By Roberta Mintz Levine
Photography by Laura Petrilla

It's the connecting power of a porch that links the interior of our home with the breezy outdoors, providing a space that's open to neighbors, visiting friends and family. A porch offers a platform where endless conversation and laughter are heard, or it can provide a quiet sanctuary for reading or afternoon lounging. We visit five area homes that extend beyond the front door - welcome to porch living.

When my kids were younger, we started calling it "porch sitting," which sums up the activity of hanging out on the front porch and chatting with neighbors and friends and whoever wanders by. When my daughter, Sophie, who's now 18, was just learning to stand, we put her into a big cardboard box on the front porch and she'd hold onto the edges to look out, then plop down on her bottom to crawl around.

For many of us, the front porch makes our house a home. It's a place to relax and watch the world go by, an outdoor living room. We've photographed five porches in the Western Pennsylvania area, each with the unique stamp of the family that inhabits it.

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