PORCHES sunlit in all seasons
Countless archival renderings and photographs, particularly from the years 1870 to 1920, show even outdoor porches fully furnished in suites of wicker, rattan, or painted furniture. An outdoor porch might have served as a three-season space with the installation of seasonal glazing. Small rugs, tea tables, and oil or electric lamps provided all the comforts of a furnished room. In Boston, the Victorian Shingle Style house (above right) dates to 1889 but its front porch was long ago enclosed, perhaps as early as 1910, with period windows, creating a generous sunroom appropriately furnished with Arts & Crafts-era furniture. Those conventions of porch living can be brought into the sunroom year-round. More formal sun parlors may nod to the outdoors with just a plant or two.
the history of the sunroom, like many things aesthetic and architectural, can be traced to ancient Rome, with its atria, and to the garden rooms of Renaissance Italy. During the Victorian era, the breakfast room might face east but it was hardly a sunroom; conservatories were geared toward raising plants. It was in the early-20th century that sunporches and sun parlors became common, appearing on plans for new houses by architects and mail-order designers alike. Several factors probably contributed to the new popularity. At the time, the "cure" for tuberculosis was a stay at a sanitarium in the mountain air; it was accepted that fresh air and sunlight were good for us. The 1918 influenza epidemic added to the demand. Magazine articles touted the health benefits of a sunroom as well as a sleeping porch. Sunrooms were included in all the period's house styles, from Tudor and Spanish to Dutch Colonial. Many a sunroom was added to an older house. Some were simply a glazed porch. Others were fancier with decoratively laid tile floors, French doors, and maybe even a tiled fountain in the floor or on the wall.
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Navigating the Lumberyard - Here's some lumber lingo you should know before you venture into a lumberyard.
Here's some lumber lingo you should know before you venture into a lumberyard. Almost everyone fixing an old house will end up at a lumberyard-whether it's a local supplier or the organized aisles of a big-box home-improvement store.
a farmhouse renewed
Sensitive renovations and restoration work preserved a house that dates to 1799.
AN OVERVIEW OF METAL ROOFING
METAL ROOFS ARE RESURGENT, FOR GOOD REASONS.
ENDURING BEAUTY IN WALLS of STONE
Now back in the family who had been here since 1830, the old farmhouse is again ready for generations to come. Additions dating to 1840 and the 1950s were preserved.
ARCHITECTURAL DETAILS COME TO LIFE
Owners and their designer celebrate the unique features of a 1912 Arts & Crafts Tudor.
For a Wet Basement Wall
If there's problem common to old houses, it's a wet basement. I'm not talking about occasional flooding, but rather a basement that apparently seeps or leaks after even a rain shower or during snowmelt. Several approaches are available; sustainable solutions will get to the root of the problem.
Patching a Plaster Wall
Fix a hole in the wall with a few common tools and some drywall supplies. Practice your technique!
Roofing & Siding
Make note of these historical and unusual materials for the building envelope.
The Riddle of the water
When water incursion happens, the roof isn't necessarily the culprit. Maybe snaking a drain line, or clearing debris from a clogged gutter, temporarily will stem a leak. But a recurring problem usually means other forces are at work. It takes persistence-and a team with the right skills and patience—to identify the source and apply a solution.
Light-filled Craftsman Redo
For a dark kitchen in a 1914 Illinois house, the trick was anchoring white expanses with woodsy warmth.