The Rural Voice, 1993-10, Page 41traditional materials, or a modern,
low maintenance imitation in vinyl,
aluminum or steel, will solve the
problem of matching brick and keep
the original style of the house intact.
Similarly, the detail work on the
house should get simpler as you
go from front to back. The trim
on the addition at the back of the
house shouldn't upstage the main
part of the house, he says. For
instance, if the windows in the front
of the house have stone lintels around
the tops of the windows and stone
window sills, the windows at the
back of the house should have a
stone sill, but the lintel should be
made of brick instead. "This is what
develops the charm of an older
home."
One of the additions the modern
homeowner may most look for is a
garage. The problem is, the original
homes very seldom hada garage. The
problem can be most easily solved by
building a garage that isn't attached
to the house. If you must have it
attached, link the garage to the main
house by a smaller building.
One of the renovations that
disturbs him most is the "new back
door" syndrome. Patterns of home
use have changed over the years so
we now tend to use a side door or
back door more than the front.
Because of this people renovating
their homes tend to put a more
elaborate back door on. Originally
the front door might be a solid
wooden door with side lights and a
glass transom. In such a house the
back door would be a
simple solid door.
Today the homeowner
may be tempted to put
on a back entrance with
stained glass sidelights
that will be more
elaborate than the front
entrance. Back doors
should be a single door
with no glass
sidelights, he says.
Making the back door
too impressive may
confuse people
looking for a back
door and send them searching for
another entrance.
Rutledge has tips on keeping the
integrity of other parts of the outside
of your house:
Shutters: It's important, Rutledge
says, that shutters look like they
work, even if they are there for
decoration. Too many shutters are the
wrong size or the wrong style for the
window. If you're putting shutters on
a window with a rounded opening in
the brick, the tops of the shutters
should be rounded exactly the same
as the opening. The shutters should
be exactly half the width of the
window opening so
that if they closed
they would meet.
The shutter
shouldn't be set too
wide of the window
opening (again they
should look as if
they actually close).
There are different
styles and qualities
of shutters
depending on the
style of your house.
Some houses
probably never had
shutters. Few Queen Anne houses,
for instance, had shutters. Few stone
houses had shutters. "Some house
don't look right with shutters and
some look stunning," he says.
Georgian, Regency and Classical
styles look good with shutters while
Shutters
like they
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OCTOBER 1993 37