HI Everyone,

I have a house and for the last 8 years I have been trying to figure out the architectural style. I would appreciate any help you can give us. It was built in either 1936 (from city records) or 1938 from MSL. It is not a CA bungalow nor a ranch. It is sort of a mixture of a cottage and ranch house. I heard about the California Pacific Ready-Cut home kits and I am wondering if I am on the right track?? Here are pictures from the front. Some specific things to look for: the porch has vertical boards (batten?) not horizantal slats on side of house and under porch roof; built-in scallopy ledges under windows; brick wall which we sandblasted the paint off when we moved in; scalloped board edging hiding behind bouganvilleas; shutters; a window in the garage door; the knocker is original; mail slot with grating inside house.



There was at least one large remodel in 1991 before us which basically gutted the back but luckily the front of the house was left intact. There are few remnants of the older house still around. The shower and tub plus wall and floor tiling is original in the hall bathroom:

The bottom edge of the wall tiling where it meets the floor is corrugated.

We will be remodeling bathrooms and am going back and forth between keeping this style or going toward a beach/cottage style with bead boarding. But to decide I'd like to know if this is a cottage-type house or not. The kitchen was partially expanded and this is the only part that remained originally.

Those are original cabinets also. The kitchen will get updated and again I am debating about the scalloped look. I'd like to replace the cabinets but preserve the scalloped overhang. I'd like to preserve the vertical boards below the ceiling or reincorporate elsewhere in the kitchen.

Other photos show the "peep door", fireplace (grating is not fixed and not original), and hall drawers with "cracked ceramic" knobs but not sure if original. When we moved in the brick was covered with faux-marble tile. We didn't know the brick was underneath until a carpenter knocked off a piece of the tile and we found the brick around the fireplace and in front of it!!

I also found an original metal box for milk delivery in the sidewall where I think may have been a service porch. I think it may have had wainscoating but not sure. No sign of it. I wouldn't be surprised if it was torn out. Now it has this bumpy textured coating all over, including on the walls of the addition. Our neighbor whose been around in the neighborhood for at least 40 years says it can't be original.

Also, when the addition was done, they added a dining room to the living room and put two columns on each side -it's called a great room, but it's so boxy and ugly. I've been trying to find info on those built-ins they used to connect two rooms. I think it's called dividing room colonnades. I'm not sure if this is the correct name. Usually they had bookshelves or glass china cabinets built-in. If someone could confirm this, it'd be most helpful.

Oh and if this is any help, in the backyard there is a brick trash burning oven, also original, full of spiders and creepie crawlies.

Sadly, I have explored our neighborhood for a similar style house. What I can determine from hearsay is that there was one, two houses down but it got completely remodeled to only one standing wall. And there was one house a few blocks away that still had some scalloping on the porch and over the year, it got sold and they redid the porch and gave it a boxy look.

Thanks so much for any clues/ideas you can give us.

Hi. I took the liberty of reducing the size of you images and removing the interiors because your home is outside the scope of the Arts & Crafts movement.

You might want to take a look at Rosemary Thornton's article to see if you have a kit home. It's written about Sears homes but the general guidelines apply.

I love your house. Rosemary may be able to tell us if it is a Pacific Ready Cut. She and Dale Wolicki have written a book about Pacific Ready Cut homes so they would be the best authority on the subject. (PRC was in the house business until just before WWII, when they shifted to surfboards.)

For more houses from the 1930s, check out our sister site, www.antiquehome.org.
Rikki