Porch This modest and comfortable porch was the Eisenhowers' favorite room. Here Ike and Mamie watched TV, played cards with friends, and the General pursued his hobby of oil painting. The easel holds a reproduction of an unfinished painting of Culzean Castle, Scotland that he was working on in his last year of life. Eisenhower entertained many distinguished guests on his porch, shrewdly using it for diplomacy. He relied on its relaxed setting to encourage intimate conversations with visiting world leaders like Nikita Khrushchev of the Soviet Union and Charles De Gaulle of France.