Tall and Proud.
Almost all farmhouses that I have encountered are 18 feet wide.
And I’ve been in hundreds of them.
Anyone care to guess why eighteen?

Well, there are several reasons…

One, is that an 18 foot floor joist provides a stout floor… and a 20 foot floor joist is “bouncy”.

Two, is that 18 foot floor joists tend to stay straight and true for centuries, whereas anything longer tends to sag.

And three, an 18 foot sill log is manageable to put into place with the aid of two men, buy it takes four men to move a 20 footer.

Originally posted 2015-09-15 15:16:18.

This little home offers three features that are well worth your consideration when building your next home.
(ok make that four features… if you count the wonderful gardens right out your front door)
1) a parged, or stucco, exterior… attractive, cost effective, historically common, low maintenance, air tight, easy for the do-it-yourselfer, and adaptable to many forms of construction.
2) a small addition off of the main structure providing visual interest (in this case timber framed… but log, stone, or brick would work just as well)
3) the well designed open shed on the other end of the house to keep the firewood dry and provide shelter for those who enter on that side. (I bet there are openings in the home designed for easy pass through into the house of that wood, perhaps even to a stove in the lower level of the house).

Originally posted 2015-09-14 18:12:40.

Fall will be here soon.
Do you have your fireplace ready for the coming season?

The only thing that I would change would be the brick pattern in the fireplace… which is all running bond, a modern pattern that masons use on everything from brick ranchers to office buildings. A nice Flemish bond would have looked so much better, one where every few course every other brick would have presented an end profile.

Originally posted 2015-09-14 14:27:42.

Whenever I take a tour of a house under construction, most of them being in the 500k to 1M dollar range, I ask the builder why there is no masonry chimney. The response if often that buyers in this price range… upper middle class… can’t afford one.
I guess this country is getting poorer.
(I build my first home for $20k and I managed to budget in a chimney on it, similar to what you see here in this photo, so I don’t buy the line that people can’t afford them).

Originally posted 2015-09-14 14:17:51.

She fits into the landscape so well.

Originally posted 2015-09-13 18:40:06.

Why is it that every home in Colonial Williamsburg is so attractive, more than 200 years after they were designed, yet every home in the new subdivisions in my area are so ugly?

Originally posted 2015-09-13 15:12:37.

1) Many small houses are visually appealing.
2) Large rural homes that are composed of a series of unique smaller structures each attached to the other are equally attractive.
3) Historically many farmhouses were built this way… start small, and add on as the family grew and as the funds were saved to pay for these additions.
4) This method of housing makes financial sense, as huge mortgages are avoided.
5) It all makes me wonder why we rarely build this way today.
6) And a more basic question… why is it that we find small houses so adorable?

BTW… this cute little place is located in Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia.

Originally posted 2015-09-11 16:58:58.

The classic “six over six” double hung window.
You cannot go wrong with this window, just make sure that the window panes are taller than they are wide.
If your window measurement doesn’t allow this pattern try a “six over nine” or a “nine over nine” pattern.
I much prefer an odd number of horizontal window panes. I have observed that people, when they look out a window, tend to center themselves on that window… an even number of panes places a mullion in their line of sight, whereas a centered pane is a delight.
If your house has windows that vary in size… aim to maintain the size and proportions of the individual panes throughout the house, not a consistent window pane pattern.

Originally posted 2015-09-11 15:32:03.

The corner notching on this barn is beautiful, in part because it is flawed. It was built by a man who clearly understood the characteristics of wood and who was also highly skilled at using an axe. This barn was clearly not created by a man who built cabins for a living. The result? There are many flaws in the workmanship… gaps and irregularities abound. And yet, his work is absolutely gorgeous… because, it looks “handmade”.

There is a curse within all the building trades. It seems that the more a craftsman works on developing his skills, the more his work ends up looking manufactured. A stone mason shapes his stones so much they begin to look like brick. The brick mason’s work begins to look like rolled-out vinyl flooring. The plasterer’s work is so smooth that it looks like drywall. The blacksmith’s work becomes so free of character that it belongs on the shelf at Walmart.

Originally posted 2015-09-07 14:05:52.

There is not a single thing in this photo that was expensive… in fact I can say that this area likely would cost less to build than what is being built today in many subdivisions.

Originally posted 2015-09-06 20:11:37.