As families grow homeowners may require extra space. An extra bathroom, bedroom, etc., is needed and adding onto a historic home may be difficult or impossible.
If an addition is not designed correctly it can destroy the integrity of the design and sadly become a Frankenstein house.
Realizing a family’s needs are changing and it is time to MOVE to a more suitable house is commendable.
We are merely stewards of a house passing it on to future families as preserved as we can. As John Ruskin stated “Old Buildings are Not Ours . . .”
So, while “Old House Living” is not for everyone. A new old style house can be built with New Reproduction House Plans that can be modified without harming history.
A New Old-House is a Great Idea.
A wonderful option for these families and anyone that loves the style of a vintage home but still would like to incorporate their own thing is to build a new house. You can still have that Queen Anne Victorian style you love built new without any fear of any negative impact. You will not be one of the homeowners in the article Death of a Cottage . See how the slightest changes build up over the years.
Beware of a Bad Interpretation of a Historic House
Today there are many Victorian Revivals and Craftsman Revivals being built, but most I see are design by architects that have no clue on what to do . I review many drawings for new period houses. Some are very well done but many just look like clowns. Different styles are combined, and proportion and balance is not considered. Current construction is stitched together with semi-traditional pieces of architecture. 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.
Traditional architecture and Classic design is no longer taught to architects today so we really can’t blame them for a bad design.
Unfortunately the burden falls on you the client, that must know better.
Don’t worry, there are Historic Preservation Architects with the traditional design training available.
They can design a 100 year old looking dream house to fit your new needs and you don’t have to worry about messing up a real historic house.
What Clients Designing New Construction Usually Do.
A client may first draw up a floor plan and find pictures of houses they like. They then bring this to an architect to interpret their needs and preferences into a design. The architect then draws up an elevation and floor plan for a new house. This is when the client will contact me to review the elevation. Correcting design problems is not always easy. It can be like fitting a round peg into a square hole. It will also be an extra cost by the architect for any revisions of his/her mistakes.
The biggest mistake made today is to begin designing a house on the interior. Never do that. The result is an unbalanced mess on the exterior. ALWAYS begin with the exterior! As all old homes you can tell what rooms are where from the exterior but not so much with new homes.
Still even with the best plans, the builder can easily modify them to cut his costs without you even noticing. When I worked on projects at the New Jersey Historic Trust, the architect was required to oversee the work of the builders and sign off on each phase. While this provides the homeowner with assurance it also costs the homeowner an additional fee.
Having an architect interpret your interests increases your costs.
One way to reduce this cost is to purchase already made plans.
Below is a listing of companies that offer replica historic house plans. If not very authentic, they are at least acceptable replicas of historic styled homes.
The job does not end here unfortunately. You may still need an architect for any modifications.
Watch the video below to see how a homeowner and an architect designing a house can go wrong.
you really should subscribe to this!
Historic House plans you can buy:
(not in any order)
The Bungalow Company
Period Craftsman, Bungalow, Farmhouse, Foursquare, Garage plans
Southern Living House Plans
Small, medium, and large homes. Craftsman, Farmhouse, Victorian
HOWEVER – it has been brought to my attention by a reader that the reproduction house shown above has some major design problems. I will still keep Southern Living listed here but you really have to be careful. Not sure? Just send me the link and I will take a quick look – hopefully a better look than what I did for the 1880’s house above!
Classic Colonial Homes
New England style Colonial, Saltbox, Gambrel, Cape, etc.
Home Patterns
Arts & Crafts, Bungalow, Farmhouse, Tudor
Historical House Plans
All sizes and styles including mansions.
Early New England Homes
Colonial, Cape, Saltbox etc.
The Plan Collection
Many styles. Arts & Crafts seems the best. Not all are original but mostly a revival style.
Antique Home Style Plans
This is an Old House Guy listing by year, a variety of authentic archived catalogs etc. You will find catalogs on furniture but also many home brochures that you can get ideas from and more importantly to study to make sure they house you are building is correctly designed. There are also builders catalogs to get a closer look at what was available at that time.
