res before and after photos here. Still to be done (at some point) is painting the back deck and rebuilding the ramp to the back deck. That, however, should be relatively easy, and will probably end up waiting until next summer. In the meantime, just don’t use the ramp when wet :-) All in all, I feel it was a very worthwhile upgrade, and I’m entirely satisfied with the results.