Changing the front of our house and the ever-changing housing front
Good news – we got our loan to do our front porch / entryway work! Yay! What’s especially cool about this is that when we went into the banks to start the application process, we told them what we thought the value of our house was but we aimed pretty high, knowing that the appraiser would most likely be coming in to say “yep, it’s worth that much” or not. Somehow the numbers got mixed up, though, and the mortgage guy gave an even higher figure to the appraiser, who came back saying it wasn’t worth quite that much, but placed it almost exactly at the figure we originally gave. So in just about two years’ time, our house has increased in value by over 60% of what we bought it for. Not too shabby! Some of that is directly attributable to the appreciation of home values in our neighborhood overall, of course, but the new windows and some of the other work we’ve done were factors in the increased value, as well, so that feels good.
Anyway, this means that our front porch and entryway work can begin in the next few weeks, and the bulk of it should be done by late spring. The only part that will probably have to wait is painting, which will likely happen in the fall. And for the next little while, we’ll have to use our back door only, which will be weird. But I think it’s going to look great. I can’t wait.
For overall reference, here’s a shot of our house when we had scaffolding up last autumn while Karsten was doing the window trim work. You can start to see the direction we’re moving with the look of the exterior:
What you can’t see very well in that image is the front porch, which is perhaps the important feature on the house, architecturally and aesthetically. Linked to the image below is a set of detailed pictures of the existing front porch:
So here’s a little background: our most reliable sources indicate that the house was built around 1830. In all likelihood, it originally had a wooden front porch/staircase, which probably lasted a few decades but was replaced with a limestone staircase somewhere around 1850-1860. That porch/staircase was probably in need of repair in the mid 20th century and the homeowner chose to lay brick over top of the limestone. Unfortunately, over the years, that repair has actually made the structure less stable, adding weight to the columns, and at this point it is basically ruined:
On top of that, various parts of the doorway were replaced over the years, and the overall effect has been to diminish the charm of the house.
When we started evaluating our choices in renovating the staircase and porch, we examined whether to build it with wood or with concrete to simulate limestone. Karsten did extensive research on Federal and Greek Revival porticos (those being the two architectural styles most strongly suggested by other elements of the house), narrowed the options to a few, and sketched them to review with the Historic Commission (our scanner made them all crooked and I haven’t bothered to fix them).
This sketch suggests concrete steps with iron handrails and a wooden portico:
This sketch suggests wooden steps with wooden handrails and a wooden portico:
Either wood or concrete would have looked historic. We loved the look of the limestone porch and wanted to recreate that, but in talking with the Metro Historic Zoning Commission, we all agreed that the wooden porch and staircase is more authentic and appropriate.
So all that said, the all-wood designs are the ones that got approval from the Metro Historic Zoning Commission, and are the ones we are proceeding with.
Anyway, so Karsten will be outside today preparing the front porch for demolition (he’s removing the old bricks that were laid over the concrete so we can save them for patching up bricks on the house).
In the meantime, there’s a lot of movement in our neighborhood: our next-door neighbors just moved to the Waverly-Belmont area a few weeks ago; we’ve learned that some friends of ours in the Werthan Lofts are moving to Shanghai for three years, but when they come back they’ll be moving into a new development a few blocks down and over from us; and some other friends in Werthan are selling their loft and buying a single-family home on the other side of our block.
As for us, we plan to be here for a while. Despite how much work this place is, nowhere else has ever felt quite so much like home.
12 Responses to “Changing the front of our house and the ever-changing housing front”
Posted: Mar 17th, 2007 at 11:31 am
Oh, very interesting!
-J
Posted: Mar 17th, 2007 at 12:36 pm
wow, that all looks awesome. i LOOOVE your house. there’s actually a house down the street that looks so much like it, i always think of you guys when we drive past it.
i’ll take a picture of it the next time i go that way… maybe it’ll be inspiring somehow. or just “hey, cool - it’s parallel k&k house!!!!” but in the same universe… and different town. heh.
Posted: Mar 17th, 2007 at 1:40 pm
This sounds like so much fun! And those sketches are gorgeous.
Posted: Mar 17th, 2007 at 2:27 pm
Huh! Does it look like it’s from the same period too? And is it well preserved? I’d love to see other similar houses from the same era to see what the owners have done with them. So yeah, if you do remember to take pictures, I’d be thrilled to see them.
Posted: Mar 17th, 2007 at 2:38 pm
It really is fun, and it’s also incredibly educational. I consider one of the main benefits of this house to be the curiosity and perspective it gives me on life in the 19th century southern US. Not that there is much documented about this house — far from it, we’ve come up with nothing on most of our digging — but actually that’s part of what makes it fun: it’s more about imagining a series of overlapping stories about the people who’ve lived in this house over the years. Every time I dig up a broken piece of crockery in the garden, I think about the previous owners and inhabitants. It’s far more connected to history than I’ve ever felt.
(I’ll pass on the compliments on the sketches to Karsten. It was really fun when the contractor took one of these sketches and roughed in what the door will look like. If I can get my hands on a copy, I’ll scan that in, too.)
Posted: Mar 17th, 2007 at 3:50 pm
How fun! I just love your neighborhood. If I could live anywhere in the city, it would be in that area. Congratulations on your exciting new renovations!
Posted: Mar 17th, 2007 at 6:46 pm
Kate, I’m so crazy about your house… can’t wait to see the finished results of all this making over. But I’m definitely going to have to drop by and see it next time I’m up visiting with John, finished or not. I am just wild about old houses and yours makes my mouth water.
Posted: Mar 17th, 2007 at 9:24 pm
Of course! You have a standing invitation.
Posted: Mar 18th, 2007 at 1:20 am
to have you and Karsten in the neighborhood. You’ve heard me (and Lynn) say how much it meant for someone to take that house we had such strong feelings about..and for that someone to care and enhance that house. For those people to be wonderful, creative and caring people on top of all this is a damn fine bonus for the rest of us.
You and Karsten have done so much for the house that we couldn’t have done. I think it all worked out…the plans look great, and I’m exciting about seeing the hardest working man in show business out in front again. I miss seeing you both lately, and I really still appreciate hanging and having coffee with me the week of total suckiness. It was a nice thing.
Posted: Mar 19th, 2007 at 10:10 am
This is cool. I love remodelling things, and I love Germantown.
Can’t wait to see the finished product.
Posted: Nov 10th, 2011 at 3:47 am
schilderwerk…
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Posted: Nov 18th, 2011 at 3:12 am
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