Craftsman owners

[Breezy]

I have a Craftsman style home and wondering if there are other Craftsman style enthusiasts out there?

[Nikki]

Me! I just bought a cute little 1916 craftsman bungalow last week....needs lots of work, but I plan on bringing it back to its original glory :D

[Breezy]

Congratulations Nikki - wow lucky you! And it's a 1916 how wonderful. The older the better I say. Ours is a small 1927 Craftsman style that we bought and "fixed" 3 yrs ago. It's always an ongoing project with older homes but then again they have charm & personality;)

Look forward to hearing about your house adventures!

[Lynzee]

Me too!

I live in a California Ranch that really, really wants to be cottage, but I am a huge fan of the craftsman style. There are several for sale in my town now. Sure wish they'd been for sale when I needed to buy.

[Breezy]

Nikki I didn't know you are windswept at CL. I was just over there and saw your message. Glad to see ya - ps love the old pic of your house it's a beauty.:)

[Nikki]

Nikki I didn't know you are windswept at CL. I was just over there and saw your message. Glad to see ya - ps love the old pic of your house it's a beauty.:)

Thanks! Yeah I decided to retire my old name, since I don't have a name for my new place yet, and Windswept is my old cottage's name :p

P.S....would love to see pics of your craftsmans....I will go first and share mine. Don't worry, there are plenty of things I intend to change/restore, but we just got our keys 2 weeks ago....tarped up roof, missing gutters, and taped up windows are a bit unsightly, I know!

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y151/raylind/10192008085.jpg

[Breezy]

We moved to this house 3 yrs ago and had to do a lot of repair/remodel. All the walls were covered with paneling and baseboard trim was missing etc. Windows needing replacing as well as counters in kitchen & bathrm plus flooring and carpet. I wanted to paint over the paneling because I'd seen it done on HGTV and it looked great but hubby won out with the drywall. The trim was in such bad shape instead of going to the expense of redoing it we decided to paint and although I love the patina of aged wood I have to admit painting the trim white really lightened it up in here - Craftsmans tend to be dark inside and I like it light & airy so it worked out well. ps - the house was built in 1927 and is 1,100 sq ft

[RoseMary]

Nikki, I love your house!

I enjoyed seeing some inside pics from Breezy, too.

I'm looking forward to seeing more pictures from both of you.

[Breezy]

Nikki - how did you post the pic?

[Nikki]

Do you have a photobucket account or something similar? If so, you can link them from there.

[Lisa S]

I love the craftsman style. My house was built in 1926 and is a little bit craftsman and a little bit cottage. I'm trying to add craftsman touches, like the board and batten wall treatment in the dining room.

[Whidbey5]

Nikki, I love your house! What a great project!

Shelley

[Breezy]

Nikki - your house is great (I'm partial to Craftsman style:)) and you have wonderful decorating possibilities!

[Nikki]

Thanks, everyone :) I am very happy with it so far. We are putting on a new roof right now, but eventually we'll get to the "fun stuff"....bringing her back to her former glory :cool:

[memmey]

Nikki please re post your old house photo here so we can take another look..ok?

[chyna]

I haven't the slightest idea what mine is considered. Bungalowesque yes, cottage-y why yes but beyond that your guess is as good as mine. :D

[CohenCottage]

Ours is a new construction in the hood, but it sure looks cottagey. One of my best friends from grad school came in and exclaimed "Oh, they remodeled the kitchen for you!" She couldn't believe it when we told her that it was a new house, not just an old house with an updated kitchen! My hubbs reads all of the architecture books, so I'll find out what the official verdict is on our house style and let y'all know...

[rebelslgb]

My husband and i just bough a 1900 sqft craftsman built in 1920. we're currently working on the masterbedroom, the owner has put a small addition onto it expanding the dormer, and when we first saw the house we pulled up the carpet in a few corners and saw hardwood...welllllllll needless to say once we ripped it up we were like "oh DUH..the addition...not all hardwood floors", so since new hardwood is not in the budget for that size of a room for us, we had to order new carpet, and it has really slowed down that project.

next up is the kitchen, i've been looking online and in magazines for ideas, we're doing all the work ourselves. :eek:

kristen

[Nikki]

Nikki please re post your old house photo here so we can take another look..ok?

Here it is....I'm going to try and get a better copy from the assessor's office one of these days. The photo they had was very clear, but when translated to a photo copy it lost a lot of the detail.

