# The Boxed-In Front porch-Why? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 9, 2011, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-boxed-in-front-porch-why/581337 "2011-05-09T22:00:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2017, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-boxed-in-front-porch-why/581337/41 "2017-05-17T16:11:00Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > Where are you thinking of moving? I recall seeing you mention the idea in other threads but I’m not recalling where or when. Started with a pin in Portland (the left coast one, natch) but moved it to Denver for weather and job front reasons. I can take cold winter for the general dryness and pleasant summers. As I’ve said, I did not expect the endless, hot, deadly-humid summers here in Nwingland. Especially as the pattern is for the heat and humidity to persist through the day-night cycle; humidity in Northern California, generally rare, always went away with the fall of evening. Here, I’ve walked out into Amazonian conditions at 2 a.m. and expected water buffalo to trot by in the misty moonlight. Which would be odd for many reasons, yes. Shoveling snow AND hiding indoors in A/C is not a combination I can take any longer. ---
**Author:** ![N9IWP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/n9iwp/32/3154_2.png) [@N9IWP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/N9IWP)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2017, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-boxed-in-front-porch-why/581337/42 "2017-05-17T17:20:33Z")
My mom replaced her deck with a screen porch. It was nice in the summer (with the windows opened) and in the winter it was useful as a walk-in cooler. This was on the back of the house (north side) Brian ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2017, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-boxed-in-front-porch-why/581337/43 "2017-05-17T19:29:41Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > … > Shoveling snow AND hiding indoors in A/C is not a combination I can take any longer. Amen, Brother!! As you know, Denver is a very outdoor-centric place all 4 seasons. I bet you’ll love at least that part of it. Good luck. ---
**Author:** ![Dendarii\_Dame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bbce88/32.png) [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2017, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-boxed-in-front-porch-why/581337/44 "2017-05-18T00:20:26Z")
My brother has one on his house. Mostly they use it to make sure the cats don’t get outside. ---
**Author:** ![LouisB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/dfb087/32.png) [@LouisB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LouisB)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2017, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-boxed-in-front-porch-why/581337/45 "2017-05-18T00:36:44Z")
I lived in an older two-story house in Oregon for a couple of years. It originally had a covered front porch that someone boxed in. It featured sliding glass doors used as windows—close the glass doors in winter and that thing stayed as warm as the interior of the house. Open the glass doors in summer and it was delightful. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2017, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-boxed-in-front-porch-why/581337/46 "2017-05-18T01:31:36Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > If your part of New England is blistering summer, frozen winter, or sodden in-between then the “good” days are so few and far between as to not be worth it. Trying to make do with an unscreened umbrella vs a covered screened room trebles the chances for failure. I think this is all parts of New England. For example, every New England state’s average humidity in July and August is 89-93%. The mid-Atlantic states aren’t any better, except for one, who otherwise all average 90%+ too. ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2017, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-boxed-in-front-porch-why/581337/47 "2017-05-19T02:42:59Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > Similarly, closed-off balconies were very popular here in Israel, although closing them off is now illegal. I’m sitting in one now. It’s a narrow, Bauhaus-style balcony in a 1930’s building, about 4 by 15 feet long, with a waist-high wall around the edge, closed off with large glass windows. It’s a bit of a hothouse during the summer - although the cypress trees outside help a lot - but other than that, it’s a great work space. Why was closing them off made illegal? ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2017, 7:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-boxed-in-front-porch-why/581337/48 "2017-05-19T07:48:52Z")
> [@Lynn\_Bodoni](#): > > My father’s childhood home had this feature, and Grandma Bodoni said that it was because the unheated front room kept the warmth mostly in the house and the cold mostly on the outside. A similar feature, the _galería_, was very popular in Spain in 19th and 20th century buildings. In the Central Mesa, current construction often includes fake _galerías_: from the street it looks like one but it’s actually the end of the living room, rather than a fully-enclosed balcony. My grandma’s 1936-vintage, no heating or a/c, flat in Barcelona had one of a slightly-different type. A room that goes the whole length of the facade, with two large windows (these have blinds on the outside), and its separations from the rest of the house are windows with built-in shutters. That _galería_ and the inner hallway (long and high-ceilinged, and always in the shadow) were the house’s main temperature-control system. They work very well so long as one bothers to use them properly. They also serve as sunrooms in the cold weather: the blinds are rolled up turning the room into a glasshouse of sorts, so that the _galería_ is warmer than either the outside or the inside. > [@alphaboi867](#): > > Why was closing them off made illegal? If (big if) Israeli laws about how to calculate a house’s surface and therefore property rights and other fees, are similar to those of Spain, because enclosing the balcony rises the official surface. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2017, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-boxed-in-front-porch-why/581337/49 "2017-05-19T15:07:06Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > If (big if) Israeli laws about how to calculate a house’s surface and therefore property rights and other fees, are similar to those of Spain, because enclosing the balcony rises the official surface. That, and zoning issues - if, for aesthetic reasons, the city decides that the apartment buildings on a certain block should have open balconies, then that’s the way it has to be. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-boxed-in-front-porch-why/581337.md?page=2)