I’ve been chronicling new-house projects on Josie’s blog for the past few weeks*, but after reading great renovation sites like Prairie Box and Bangor Bungalow, I decided to separate the baby from the house and start a renovation blog. (Missy’s note: Under no circumstances will the baby be separated from the house.)
We live in a 108 year-old traditional farmhouse that the previous owners Victorianed the pants off of. Or, in the spirit of Victorian design, the previous owners Victorianed three different colors of pants onto the house, added lace curtains to the pants, and covered them in boldly-striped wallpaper.
Our goal is to de-Victorianize this house and return it to its roots. We plan to use salvaged materials (or failing that, local materials) wherever and whenever possible, and to do the vast, vast majority of the labor ourselves. It’s a twofold goal – we’re trying to do these projects with a skeletal (sometimes nonexistent) budget, and we want to reflect Stickley’s Craftsman ideals of local materials and workmanship done by hand.
Our guiding aesthetic principles as we de-Victorian are simplicity, honesty, quality worksmanship, and connection to the land. It’s a farmhouse after all (a farmhouse in the city still has a farmhouse’s soul), and those are solid, traditional farm values.
As crazy as it sounds, in some ways I’m a little disappointed that we didn’t start from the painfully low places that other folks do. The inspector called our place one of the best 100+ year-old houses he’s seen, structurally speaking, so as much as we hate some of the aesthetic decisions of the previous owners, we applaud them for being excellent stewards. That doesn’t mean we don’t hate the faux-wood-grain paint on the upstairs woodwork or slightly fear the stove light cover made from an old coffee can, but you’re not going to see pictures of us ripping out subfloors or adding a third story.
I shouldn’t promise that. Let’s just see where this goes.
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*From oldest to most recent, those posts are here, here, more over here, some more here, a little more here, and here. Oh, and here. Not quite done – here too.
Hey – thanks for the shout-out, and good luck with your house & your houseblogging! We love your description of the Victorianization – yikes, sounds waaaay to frilly!
Believe me, you really don’t want to start out from a painfully low place. Your work is cosmetic (from what I see) so you get to do the good stuff. Enjoy and good luck.
Hey, thanks for the props! I didn’t realize anyone but my mom read my site
Seriously, don’t underestimate the work involved in the structurally sound home. We didn’t realise how intensive “cosmetic” work could get until we bought our house. I know it would be easier, and possibly cheaper, to just rip everything out and start over. But where’s the fun in that?? Good luck to ya!
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