My partner and I recently sold our loft and purchased a great new home. After digging through the crawl space under the sunroom, we ran across a suitcase of old documents. Inside the suitcase was information on when the house was built and who built the home.

After doing a significant amount of research, we discovered that our house was featured in the 1960's edition of Better Homes and Gardens. The estate we purchased the house from, was the link to Better Homes and Gardens. The widows late husband was one of the editors for the Meredith Corporations here in Des Moines.

We've completely remodeled the inside of the home, and we are working on the exterior. We want to make sure that we fit the exterior landscaping with similar styles when the house was built. we would like to see other homes like ours and see how they are landscaped on the outside. Any help would be great.

Unlike other GVT homes of this style, ours seems to be the only brick one that we've ran across, all others seem to be sided or stucco.

Here is a page from the Gordon-Van Tine Homes catalog -1920 for comparison. #535 model kit home.

The brick on your house is really great. I think that kind of thing has become a lost art.

Lauren

Great house!! I especially like it because we own one too!! I like the brick, our's has wood siding instead of the stucco. We would love to see pictures of the interior to see what you have done. I have attached the 535 from the 1918 plan book, the plan is very similar to the Glencoe but the closet arrangement is very different. Please let me know how we can help I was lucky to have the original owners leave a great deal of paperwork including blueprints to our home.

Nick and Holly

1918_G-V_T_Homes_Catalog_(dragged).pdf (959 KB, 15 downloads) Add from 1918 planbook

The inside of our house is similar in certain areas. But it seems like out house was flipped around. The livingroom is on the other side of the house as it is in the plans. And our staircase is open and goes straight up, it doesn't curve around or go back. We have a large butlers pantry off the kitchen with a very small bathroom that was added on when the house was built.

Everyone of the windows is original, including the inside with the 3 sets of French doors.

I have pictures of the inside I will post this evening. I would love to see the inside of yours also, to compare the difference.

Tim

Tim I have photos posted on our flickr site
http://www.flickr.com/photos/n...s/72157622743205474/

Here is a slide show of Nick and Holly's house. Lauren

Thank you Lauren for pasting this. Please note that most of the pictures are from the previous owner. Holly and I are still painting refinishing the floors, before we move most of our own stuff in and finish the decoration. Many of the projects planned over the next months are the little details (push button light switches, period correct hardware on cabinets, and the like)that make a house go Wow!

We are always open to suggestions but I wanted to make sure everyone understood that our decorating style is not as fussy as the photos may imply. Nick and Holly

N&H, when you add more photos to the set, or if you remove items from the set, they should play on this slide show automatically.

Can't wait to see the progress of the restoration.

Lauren

Added:
{History of the Drake Neighborhood}

Drakeboy,

Very nice place! Are you South of Grand?

We are not South of Grand. Looking at the house you would think we are, but we are actually in the Drake Neighborhood.

I changed out the catalog scan above for the correct image and floorplan.

L.

Ok everyone...this is the first set of pictures that I have of the inside of the house.

I'll get the sunroom and other rooms later. I'll post to let you know when they are there. Along with the outside landscaping that is going on.

Thanks,

Tim

http://www.flickr.com/photos/44438526@N04/show/

That is amazing how different the two staircases are. Both homes are just lovely! Makes me want to take a trip to Iowa!

Tim, a couple of obvious differences and a couple more subtle differences.

Obviously the entry ways are very different.
Does the door next to the stairs lead to the butlers pantry? On ours the pass through door leads to the service hall way. During a renovation the previous (Second) owner placed a door between the service hallway to the living room.

Windows you have one over one and we have six over one. Are the window boxes original? That is one feature we plan on adding back this spring. Can you take some measurements and pictures and send them to me?

Entry door. We have quarter side lights you have the full length side lights.

At the top of the stairs is there a window on the "back" wall? Our original owners deleted this window from the plan, which is a shame the stairwell would benefit from natural light.

On the sun porches do your windows open out or in? The original builder placed the windows so they would open out; to later find they were meant to open in. I was wondering what your experience with these windows have been? We had them all open the other day and it felt like we were outside. Currently we do not have screens in the windows but will work to fix that as time goes by.

Your floors look amazing! We are having ours refinished but all of the upstairs was done in a straight grain pine that we hope will refinish nicely.

Sorry for so many questions it is wild to think someone has a house so similair several states away.

I realized that I have not taken very many pictures and will try to add pictures of the kitchen and upstairs this week. Thanks for sharing your house with us and let me know if you want to see a specific feature of our house. Nick

Nick,

It's very funny to think that we have a similar house so many states away.

