Gunter’s Ingenious Home Made Two Story Brick and Screened- In Porch

Thursday, December 15, 2011 10:05 AM Posted by Tondeleo Lee Thomas
Tondeleo : My last posting was about Gunter’s portable homemade workbench on a wagon. If you missed it, go back and read that post. It is a shining example of what can be done with little money, creativity and a bit of effort. My observation is that one reason that these people can make anything they want boils down to attitude.
Like all of us, they want things that they cannot afford. But instead of going in debt (most of them have no credit), or just whining about it, they have an attitude that says, “I’ll get it, even if I have to make it myself.” And then, they do exactly that.
Today I want to show you a picture of his two story enclosed porch that he made for family activities and an exercise room. He did it with used brick, discarded windows and other used materials, and some other materials that he got very cheaply. Gunters Porch
Doc had told me about Gunter on several occasions, and then one day he took me over to Gunter’s house to see firsthand what he is capable of.

I have to confess that I believe that this man is a creative genius. He has an old Mercedes Benz in his garage, from the 1960’s. He has rebuilt the engine himself and has also repainted it there in his garage. It actually looks very nice, because he has hand rubbed the finish to a deep luster. He also has a coupe of old VW’s that he has restored, and several extra VW engines that he has rebuilt, just in case one goes bad.

His house started off as a mid size house and he has added on to it regularly. That is a common occurrence out here in the country. You see houses that began as shacks, and then have had room after room added on, to meet the needs of the inhabitants.

From the front of Gunter’s house, you can see where he dug out the front garden to make a driveway that leads to a two car garage that he added on. It is a very professional looking job. Along the edge of where he dug out his garden is a four foot high brick retaining wall on one side and a two foot high one on the other. He fabricated steel steps to get you up to the level of his original walkway, and he has made storage under the steps for his garden implements.
In the back, Gunter has built a two story porch as you can see in the picture. The ground floor is made from discarded bricks from demolition sites, as well as discarded windows. The floor, as you would have read in my former post is made from bits of 2X4 that he cut and made like a parquet style flooring. 

Upstairs, it is more interesting. As you can see I the pictures, the screened walls angle out. Why is that? Because Gunter got a good deal on 13 wooden screen doors, and they were too tall to go straight up and still give him the desired roof pitch for drainage and for snow to slide off. So he angled the walls out. 

You can also see the inner railings he made so his children and grandchildren won’t fall against the screen doors and get hurt. Since the wind blows from the north, he covered the north end of his porch with transparent fiberglass roofing panels. They let in the light, but keep out the blowing rain.He fabricated the steps out of scrap steel.

On the porch is a porch swing, a patio set, a brick barbecue set up and exercise equipment. And all of this cost him less that $2,000! He spent his Spring and Summer building it a few years ago.

In Gunter’s back garden is a home made garage/shop that also has been built for little money and has been added on to over the years. It started as a shed. He used privacy fencing to build exterior walls, adding three bays to it. Then he insulated the fence panels, added vinyl siding to them, and a roof! Now, he has a very cheap garage and shop!