The newspapers said this is an old house restoration.
Obviously they have no idea what they were writing about.
This house received a Restoration Award by the Freehold NJ Historic Preservation Commission.
A board of supposedly “qualified” people issued this award. Let’s look a bit further and see what a mess was created.
What is an old house restoration?
A definition for restoration is:
- The return of something to a former owner, place, or condition.
- The process of repairing or renovating a building, work of art, etc., in order to restore it to its original condition.
What is remuddling?
Remuddling is when the original character and integrity of a house is lost in the renovation process. Misguided improvements are made out of context and are insensitive to the character of the house.
See this beautiful 1890’s house.
A beautiful late Queen Anne house before it was remuddled.
They state that this is an old house restoration. Sadly this house was remuddled and this is how it appears today.
Old House Restoration gone bad. The integrity of this house has been vandalized by the owner who is an architect.
During the process everything historic such as millwork, doors, hardware, etc. were removed and sadly discarded into a dumpster. What a crime to the house and the environment!
The homeowner put history in the dumpster and the Historic Preservation Commission gave them an award.
Before this old house restoration the house was well kept and had great architectural integrity. It is sad that the homeowner couldn’t leave the house alone. It had survived over 100 years flaunting it’s historic character to passers by until now.
To the average person with the untrained eye, this new plastic siding is shinny and some will see it as an improvement. Look at the before and after photos above again and let me explain the changes that should have not been done.
Although the house cannot be considered ugly as it stands today, it no longer retains its inherent good architectural design. Part of the porch is enclosed and the house is now covered with unhealthy plastic siding.
The facade of the house features three different styles of windows – Six-over-six, six-over-one, and four-over-one. Two sets of windows are rectangular and one set contains square window panes. The goal seemed to have been the mish-mash look of a McMansion – not to mention the homeowner is an architect who you would think would have some knowledge of what an old house restoration is! The architect is evidently more accustomed to McMansion design.
Definition of a McMansion from Wikipedia:
…mix multiple architectural styles and elements…multiple roof lines, unnecessarily complicated massing…producing a displeasingly jumbled appearance. The builder may have attempted to achieve expensive effects with cheap materials, skimped on details,or hidden defects with cladding…Sold to “parvenu” – those having new money but lack the necessary refinement. The definition of parvenu on Wikipedia references Molly Brown survivor of the Titanic – who went from rags to riches over night. (See the movie “The Unsinkable Molly Brown”starring Debbie Reynolds ).
Obviously, this house was not designed nor meant to feature six-over-one or four-over-one windows. One-over-one windows would undoubtedly work much better. Scroll up and notice the simple elegance of the windows on the original house.
Also notice that the trim is in a tan color which works well with the teal blue. But why is the balustrade on the roof and the hand rail at the steps white and not tan? These elements should match. Were they an after-thought? Is this an example of this owner/architects work?
This house should have matching windows. Now there are rectangular and square window panes. This means that the wrong size windows were used.
The window could not be designed any worse. Never ever use a picture framed window.
Notice the windows are “picture framed”. This is a window frame WITHOUT a sill at the bottom or a drip cap at the top.
It therefore looks just like a picture frame with mitered joints at all four corners which allow easy infiltration of water. (Water damage will not be noticed under the vinyl until it gets bad enough to be see indoors.)
There is no to sill provide a base. Your mind interprets the sill as a support base. Now all you have the appearance of a hole in the siding of the house.
The sill would allow water to run off and away from the building. A drip cap above the window casing would also deflect water. That will not happen here for these important feature are missing. Never picture-frame a window!
There is a lot to understand about good and bad window design and why this design is important which cannot properly be explained here. Click here to better understand window design .
The Gable
There are fish scale shingles in the gable. When using a secondary siding material such as fish scale shingles, there needs to be an architectural separation between the two where the siding changes. On the original house this would work well. By adding a belt course or band at the base of the gable, this area would then be neatly separated from the lower portions of the house. Read more about decorative shingles .
However on the remuddled house, the roof on the right side of the gable extends lower. The band or belt course installed extends from the lower corner of the gable on the left, to a random area on the right side not an opposite end of the roof. The architecture is not there to visually connect or create a breaking point there for a separation. The fish scale shingles seem out of place and a sense of balance is lost.
If the roof did not slope down farther on the right, the horizontal band separating the fish scale shingles from the square shingles below would look fine. This was not done. Can you see and feel the disharmony?
It is really sad as to what was has been done to this house. All traces of its historic integrity have been blatantly destroyed. But the sage gets worse.
Pork Chop Eaves.
The eaves of the house has been converted to Pork Chop eaves. This is a sure sign that the designer had no understanding of architecture. Briefly, this is a cheap way to convert a good design into a design commonly used on McMansions. Read all about roof eaves and the awful pork chop eaves here.
Old house restoration award is presented.
To top it all off, the Preservation Commission presented the homeowners with a RESTORATION AWARD (go back to the top for definition of Restoration). A Preservation Commission is viewed as an authority on preserving the character of old homes and although preservation cannot be enforced, it should be promoted and understood – at least a little if you are a member.
The homeowner was awarded for the desecration of history – not an old house restoration. The HPC is not only setting a very poor example for others to follow, they are encouraging other homeowners to do the same. One of the purposes for having a Preservation Commission is to educate and set an example. Awards were granted to two homes, the other awarded home was very much deserving. Here is a link to the news article – preservation awards . It’s funny in a sad way.
