This Is Not A Ranch
This is not a ranch. Why make that declaration? Because finding homes mislabeled in our MLS system is a problem. Someone searching for a beautiful Arts and Crafts Bungalow would never find this home. The seller is missing good buyers and the value of the home is not being marketed to the right audience. It is critical that agents sharpen their architectural vocabulary and knowledge. A gorgeous Colonial Revival is not a Center Entrance colonial just because the door is in the center of the house.
Quality homes built before World War II, when materials were plentiful and craftsmanship and detail were revered, offer what newer construction can rarely afford to incorporate into building.
It is important that agents who list beautiful Arts and Crafts, Victorian or Classic 1920’s built Colonial homes understand that these properties are built with museum quality details and can articulate this value when selling these homes to ensure that home sellers are rewarded with a top selling price. Often you’ll hear these homes referred to as “solid”. What is a solid home?
Investigating the construction of these older, well-built homes unveils a lost art of construction, the framing is tighter, has bigger planks of wood and the foundations of fieldstone or granite are not only beautiful but, well, solid as a rock. Today, only high-end construction homes will use the expensive materials our forefathers took for granted before we starting pouring concrete, and the like, which is much more cost effective.
Think of the wood floors, the quarter-sewn oak, that graces most of these homes. Today’s hardwood floors are cut at another angle to maximize the wood from the trees, but do not have either the thickness or beautiful grain turn-of-the-century floors featured.
What often truly distinguishes these homes is the woodwork. The beautiful framing around the doors and windows, the newel posts at the bottom of the stairs, the built-ins, columns, the fireplace mantels and layered crown moldings that finish formal rooms create an elegance that only the highest-end construction can even begin to approximate today.
The artisan stained and leaded-glass windows are prevalent even in more modest homes of these earlier eras. One of the stories that “sticks” with me is a time I was out meeting a seller in a beautiful turn-of-the-century Colonial Revival with a breathtaking staircase which split in two directions on a landing halfway up to the second floor. At the landing was a HUGE plain glass window, and the seller reported that his mother, in an effort to modernize the home in the 1970’s, simply pushed the stained glass out toward the driveway shattering the gorgeous window to make room for her new contemporary window that would update her home. Ouch. But alas, the 70’s was a very unkind decade to older homes, when homeowners updated their old woodwork with the new clamshell shallow replacements, paneled the horse-hair plaster rooms and ripped out ceiling medallions and replaced those old thick 6-panneled doors with fresh, plain hallow core doors throughout.
Enhancing the curb appeal of these houses were large wooden porches adorned with beautiful brackets, balustrades and detail that welcomed neighborhood conversation and functioned as an outdoor room for three seasons. Wood rot infected many of these homes that were not meticulously painted to prevent water damage over the years, and when these porches deteriorated the cost of repair and reconstruction were cost prohibitive and many of the lovely porches have either been ripped off and replaced with simple staircases to the front door or have been reduced to simple entries.
Ainsley Donaldson, a student of local architecture and lecturer on the subject, put together a compelling slide show years ago that she called, “Lost Melrose” , where she contrasted original photos of beautiful homes from the historic records to the updated, vinyl sided, porch reduced homes of the present, and the audience gasped when they realized they could hardly tell it was the same house.
Which brings me to some ways that these older homes can be restored to some of their former glory. If a home has been the beneficiary of vinyl, aluminum or asbestos siding, it is quite likely that the original cedar clapboard or shingles are quite intact underneath the siding product. In fact, it is likely that the home simply needed a paint job and that the homeowner at the time decided to take the advice of “modern” salesman and cover the siding with a product that would be low maintenance.
Voila, the homeowner paid for low maintenance, but the unintended consequences of the project were often disappointing. When the detail of the siding was covered, so went a lot of the beauty, detail and punch that distinguishes these older grand dames and made them the pride of the neighborhood. So many homeowners today are pleased to see the amazing transformation of a home that has had the siding removed and fresh paint applied. It is truly inspiring.
One last extra “plus” about older homes that a lot of people overlook when they consider homes built in the 19th century and early 1900’s, many of these homes were built before electricity. As a result they are built with lots of windows that provide amazing light and great ventilation which reduces the need for air conditioning. A lot of very practical details were incorporated to make the home function well, naturally.
Agents who are knowledgeable about the value of older homes are a great asset to homeowners who want to be certain that buyers who view their home understand the architectural integrity the home offers and the virtually irreplaceable details that make them warm, charming and beautiful places to live.