Allison Ramsey Architects
A variety of replica historic homes all sizes.
Storybook Homes
Currently not taking on any new projects.
Here is the link to what they offer although it is temporally down.
Bungalow Roots Architecture
Building new Bungalow dream homes.
There are other architects that produce authentic designs. Here is a sampling. I have not worked with any of them so please do your homework and be careful. You can always run a design by me.
Jran says
Do you have ideas of where o can find dogtrot reproduction. Plans?
Ken Roginski says
no I don’t, sorry.
Paul says
I like to browse Archive.org. They have original old home plan books from America as well as UK
Ken Roginski says
Yes I am waiting to include a database of those catalogs on my website. I love them!
Steve says
I am in the process of getting a new old Greek revival farmhouse designed, and am starting to think about material selections. While I’d love to use all traditional materials (such as cedar or hemlock clapboards), at some point I have to balance building an authentic home and also affording a home for my young family. Thinking about just the clapboards for instance, do you have any thoughts on the new beveled siding from Azek (which is about half the cost of wood)? It appears to be the most authentic cedar reproduction and allows for a true 4″ reveal. Couple that with their historic trim offerings and I’m beginning to think this would be a suitable alternative to cedar or hemlock with wood trims. I’m not the biggest fan of Hardie or LP Smartside as I think their reveals are just too large to look authentic, not to mention the fake wood look doesn’t fool anyone. Thanks!
Ken Roginski says
Hi Steve – I really like their porch flooring but I was not aware of their siding. It still is PVC and therefore is prone to warping if using a dark color that isn’t specially formulated. With wood it does not matter. It looks like a need to do more investigating, give them a call and do a blog about them since their product looks pretty good.
Update: sorry got mixed up with Aeritis not Azek.
Derek Smith says
Ken,
This is the one time I must disagree with you. The house displayed at the top of the article does not look like it was built in 1880. Instead, it looks like an attempt at looking like it was built in 1880. I think you will agree with the problems: 1. It is asymmetrical, which is not bad in and of itself, but it’s out of balance. 2. The massing of the house is just plain confusing. Arguably, the primary mass is that section of the house that is hidden behind the front gable (the section that has the most roof). Assuming it is the primary mass, note that it has a window on the right, but not one on the left. When I see that, I think–oops. 3. Then there is the secondary mass, with the front gable. It is just sitting on the roof of the porch. Although this house is probably not classified a McMansion, that front gable exists only to create some visual interest in an otherwise dull looking house, the same reason McMansions have gable after gable after gable. 4. Look closely, there is a 3rd mass peeking out behind the primary mass. It is the portion where you can see only half a window on the back right. I kind of feel sorry for it. It looks like the last child that the family didn’t want and who has to sit at another table to eat. Also, look at how this 3rd irrelevant tiny mass sits behind the primary mass on the right side, but it sits behind the secondary mass on the left side. Confusing. Confusing. 5. The windows are flat to the facade, eliminating any semblance of depth to the house. Also, the muntins of the windows are black. Look at the top windows, without the superimposed reflections of sky and trees, those windows would look like black holes, giving the house an abandoned look. (This is why the photographer had to superimpose the reflections, to avoid it looking abandoned.) 6. The far left bay window. I advise people to not spend extra money on bay windows, since most builders don’t know how to construct them anyway. To create a bay window that is really beautiful, one would have to hire a skilled architect on classical architecture and have the architect not only draw the specifications, but also be on-sight for countless hours instructing the subs on how to build it. That’s an expense that could be utilized more efficiently somewhere else on a house.
Ken Roginski says
WOW – You are 100% CORRECT!!! At first glance, and at first glance with so many houses, it looks good but really just a knock-off. This house is from the Southern Living House Plans collection. After writing this article I hastily looked for a house to post and found this one. I really did not look that close. I don’t want to remove it but I will state that it is not correctly designed and refer readers to your post. I am really happy to know that there are people like you that know their stuff. You really win the prize! Thank you!
Elliot says
Someone asked about old plan books; Dover publications sells reprints of most of them online, and most are less than $25.
(I have a couple dozen myself)