Old House Restoration Services to Improve Curb Appeal

This beautiful historic home is hidden under cheap fake siding and has fake windows. The owner plans to remove the siding and replace the new badly designed portico with one that reflects the style and period of the house.

This is an old workers cottage with painted brick. This simple small house had its character destroyed over the years by homeowners bad updating. Here the large picture window was removed and replaced with two double-hung windows to match the window above. The original windows were located at each end of the picture window so when they installed this newer window the two double-hung windows were removed and the brick between them was then removed. The unsightly aluminum awning was removed and replaced with a portico. The brick was painted.

Scope of Work:

• Picture window removed and replaced with smaller original sized windows.
• New portico.
• New period paint colors.

A gambrel roof is a character defining feature of a Dutch Colonial house. This gambrel roof above the porch however was covered up partially with red aluminum siding making the roof look like something strange. I guess the aluminum siding installer got carried away and didn’t know when to stop. In this rendition, the aluminum siding was removed and replaced with cedar shingles and new roofing shingles were applied on the roof. The fake diamond pane windows were replaced with traditional 6 over one windows and the window casings were put back where they were removed on the 2nd floor.

Scope of Work:

• New roof shingles.
• New shingle siding.
• New 6/1 windows and curtains.
• New window casing.
• Remove front gate.

This house is located in a historic district and approval is required for a new porch railing, steps, newel posts and painting. Aside from a new railing, all that was needed was paint color correction in the gables.

This is what the homeowner emailed me:

The Review Board meeting was on July 6th.  There were 6 board members plus someone from the Historical Preservation Society.  First they had a presentation regarding the awards that had been given in May.  I was the second application on the schedule.  The first guy (who lives about 2 blocks away) had a very detailed presentation but after they completely tore him apart I thought I was toast.  Luckily they loved the new stairs, railing and color choices.  Then they asked how I had gotten such a good rendering of the colors and new staircase and I told them about you and your website.  They pulled up the website and put it on the big screen and everyone was totally impressed.  I was surprised they had not heard of it, but in any case the application was unanimously approved and kudos given to your website.  The Preservation lady said to contact them when the job is finished and they will give consideration to giving the house an award next year.  I e-mailed her your contact details, so hopefully it will result in more business for you. They were all so interested in the website they hardly looked at my proposal at all 🙂

Scope of Work:

• Correct color placement.
• New period paint colors.
• New railing, newel posts, and steps.

This poor homeowner got a bad deal from an architect and didn’t even know it.  Notice the weird steep dormer on the garage that does not fit in. Fish scale shingles on the gables are good but why in the world would anyone put them under the eaves? Under the eaves you have frieze board trim which is in proportion to the house. Adding two courses of shingles i just plain insane. I see this being done a lot. Where do these designers come from? Removing them is the best option but here we just painted them to match the body color so they are not noticed.

Notice the house appears heavy on the right side. This is because the garage lacks windows.  The bay window should also not have siding but panels at its base.

Scope of Work:

• Paint out fish scale shingle valance to make it disappear.
• Add panels below bay window.
• Add two windows in garage to balance out the house
• Remove storm door
• Add shutters
• New paint color scheme.