The article really shows that the architect-homeowner, and the councilman Marc LeVine on the Historic Preservation Commission have no clue about an old house restoration or what they are talking about. It’s just political garbage.
The important thing to keep in mind is just because your town has a Preservation Commission does not mean that your dwindling historic resources are protected (actually I can write a book about this). A false sense of security provided by a Preservation Commission is more dangerous than having none at all. Homeowners and commissions must understand that they are stewards for historic buildings.
Also, there is a big difference between an architect and a preservation architect as you can see in this example. Many architects, although they may love old buildings, should stay far away from them and leave them to a architect specialized in preservation. This homeowner-architect is someone that should stay far away from vintage homes!
Vintage homes need someone that knows what they are doing. Would you take your 90 year old grandmother with a heart condition to a General Practitioner or a Heart Specialist?
Wow, it was painful enough to read this article and see the doors out by the dumpster, but then to see that this was given an award by the very people who are supposed to uphold sound historic rehabs? Sadly, many preservation commissions are more like the “pretty police” you find in the new gated subdivisions than actually interested in history or historic architecture. I totally agree with your point about a false sense of security being more dangerous than no security at all. Thanks for this post!
Well, it is not the worst I’ve ever saw, but really, why take out all that good stuff to put in stuff that will break and get brittle with time?
My pet peeve is the porkchop soffits–even adding ventilation to soffits does not require that brutal end cap, but builders do it because that is what they know and is readily available. The railings are white because vinyl railings come in a limited range of colors, but a brown to go with the window sashes would have been better.
Flash old drip caps and reglaze old windows and add storms, don’t replace. This cost a mint and will need to be redone completely rather than fixed. Not worth it in the long run, but we don’t think that way anymore.
Wow, this architect and preservation commission should be ashamed. Ignorance is not bliss in this case. I would be calling for the resignation of everyone on the preservation commission. The architect should find a new career.
Ken,
This truly was “eye-opening” and a wake-up call to we who are trying to imitate classic design. I have shared with you already we are anything but well-versed in any kind of architecture, but your trained eye here has caused a great deal of insecurity for us!
How can it be considered a historical preservation when you wrap the house in vinyl!!! What a joke! Also, those doors and their hardware are irreplaceable. Shame on them.
Did anyone sue you over your scathing article? It made me cringe a bit. But I do agree with you as I thought the original home was so nice.
Ha Ha – I actually paid to promoted this on face book locally to the homeowner and sent the article to the town council. Shocking that the homeowner is an architect. Hope he doesn’t ruin any other homes. As for the HPC that endorsed this, they are a lost cause and a danger to any historic building. So sad!
What does one do in the absence of a historical picture to go by? The only “historical” picture we have is from a 1949 newspaper article about a tornado that hit our town. Only a small section of the house is visible, but we spotted a piece of gingerbread trim and dentil details in the front gable. This is confusing as the front entrance has Tuscan style columns supporting the stoop’s roof.
I have spent a year trying to research the history of our house. We cannot determine from courthouse records when it was built or who the builder was. Interior features point towards Victorian, somewhat Queen Anne style, with coal burning fireplaces, elegant mantles, mirrors, and tile surrounds. Based on the floorplan, I finally identified our house as a New South Cottage, which were only built from 1890 to 1910 in Georgia.
Previous owners remuddled the house (vinyl siding, fake wrought iron railings, orange shag carpet from the 1970s, asbestos tile flooring from the 1930s, etc.). Thankfully, many original features remain: wood floors, original windows, plaster walls, clawfoot tubs, a pocket door.
We believe there must have been a wraparound porch originally, but it was long gone by the time we bought the home in 1998. Back then, we focused on making the house livable: roofing, updated electrical panel, plumbing upgrades, eradicating vermin that had taken up residence, etc. Now we are undertaking a major project: another new roof, foundation repairs, and rehabilitation of the original windows, including transoms, two bullseye leaded glass windows, and an enormous box head window.
We want to add a porch, and we want to build something that will look like it’s been part of the house all along. I have read your e-book on porches. How do we decide what style of porch is architecturally correct for our house?
Hi Beverly I know what you are doing is not easy. First did you look at the sanborn maps? https://www.oldhouseguy.com/sanborn-fire-maps/
That is the first and most important and also most fun. You can also check with the neighbors. I have more pictures of my father with the neighbors house in the background than his house. Another option is to trace back previous owners. There is a good chance that the builder built other houses nearby that may be similar. This can really be tricky to recognize but go for some walks and really focus on the other houses which is not easy since they can be the reverse of what you have – door on the right instead of left.
Check this out then email me and I can take a look.
My neighbor “renovated” their house in the same manner, everything historic including windows, trim etc. was in a huge pile in their backyard. If only I could I would have saved everything and filled every available space I had to rescue the stuff…
Ken, great writing. Keep up the good fight.
I commented earlier but want you to know that I totally agree with your comments here. Alot of what happens is as Kathy said, you use materials that are readily available ; vinal railings and lo-e vinal windows (no sill) and “maintance free siding. I am not getting any younger and as much as I really do enjoy painting, hauling around 30-40′ ladders or scaffolding is for young kids. Or who can afford or find a skilled, qualified carpenter or painter anymore. That is if you don’t have lead paint!
If you are one of them, God bless you!