Oh, that sounds wonderful. I grew up in a house with a screened-in porch (floor-to-ceiling screens) all the way across the back. It had exactly what you want. My dad had storm windows that replaced the screens come fall. It may be expensive, but it can definitely be done! I loved that space and would give just about anything to have it in my house now. Good luck!

Juliecat, we screened in our covered front porch using the
ScreenTight system found at HoDe and L's. Other than my
hubby shooting himself through the finger it's was a very
easy DIY project so I'm sure any contractor would be able
to use this system. Having had to replace all the screens
already, it seems grasshoppers will eat standard
fiberglass screening, I can tell you it's easy to remove
the screen and install new screen too.
Anyway here are some pictures of the process.
We removed the porch ceiling and framed in the area to be
screened.

The framing was painted and then we put on the first part
of the two part screen system.

Close up of first part/track system where the screening is
attached just like you would in a window.

I'll ad more when I can. At this point I kept getting an
error on TinyPic. I'll see if Photobucket is working
today. It wasn't yesterday. I'm pretty sure I have more
pictures of the process there.
I'm sorry for such large pictures, but again TinyPic is
not working properly. At least you can see the details! LOL

We have a porch system by Harvey Industries. It has removable glass and screens so it is three-season. There is a very low panel, which I like. It gives a sense of enclosure while not blocking the view. It also keeps my little guy (mostly) off the screens.

Justgotabme-can't wait to see more pix! Can I ask a silly question? Why did you remove the ceiling? Luckily, we had our porch wired for 2 ceiling fans when we built the house. The electrician looked at us like we were nuts when we requested this, and now we know why-it gets pretty windy out here in the country! :-) But we plan on installing the fans when the porch is screened in.

Amysrq=LOVELY porch! I am attempting to google Harvey, and not coming up with much yet....I will keep looking. I am hoping to find a system that will use some really wide panels.

Juliekcmo-good idea to screen under the porch, but that would entail pulling all of the boards up......but I will mention it to the contractor! Thanks!

Our screened porch had to have a knee wall due to it being so high off of the ground, but I also like it so that the animals won't run into the screen. We also have screening under the floor boards. If you have any decent clearance under the porch, it can be added from below. Grasshoppers and caterpillars will eat fiberglass screens, so we went with aluminum this time, but there's also a very strong pet-resistant screening available now.

We didn't use a system of any type; the contractor just attached the screens behind boards that screw into the supports and knee wall. It's easy to unscrew the boards to replace the screens, but thankfully we haven't needed to do that yet. Also, I do remember seeing a poster on the Building a Home forum that used screened doors as removable panels for his screened porch, and it worked well and looked nice. I don't remember the poster and it was a few years ago, but you might ask or search there. If you want wider panels, I don't see why your contractor can't build them the width you want since your porch is existing (so you don't need to worry about how many supports you need). Good luck! We *love* our screened porch and really live out there during the warmer months!

Here is a link that might be useful: Building a Home forum

Juleecat, here's another idea for you if you already have the structure in place. Just throwing out ideas...

Here is a link that might be useful: Mosquito curtains

No pictures, but we did this in our last home. We had a front approach area, ceiling over head, cement walk, railed in on the side along the garage to the front door. It was a split entry. DH purchased screening from the local big box store and a staple gun. He did put some trim pieces along the railing also and added a door at the open end near the driveway. It is still there when we drive by. All the neighbors thought it was a fabulous idea. It can and has been done! I am sure your contractor will have no trouble making this happen for you.

Okay, here we go.
This first picture shows a close up of the screen installed in the black track.
{{!gwi}}
You can see my hubby's bandaged hand in this picture where he's starting to install the cap. A honkin' nail in his finger didn't stop him.

And here shows how easy it is to tap the cap in place with a rubber mallet.
{{!gwi}}
And how it looks in place.
{{!gwi}}
And the finished porch from the outside, though we didn't notice until after the picture was taken that we had a piece of siding to fix.
{{!gwi}}
{{!gwi}}

And to answer your question. we removed the ceiling so we could nail the framing to the beams. Our home is vinyl sided so it wouldn't have been as solid of fit without doing so.
We live in the country and it's windy here most of the time too, but we now have a ceiling fan for those times when it isn't windy. Let that contractor laugh all he wants. You'll be glad you have them.

