Proposed design

A few things happening here: the porch is raised up to the door threshold, the porch has expanded outward in two directions so to allow both more legroom and movement, in addition to a barrier-free wheelchair space should it become necessary for the elderly couple to use such. And although the unique, original guardrail is not up to modern building standards, because a planter has raised the ground upward, there is no need for the railing at all. However, it can be used for decoration--which is one way of re-using original features that are no longer code compliant.