When you enter into the house through the front door, along the side of the staircase, there is a door that takes you into the Butler's pantry. In the pantry there is a door to the back patio, a coat closet, the bathroom and the door to the tuck under garage.

At the top of the stairs, there is a large window.

As far as windows, we have the original windows inside and outside the house. When you look out or in, you can clearly see the beval in the glass. Inside the house, in the French doors the glass in also original. The windows in the sunrooms open up. This is really cool. When you are standing at the window, looking out, look at the bottom right hand corner of the window. See if there is a pin that is hammered into the wood. Each one of windows has this, these are the markers for the winter storm windows and the summer screens. We have 43 windows in the house, not counting the bay (bow) window on the second floor. The original screens are long gone, but we have a few of the winter storms that are on the triple windows on the sides. These have the correlating pin number attached to those as well.

The windows in the sun room are 48 inches wide and 56 3/4 inches tall. These are all original. We just had Pella windows at the house giving us an estimate on what it would cost to have all the windows replaced with their Architect Series. That won't be happening, not for $70,000. I'll have winter storms built before I'll spend that much on windows.

The floors are in great shape, but the foundation was not so lucky. On our lot we have 4 MASSIVE White Oak trees that are somewhere around 100-200 years old. The one in the back is so large that it grew through the terracotta block foundation. When the renovation took place we had to put in a new block wall. There are now two metal I-beams running the length of the house bringing it back to level. We don't have AC yet, we just put in a new furnace last year, the one that was there was 50 yrs old and working, but very inefficient. AC will come in time.

We also have a tuck under garage that is greta. It's tandem, but we can fit two cars in it without any problems. The other side of the garage is storage along with the old coal room. Thr tuck under garage has given us some problems. The first year we moved in, Iowa had major rainfall amounts, needless to saym, we had a large amount of water in the basement, inches. Theretaining wall has been there since the beginning of time, and has seen better days. This is next summers major project. New retaining wall and new driveway. The old driveway is layers deep. Brick, concrete then blacktop.

The window boxes on the front of the house are original as well. Though they've seen better days, they're functional and just need a good coat of paint. That will be next year. I'll take pictures and post them back this week, along woth measurements.

I just have a question about your fireplace. We've been looking into this and we haven't made a choice yet. Is your fireplace wood burning or gas? Our fireplace is gas, and we still have the original ceramic gas log in the basement with the sticker on it. I don't think it was ever used, or if it was, it's in great shape. We would like to have an insert put in to take the fireplace back to gas, but we haven't made that decision.

I'll get you the measurements this week of the window boxes along with pictures. I'll post pictures of the second floor bathrooms and kitchen as well.

Tim

Tim, you are so right! To think someone in another state has a house like ours is both cool and a bit unnerving. Sounds like your butler pantry is like our service hallway. We have a basement under about 2/3 of the house and a crawl space under the other 1/3. we have a carport behind the house and a Gordon Van Tine garage tucked in the back of our property.

We still have many of the original sunroom screens but you have to lift the screen out to open the window, it works great but is a bit frustrating.

We have two massive oaks on our property that have had limbs fall on the corner of the house and one above the bay window. luckily just the eaves were damaged. Sorry about the structural problems, knock on Oak we don't have any.

Thanks on the help with the window boxes looking forward to recreating them.

We have a wood stove. It is several years old and we are thinking about replacing it with a new Vermont casting stove at the end of the season when the prices drop. We love wood heat but know many that swear by their gas inserts. It is quick and easy. Our daughter is a potter so we are hoping she will be able to create some custom tiles to put in the fireplace under the mantel.

What have you done in the kitchen and the upstairs bathroom. These are two areas that we want to remodel but know we have to wait a while for the money to accumulate to do the job right.

Hope you have a great week to communicate with us directly use nwylie@yahoo.com. Nick and Holly

Tim, There should be another house like ours at 824 East Locust Street in Davenport Iowa. According to Dale's web site it was the president of Gordon Van Tine home. Thought you might want to make a road trip and take a few photos. Nick

Nick,

I tried to pull this house up on Zilo and I could not find it. I wonder if it's still there?

Tim

http://i53.photobucket.com/alb...-GVT535-414Mamie.jpg


Here is a GVT #535 in Hattiesburg, Mississippi built in 1920 for the Manager of the GVT Plant in Hattiesburg.

Tim Google earth shows it is still there but does not show a street view. I have searched the public records for scott county but do not see the address if it is like our house the street number and the name of the street changed a few years back. I will keep looking when I have time.

Nick