At a glance
- The brief
- Add usable family living space and improve the connection from kitchen to yard.
- The site
- A narrow, steep backyard with sandy soils required retaining work and careful regrading.
- The work
- Porch, kitchen extension, grilling deck, lower hot-tub patio, and hillside pond.
- The palette
- Poured-concrete retaining walls, bi-fold doors, retractable screens, fireplace, and infrared heaters.
- Completed
- 2026
The Canopy Porch responds to a narrow, steep yard in Eden Prairie, where sandy soil and limited usable ground constrained the addition. Mom's Design Build also changed the house: its account describes squaring off a breakfast nook, extending the kitchen footprint three feet, and replacing windows with folding doors.
The kitchen connection came first
Those doors are central to the story. A porch can have generous seating yet remain awkward if its connection to the everyday kitchen is poor. Here, the indoor work and the outdoor room were considered together. The new threshold supports the family's movement between them instead of leaving an existing opening to determine the entire arrangement.
A hillside becomes more than one floor
The source identifies poured-concrete retaining walls and regrading as necessary parts of the site work. The porch is therefore supported by a larger reshaping of the landscape, not simply attached above an unchanged slope. The upper deck provides grilling and gathering space; below the porch, a previously underused area becomes a walkout patio with a hot tub and seating.
The different elevations suggest different occasions for use, a useful way to assess a hillside addition. The upper room belongs closely to the kitchen. The lower room has its own relationship to the basement and hillside. A similar design should be reviewed in section as well as plan, because an overhead drawing alone cannot explain those connections.
Comfort is adjustable
Retractable screens, a fireplace, infrared heaters, and a ceiling fan are listed in the firm's account. Together they provide choices about enclosure and comfort. They do not establish that another porch with the same equipment will perform identically in every season. Exposure, dimensions, and the actual products matter.
A koi pond was added later in the design process. The firm describes its placement as a way to introduce a focal point and help mask nearby freeway sound. That is a useful reminder to include what a site sounds like in the brief, alongside what it looks like.
At home
Ask the designer to show the kitchen floor, porch floor, lower patio, and hillside together. Follow a meal outside and a return indoors from the hot tub. Those two journeys can reveal needs that remain invisible in a furniture plan.
