hello all,
glad i found this forum. my wife and i have just purchased a house built in 1915 and i was wondering if anyone could tell me, is it arts and crafts, i'm sure it is, but i don't know about the exterior. the interior seems a&c from the research i've done but i can't find anything about the exterior.any help would be wonderful, we can't wait to get to work making it look beautiful angian.

outside

Hello Friend,
Having looked at the pictures I am not sure about the outside but, the columns are of the Gothic or Roman Style. The fireplace surround is also of the Gothic/Roman style as per my architecture books.

Respectfully,

Ralph Jones

Dear Ben 7,

Your house could be made to look more like an authentic A & C house. Here's how to get the job done.

Oh the outside, you have the brackets on the roof, the single window on the second story (front of the house), the railing, the shed dormer,and the use of three windows flanking the front door. These are all traditional A & C features. The full second story over the porch confuses the isssue a bit. It just makes it look less like a Bungalow or 4-square but it is found in some true A & C homes. What also happens is that the front of the house has features of other styles of architecture. The decoration located below the porch just screams Colonial or Greek Revival because of the rectangle design.

Now to make it look more authentic A & C, get rid of the rectangles and angle line on the stairs and porch. I don't know what the front door looks like (most of them have been replaced). Bbut if you change it out to an authentic style A & C door, that gives it more of the right feel for this style. Replace the lights (side lights around the door or lights in the porch ceiling) with something that screams A & C. You could also paint the house in a palette that is more tradtional A & C colors.

Let's look at the interior shot. The trim around your windows (those flanking the fireplace) and their placement is the proper style for for an A & C house. You could add built-in bookcases to flank the fireplace, and drop in a matching set of A & C style stained glass windows.

About that fireplace, Ralph is correct. Not only is it the thing that sets the tone for your room, it is a mixture of many styles--Greek Revival, Colonial, Williamsburgh, etc. The peweter colored insert with the corner floral decorations looks out of place. If that belonged to me I would get rid of it and find out what is behind it. I would put A & C reproduction tile on the hearth and if I could add it to the inside of the fireplace. Just add an A & C fireplace screen with some tools and it will make a world a difference.

Adding A & C antiques will also add to the ambiance of the house. You don't have to start with the big names like Limbert and Stickely. There is a bunch of generic furniture out there. You could put your TV on top of a library table--they are everywhere. It is easy to find rocking chairs. You could add some Rosevill pottery to the top of the fireplace and so forth.

Now your floor looks likes like brand new maple. Is it Pergo over wood? The light color is not what you have in A & C homes. Until you decide what to do, invest in a reproduction A & C rug for your next flooring purchase. That will help.

The windows look like they have been replaced. They lack any kind of A & C pattern in the mullions (vertical and horizontal patterns in windows). Depending upon who made them, you might be able to add A & C style mullions.

If you are really industrious, you could add a box bean ceiling to that room--but it is a lot of back breaking work and takes a toll on your neck. But it would be gorgeous. You could always hire it out.

Let's look at your columns. They are not designed like a typical A & C pillar. They are square with vertical lines carved into the shaft. The vertical lines make them look more Colonial than A & C. The base and the pedistal of the column is very square--that is in your favor. The stair step motif at the top of the column is wonderful and looks like it an innovative A & C feature. The half wall dividing the two rooms has a traditional waisncotting design that is found in a lot of A & C dining rooms. I almost hate to tell you this, but you might consider stripping the painted wood and taking it back to a medium or dark oak color.

This is like a ten year plan depending on budget and how much of the work you are willing to do yourself. This house has great A & C "bones" but who ever built it added other architectural styles to the house. If you get rid of what is not A & C the house will start to look like an true A & C home. I know that I have seen the style of front porch but I am not an expert in variations of A & C houses.

Good luck, have fun and don't go broke.