Thanks soooo much for all the pix! Looks fantastic! DH and I went to Lowe's over the weekend, and I think we will end up doing this ourselves with Screen Tight. Our plan is to place studs 48" and place the screen in long strips of 7 1/2 feet from top to bottom, to eliminate the piece of wood half way up........any thoughts as to why this wouldn't work? I need to call the manufacturer to inquire, as well. Anxious to hear what the contractor has to offer this morning, but this looks like a winner to me! (I also picked out the same door-it's VERY reasonable!)

Other than the mishap with the framing nailer it was really an easy DIY job. The only thing about not having the middle rail I can think of is for ease of installing the screening in smaller sections. We planned on installing a sawn ballustrade, but not sure now we'll do that since we had replace the standard fiberglass screening with solar screen to keep the grasshoppers from eating it. It's fiber glass too, but thicker threading so they can't get their chompers around it to chew.
You can see that we not only had a grasshopper problem but a Japanese beetle problem too. We live in the country surrounded by corn fields so there's always bugs of some sort bugging us.
Make sure to check availability of the size screen you need to finish it the way you want. We have a hard time finding the solar screen now in longer lengths without special ordering it. It's way higher priced that way too.
{{!gwi}}
Here's a picture of the interior after we replaced the screen. I found that table and chairs on CL for only fifteen dollars. I'd yet to recover the chairs in this picture. We now use my wicker chairs with this table.
If you have cats you may want to rethink not having the railing. Mine, three of which you can see in this picture, love walking on it. Oh and if they have front claws they can damage regular screen when stretching. So again the Solar screen was a better choice for us.
{{!gwi}}

Yikes! Those are some hungry critters! :-) We have screens on the windows in the back of the house, and the bugs haven't damaged them at all in 8 years, so I am going to cross my fingers, toes and eyes and hope they leave the porch alone! The contractor this morning suggested stapling aluminum screening to the cedar posts, and screwing on a thin cedar facing over the staples so they would be accessible if we need to do repairs. Will await his quote, and if more than we want to spend, I think we can tackle the screen-tight system. Will post pix when completed. Thanks for all of your help! BTW, we have 2 elderly cats, no front claws, and they will love lying on the floor-not sure they are limbre enough to walk the planks! :-)

You know having done this project using the ScreenTight system there's no way I'd want something I had to unscrew to change any of the screens. The track is screwed on, as you can see in the pictures, but the rest is snap on and off. So easy. Even better than that is no painting or chance of rod or mildew.
We never had the grasshopper, or other bug problem, in the city so you probably don't need to worry about it.
Bless your kitties, they will love it. We have four four year olds and they love going "outside". Our little Tommy, the smallest kitty you can see on the table top above, comes and meows at me until I go open the door to the porch.

Ahhh....but we ARE in the country.........lots of crickets and beetles, but I have so many perennials and roses, I think they bypass the window screens! We also have plenty of bird feeders around-the bluejays eat peanuts from our hands, they are so spoiled! They may be helping to keep the bug population at bay, as well.....your kitties are adorable!

Hmmm.... you live in the country and you don't have grasshoppers? 8^0 Lucky you! Thankfully they aren't bad every year, but when they are.... oh my!
Thank you for the comment about my kitties. I'm as obsessive over cats as I am Dan's music. Our daughter is named after my first kitty. Thankfully she was named Katie and not Tabby.

My mom talks about putting in a patio room all the time so I looked into that Harvey Industries room above. I found Harvey Building Products (they have patio rooms). Also, the mosquito curtains I have seen before on a home I dog walked. They wanted a screened in porch but rented, so it was a great alternative for them.

Here is a link that might be useful: Harvey Industries = Harvey Building Products

Sunshine, thanks for the link. I was able to find it a few days ago-I think we want something more casual than the product they offer. And the mosquito curtains sound great, but its so windy here, it wouldn't be a practical solution.