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y151/raylind/oldtimephoto.jpg

[Nikki]

My husband and i just bough a 1900 sqft craftsman built in 1920. we're currently working on the masterbedroom, the owner has put a small addition onto it expanding the dormer, and when we first saw the house we pulled up the carpet in a few corners and saw hardwood...welllllllll needless to say once we ripped it up we were like "oh DUH..the addition...not all hardwood floors", so since new hardwood is not in the budget for that size of a room for us, we had to order new carpet, and it has really slowed down that project.

next up is the kitchen, i've been looking online and in magazines for ideas, we're doing all the work ourselves. :eek:

kristen

Same here, doing all the work ourselves...some days I wake up and wonder why we decided to take on such a huge project :eek: Do you have any pics of your house? I'd love to see 'em :)

[rebelslgb]

Same here, doing all the work ourselves...some days I wake up and wonder why we decided to take on such a huge project :eek: Do you have any pics of your house? I'd love to see 'em :)


I have a picture of the front in my user profile. I'll grab some more of the MLS listing from when we bought and post them. we haven't gotten around to taking any of our own just yet

kristen

[Zuzu's Garden]

I understand that restoring these homes is a lot of hard work, but I just want to jump up and down and cheer for you all. The people who purchased my grandparent's beautiful Craftsman in Denver 'popped the top', put a second story on it, covered it all with stucco, and modernized it to death. It made me cry, and I'm sure the neighbors felt the same way. :(

So, kudos and a big group hug to all of you who realize the beauty and value of restoring an older home!!!
:):):)
Zuzu

[Hillary Black]

I second Zuzu's kudos to all the homeowners out there who respect the integrity of a vintage home's aesthetic and put the effort in to restore/renovate with care, thought and research.

I'm so sorry about your grandparent's home... :mad: I'm sorry for the neighborhood. I'm also sorry for those homeowners because their ignorance just deteriorated the home's value. Unfortunately, a lot of people just don't know what a gem they have on their hands--until it's too late.

(Does this hit a hot spot for me? Yes, of course! Good thing I'm the editor of C&B! :))

Hillary

[chyna]

Well Hilary between you and me we should be steaming up alot of the country. :D I didn't know I was so fanatical about old homes until I bought my fairly new old home and finding out what is missing from it. :rolleyes:

[Lisa S]

I'm passionate about restoring old homes too. Despite the fact that the original owner of our house owned a lumber mill, our house was very plain. I've tried to add mill work that it correct for the period. Our bathroom was remodeled with subway and octagonal tiles. I've taken some liberties with the kitchen (frankly, I have to have more cabinets than a 1920's kitchen had), but I tried to keep an old timey flavor. No granite here!

I'm becoming more and more passionate about preserving old neighborhoods too. When schools and corner groceries dissapear, the whole neighborhood changes and usually not for the better. I'm a very old fashioned girl.

[chyna]

Kitchens I think are the hardest room in the entire house to keep authentic to the period. My thoughts on it is that as long as you go with the feel of the era then you should be absolved of all sins on not following the original. My head starts swimming when I think about what should be in my kitchen and what shouldn't. I'm hoping the current paint job will help out that feel around my place. Really with all that the previous people did I can just about do anyhting and it is an improvement. :o

[RoseMary]

Although I don't have an old house to talk about, I agree that kitchens must be the hardest room to keep authentic.

But let's face it, when great,great,great grandpa came home with a new wood cookstove, I'm sure great, great, great grandma was tickled pink to stop cooking in the fireplace! I think just keeping the 'feel' of the room authentic is the important part.

I'm enjoying reading about all the vintage houses and you girls are restoring them!

[chyna]

I agree Rosemary. think how thrilled our greats were when that new gas stove came home, no more loading coal or wood and then when electric stoves came out. That had to be just amazing and wonderous. Truth be told I'd love to have one of my grandma's stove/ovens. The cook top pulled out so when not in use you just pushed it into the unit and it was out of sight and took up less room. And the ovens were above the cook top so there was no bending over to put things in or take them out. One of my friends bought a house that the kitchen was still with original appliances from I believe the 50's and her stove/oven was wonderous to me! I hope she took it with her when they moved to the new house. :o

[RoseMary]

I've always wanted one of those old green and cream stoves with the 'warming' oven up on top. A lot of them were woodstoves, but some were propane, too.

My pastor's wife has an old cast iron wood cookstove that she cooks on in the winter time. It's really a pretty old thing.

[chyna]

I passed up buying one of those green and cream stoves at an auction, he was asking far more than I am prepared to spend and at the time I had no idea what I'd do with it. Now I think it would be wonderful in my house. Live and learn as they say. I think it was also propane/natural gas, I remember mention of the pipe hookups.

[Rory Bremner]

I'm nuts about craftsman homes. Ours is a brick crafty, a little rare out here, but I plan to keep it authentic as possible