Bev.

first off let me thank both of you for your repies. as i said before this is my wife and i's first home we've purchased, and we move in 6 days form now. i have always loved homes from this era and cannot wait to bring this house back to it's original glory.

first off a little history on the house, it was going to be torn down by the montana housing authority in 1997 but the insides of the house were in such a condition that they decided to save it and bring it up to today's standards. so it was completely remodeled by them and sold. i have a meeting scheduled w/ the contracter that did the remodel as soon as he gets back from vacation, and am aslo in the middle of some research at the housing authority looking for pictures of the original condition of the house.

i have been told that the floors in the house, bev, are the original hard wood flooring. my wife and i thaugt that the new stain was a bit to light, and i guess that you believe so too. so we will be fixing that at some point. as well as the room divider. from my research i figured that i was going to have to remove the paint from this wood, i've also heard it is definently not the most fun job to do.

as far as the fireplace goes, i beleive the a&c style homes have more woodwork and less metal around them. what type of tile was most prevelent during this time period? my father-in-law works with a granite and tile company in miami so we can pretty much get what we need through him. as soon as we can figure out what it is we need. i guess i am going to do a little investigating behind the metal to see what's there.

i have already started a search for some stained glass windows for the two small windows above thte fireplace, and have figured that with my budget it might be cheaper to make my own using a pattern, but i need to do a bit more research on this subject. especially becuase all the windows were replaced w/ double pained during the remodel. as far as mullions......do you basically meanthe sides of the windows, bev?

i know that the outside needs to be repainted, and thank you for all the good idea's as far as removing the rectangle's and lines at the bottom of the porch in the front of the house. as far as repainting goes, where can i find a pallet of original a&c period exterior colors? i want to do some sort of yellow, but more importantly want use original color's on the outside of the house. any help with a place/info that could help me w/ palets from that time would be appreciated.

i'd loke to close by saying thank's agian so much for taking the time to answer my questions and i am so happy to have found a place and people with such knowledge on houses' of this era.

would also like to say sorry for the fact that i haven't used spell check, as i was typing fast with so many questions......lol

one more question for everyone.......can you dstroy an a&c home by completely modernizing the kitchen.........my other passion is cooking and regardless ofthe answers to this my kitchen is going to be slate floor/stainless appliances and a very modern opposite to the rst of the home, i just hope the the old saying is true that opposites attract

Having built two houses (cause we move across the country often), here is some info about stuff that we should have done differently. We found out the hard way that we had made some error in judgement with our first house but did it much better building our second house.

Do your stairs first. How do you live upstairs if you can't use the stairs? In the house that we built in NH, we let the builder put carpet down on the stairs. Then, there was never a good time with babies to put in hardwood treads and new railings. So, it never got done. I would recommend getting any carpet off the stairs, any paint off the railings, refinishing the wood and maybe doing your foyer and landing. That way you can enter your house, go up the stairs to the bedrooms while you work on the rest of the place. Otherwise, it is a mess. In our next house, we put in white oak stairs, railings and foyer when it was built. Then, we did the fireplaces, kitchen, tilework, etc. over the next five years.

Do it one room at a time. When you attack the whole house at once, it's easy to loose heart. Sometimes, you can work for years and not have a single room finished to show off all your hard work.

Plan it out like you would a project at work. Make yourself a time table and budget. And don't be afraid to hire some of it out. It might take years. You also want to budget some money to buy A & C furniture as you go along.

As for the kitchen, use black soap stone from Vermont--that is traditional. Put granite in a island. There are plenty of cabinets out there now that have A & C features. As long as you incorporate A & C elements in the kitchen, you should be fine.

I put a dark gray slate floor in a master bath, and it was hard to keep clean. It constantly continued to fracture and it was a very soft stone. When they laid down the grout, it dried in every bit of texture on the floor. I spent years with dental tools trying to pick it out when the mood hit me.

If you are going to use a soft, brittle stone for your kitchen floor, seal it several times before they put grout down. You might consider putting something down that would be easier on your feet. People are putting down cork--it gives and everyone loves it in the kitchen. A wood floor will give more than a tile or stone floor. It will be eaiser on your knees and back when you make the big Thanksgiving meal.

I hope this helps.

Bev.