Justgotabme....too funny about naming your DD after your cat. We did the opposite-if we ever had a daughter, her name was going to be Julee. Alas, God sent us all boys. Went to the Humane society to adopt a kitty, and as soon as we saw the little black kitty with a cage card that said "Hi. My name is Julee"..........she came home with us! :-) She is now 15 yrs old, and still pretty much acts like a kitty, but her sister, who we adopted the next month, is also 15,and she certainly acts her age. But they are sweet, and keep us amused, and they are tolerant of our grandbabies, so we'll keep 'em! :-)

Oh that's funny that you have a cat named what you'd have named a daughter had you had one. My hubby wasn't too sure about naming our daughter after a cat, but agreed since he liked the name. I had to promise not to tell her though. She now knows but not because I told her. She was looking through an old photo album of mine one day and saw one of my precious Katie atop a ladder in our back yard. She was four at the time and loved kitties. When she asked me the kitties name I said "Katie". Her eyes lit up and she said "just like me!". I replied "yes, just like you" and that was that. Not sure she realized then she was named after her, but she understands that now. She's 26 and still adores kitties. We have her kittie Jazmyn now since she moved in with friends that didn't want her. She knew I'd not let her down in taking her baby for her instead of taking her to the pound even though we already had three kitties the same age. They are all about four years old now. None related by blood, but all family.

This thread is just wonderful! I have kitties and have been thinking about how to screen in our porch. Thank you all for the wonderful ideas and pictures :)

Stained or clear finished beadboard ceiling. Lends a wonderful warmth to the space.

Lavendar lass, you're kitties will love you for it. It's a great place for humans too! Our little Tommy (the one on the table in the above picture) is begging me to go out side with him right now. For some reason lately he wants me with him. He "talks" allot about the porch. My hubby thinks it's funny how I understand him. Not hard since he usually wants the same thing. The door open to the porch or me to go with him if it's already opened.
wwwonderwhiskers I wish we had beadboard, but out home is vinyl sided so the ceiling is too. It doesn't look bad, but I'd like it to be a pale blue.

I was just wondering how to paint our vinyl porch ceiling pale blue!!! :-) I'm sitting on the porch now, and it's POURING. Gotta love these covered porches. Can't wait until its screened in........

Well it can be done Juleecat, but then you'd have to repaint it if it peeled. Which it probably would. You'd either have to prime it or remove it and spray it with the paint made for plastics. Not sure if they have a color that would be appropriate though. I'm sticking with the white. We have too many other things to do that paint the ceiling of the screened in porch.
I'm with you on loving a covered porch though. When we get caught up I want to add a roof and close in (three season like) the porch off our master bedroom making it a true sleeping porch.

You might also enjoy the inspirational photos in our gallery in our porches thread.

Here is a link that might be useful: Porches

Justgotabme-can't wait to see more pix! Can I ask a silly question? Why did you remove the ceiling? Luckily, we had our porch wired for 2 ceiling fans when we built the house. The electrician looked at us like we were nuts when we requested this, and now we know why-it gets pretty windy out here in the country! :-) But we plan on installing the fans when the porch is screened in.

Amysrq=LOVELY porch! I am attempting to google Harvey, and not coming up with much yet....I will keep looking. I am hoping to find a system that will use some really wide panels.

Juliekcmo-good idea to screen under the porch, but that would entail pulling all of the boards up......but I will mention it to the contractor! Thanks!

Here is a link that might be useful: click

My Guess is that's SPAM above since it's an exact Copy of what Juleecat wrote above.

Or she just wants us to decorate our porches with her oil paintings!!!! :-)

justgotabme-

What kind of dog is that? Looks like a PWD, he/she is so cute!!

Terger, if you are talking about the black critter at the right side of the one picture, she's a Maine Coone cat. Precious but large. Luckily she liked our Maggie dog so she won't be offended by being called one.

Clickable thumbnails
Mollee was the smallest three month old cat I've ever seen. And I've seen many many kittens in my life:

At four months old with our beloved Maggie doggie (as you can see she is much larger in one months time. We swore she visibly grew over night):

Year Old (Maine Coons don't get to full size until the age of three and she rarely lets me take her picture anymore):

Close up of her precious face when she was PO'd at me for taking her picture one too many times:

As far as painting vinyl? Check out the Duron paints. I forgot the name of theirs particularly good on vinyl siding.

When I have the $$, I plan to paint my entire house. Someone gave me the siding, and for years I had nothing but plywood and tyveck paper. I was grateful, but still really dislike the color.

I was thrilled to see Duron offering something like this. I figure by the time I can afford it, it will be even better.

On your ceiling, which is protected? I don't think you'll have any peeling if you prepar it properly.

Thank CEF, that's nice to know.