What should I do with my porch?

Time has taken it's toll on my porch and it is starting to fall down. I am going to replace it in the spring but I want to make it a bit nicer. Right now it is mostly pressure treated wood that is twisted and cracked. I want to use some other wood as I plan on painting it and have never been happy with treated wood. I also want to do something different with the railings and columns and add some wooden brackets to the corners. The wife is afraid I will pick something that won't go with the house. How do I figure out what matches? I also don't know where to get the brackets. I have access to a band saw and could make my own if there are patterns for them. I could also use help picking colors that match my siding. I want something different. Here is the house, Who has any suggestions?

A blonde, wanting to earn some money, decided to hire herself out as a handyman-type and started canvassing a wealthy neighborhood. She went to the front door of the first house and asked the owner if he had any jobs for her to do. "Well, you can paint my porch. How much will you charge?" The blonde said, "How about 50 dollars?" The man agreed and told her that the paint and ladders that she might need were in the garage. The man's wife, inside the house, heard the conversation and said to her husband, "Does she realize that the porch goes all the way around the house?" The man replied, "She should. She was standing on the porch." A short time later, the blonde came to the door to collect her money. "You're finished already?" he asked. "Yes," the blonde answered, "and I had paint left over, so I gave it two coats." Impressed, the man reached in his pocket for the $50. "And by the way," the blonde added, "that's not a Porch, it's a Ferrari."

I have no idea but when you finish... add a fridge and a bench seat from an old pickup.

No help but-all those pics would be great for a craigslist home for sale ad. :D

I rebuilt my moms front porch many years ago. Ripped out all the old wood and poured concrete. I used the white vinyl railing and posts from home depot. With the new 6' wide steps I poured it completely changed the look of the old house. Wish I still had the pics.

Race it.

Oh...porch.

You need to start with a solid foundation before building.

Turn it into a garage?

While tearing off the old one came to realize The Wife convinced me that it could take me years to build a new one. As much as it hurt to do I paid a professional to build the new one. In a week it was done and has everything she wanted, a swing, ceiling fan to keep the bugs away, and those big scroll things. Now I just have to paint it.

In reply to Wally:

nice

Big improvement.

Looks great, now put those Christmas lights back up!

MrJoshua wrote: No help but-all those pics would be great for a craigslist home for sale ad. :D

I fully expect to see those pics in a car for sale ad since there's no car in sight.

Nice!

Sweet, just in time for porch season too!

I poured concrete and I was very happy. Lasts for ages, easy to clean, paint, carpet, whatever. You could even lay boards on top of it for a deck effect

Looks great. I was going to suggest wrapping the other side. Would have been expensive, but I love decks that wrap the side of a building.

Sweet, huge improvement

I took some of the wood I saved from the old porch and made a small deck to put my grill on. So far I spent $19.26 on it.

Wally wrote: I took some of the wood I saved from the old porch and made a small deck to put my grill on. So far I spent $19.26 on it.

Now sheetmetal the outside of the grill frame to look like a bus.