Caution Homeowners!
Can You Really Trust Your Contractor?
Just because your contractor is skilled, and loves old houses and renovating a home, does NOT mean your contractor knows about or is qualified to provide old home restoration services. Working on old houses requires special knowledge. Old House Guy has this expertise and will help you work with your home remodeling contractors to get the results you’re looking for!
Your house is our priority. We only do what’s right for your house!
Trust Old House Guy to Come Up With a Plan for Your Home Remodeling Contractors
Whether You’re Restoring Victorian Homes or maintaining a 1980 Cape Cod. You may not realize you need our Services!
- Phone Consultations
- Virtual Consulting and house makeovers by email
- New construction review and additions
- Paint Color Consulting
Two Happy Homeowners With Disastrous Results
Recently we worked with two happy homeowners looking for home restoration services. One couple wanted to remodel their 1990’s house to appear more traditional so it would fit in better with the older homes in the area. The other homeowner had an 1870’s Victorian that needed some minor work.
Both of these homeowners were very excited to share their plans and the wonderful creativity of their contractors. They were so happy to spend their money on modifications they really believed would look good. But all they were left with was bad design.
You can’t really blame the overly enthusiastic contractor or the homeowners. They’re both exposed to so much bad design; they can’t help but want to reproduce it. What they needed was the expert guidance of Old House Guy, masters of traditional home design and old house renovation.
Girls Gone Wild?
There is a video out there about Spring Break called Girls Gone Wild. Someday I will make a similar video called, “Contractors, Architects, and Homeowners Gone Wild.”
Yes you can make a new house have more of a period or traditional appearance but you must understand traditional architecture! More importantly you need to know what NOT to do.
Traditional architecture is something today’s architects are no longer taught unless they are specialized in historic preservation. For an old or new house, this training is essential!
Just because a homeowner spends a lot of money on a project and does a lot of work doesn’t mean the house will look good. It can still look all wrong.
Many of the people who try the hardest to make their house look good are the ones that fail.
A homeowner who’s renovating a home will get wrapped up in their project and not see the problem so they keep buying and buying: New light fixtures, new landscaping etc. They don’t realize these are merely distractions from the fundamental issues they and their home remodeling contractors have created. After all this expense they finally convince only themselves their house looks good. And it usually only looks good to the UNTRAINED eye.
Here is an example of a house that may look nice to the untrained eye but there are many mistakes that go unnoticed. See traditional home design mistakes here .
Just remember that future homeowners will scrutinize what you do to your house. There is a lot to understand about architectural design and old house restoration services .
The following is an excerpt by Steve Mouzon that explains what people do to their old and new homes.
. . . historic homes consist of misshapen pieces of modern or Disneyland interpreted traditional architecture stitched together with no clear vision of what the result should be. The same is for current construction stitched together with semi-traditional pieces or architecture.
Most people probably can’t explain exactly what is wrong with this sort of building because there are just enough traditional pieces thrown in to make it look vaguely traditional at first glance just as Frankenstein looked vaguely human at first.
Trust the Guidance of OHG’s Old House Renovation
Do not make this mistake – I will help you! You can buy books and study design or you can ask Old House Guy. No matter what you decide to do to your house, at least you will understand your options and be a better-informed and educated consumer at a just a small cost.
There are great sites like Houzz that offer advice too. Just because 100 people tell you to do something does NOT mean it’s right.
Remember you can’t always trust your contractor or architect. You may need to educate them in correct design for your house. Unfortunately that’s how it is today. Let the buyer beware! Let us help you!
If you’re planning a project and want a partner with education and experience renovating a home, Click Here to contact The Old House Guy today .
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We can help you too so you can help your clients. Contact us.