08-10-2010 23:10 http://www.front-porch-ideas-and-more.com Join our community of porch lovers on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com and Twitter at http://www.twitter.com Side porches are quite common on historic Charleston homes. We explain why.
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The Story of Side Porches on Charleston Homes - Video
16-05-2010 07:13 At The Peel in Kingston
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Porches 'Shirts On, Dudes Off' @ K-Fest 15th May 2010 - Video
Before the invention of central heat and air conditioning, people generally built houses that were designed to be as comfortable and durable as possible for their specific climate. In hot climates, they built overhangs to shade windows and protect from rain, high ceilings to let the hot air rise above the people, porches to sit out on when it was hot, and big windows to let in breezes. In cold climates, overhangs were smaller to let more sun shine into the house. In dry, desert areas, houses were made of masonry that would absorb heat during the day, releasing it at night.
When we started heating and cooling our homes, all those smart decisions fell by the wayside and we started building any type of house anywhere – southern cottages in the north, southwest adobe-style homes in the south, and on and on. However, appropriate roofing in Phoenix is not synonymous with appropriate roofing in Baltimore. What we are finding is that a house style in the wrong climate can lead to more energy use, and reduced comfort and durability.
For example, in the hot, rainy south, small or no overhangs let too much water hit the walls of the house, which causes premature deterioration and lets in too much sun on hot days. Big overhangs in the north don't let enough of the sun's heat on cold days. This illustrates that thinking about where you are when you decide what kind of house to build is an easy way to make a better, greener house that will be cheaper to operate, more comfortable, and last longer – and none if this has to cost you a dime extra. Just make the right decisions early in the process.
Here are some guidelines for climate-friendly roofing and window placement:
If you get a lot of rain where you live, design your house with overhangs and simple roof designs to keep water from backing up into the attic and keep it off the walls. If you get a lot of snow, a steep roof will allow the snow to slide off quickly instead of building up. In almost all climates, avoid west-facing windows – they heat up the house at the end of the day and can overheat during even cold weather. I have seen homes that need to turn on the air conditioning in the winter because too much sun comes in. In cold climates, don't put too many windows on the north side, especially if you get a lot of wind from that direction – they will lose a lot of heat. Put a lot of windows on the south side of the house all climates, making sure to shade them with overhangs to keep out the heat during hot months. Put in windows that open easily, with screens if you live in a buggy area. Then open them (and turn off the AC) when the weather is nice. You don't need to heat or air condition your house every minute of every day. Take advantage of natural heating and cooling, save money, and enjoy the day.
If you build or renovate your house to fit your local climate conditions, you can save energy, save money on maintenance, and be more comfortable year round. Why more people don't do it is beyond me.
Have you remodeled your house to suit local climate conditions? Tell us about how you keep your house warm in the winter and cool in the summer.
Green building consultant Carl Seville writes for Networx. Get home & garden ideas like this - http://www.networx.com/article/building-a-house-to-fit-local-climate-co - on Networx.
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Home Designs for Every Climate
05-01-2011 00:25 Step by step from A to Z an outdoor home addition,
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COVERED BACK PORCH at Glenrock Hill Dr. - Westheimer Lakes North Community - Katy, TX 77494.wmv - Video
THE NEIGHBORHOOD: Uptown, a historic district bounded roughly by South Claiborne Avenue on the north, Tchoupitoulas Street on the south, Toledano Street on the east and Lowerline Street on the west. It's such a huge area with so many distinct cultures that it includes neighborhoods such as Freret and Milan, Bouligny and Touro-Bouligny, Hurstville, Rickerville and more.
I choose a portion to explore near the intersection of Freret Street and Napoleon Avenue.
THE BLOCK: The 4400 block of Loyola Avenue on the odd-numbered, or north, side of the street, between Napoleon Avenue on the east and Jena Street on the west.
The Napoleon end of the block faces Samuel Square, one of the planned green spaces in Faubourg West Bouligny, developed by Samuel Kohn (hence the name of the square) and Laurent Millaudon (whose namesake is Laurence Square at Napoleon and Magazine Street).
I am just three blocks from Freret Street and tempted to call the neighborhood "Freret," but a couple of websites tell me I am just outside of its boundaries.
THE HOUSES: Five distinctive houses from the early years of the 20th century. Four are large, two-story homes in the Neo-Classical Revival style that dwarf the petite shotgun at the corner of Jena.
********
Freret Street has become such a stylish destination for dining, yoga, art, drinking and shopping that it's almost hard to remember that the Freret Market and annual Freret Street Festival used to be the main draws to the area.
But no matter how many burgers are grilled, pizzas are baked and cocktails are poured, the market -- from noon to 5 p.m. today -- remains an irresistible draw.
With yummy food offerings and dozens of artists' booths, it's a great way to enjoy the La Nina weather in early February. If you're there and in the mood for a walkabout, Samuel Square lies just three blocks away.
Anatomy of the block
The first stop, at the corner of Jena and Loyola, is a meticulously renovated shotgun with a side porch and entry shaded by a pretty pergola. The design is thoughtful: Pale-colored shutters on the front porch, the same over the side door; a criss-cross pattern over the panels on the front, the same for the wood railing on the side. A jolt of color from the entry door -- it's an unabashed tangerine -- provides the exclamation point to the understated composition.
Its immediate neighbor is a grand home with Neo-Classical Revival details. I can't say for certain whether the home is a single unit, but the single front door tells me that it was when it was built. A covered porch at the first level, and uncovered porch at the second, invite sitting, facilitated by the grouping of chairs I spot. On the first floor, Tuscan columns support the porch above; on the second, a balustrade stretches between short box posts with recessed panels. My favorite feature: the bold dormer on the hipped roof, extending forward from the roof ridge almost to the eave, and featuring a diamond-pattern window framed by millwork.
A lemon-buttercream confection appears on the right, a kissing cousin of its neighbor and replete with Neo-Classical Revival details. Common elements include the two-level porches, the second-floor balustrade, deep eaves and dormer windows. But it's the well-articulated gable on this house that distinguishes it. Forming a triangle of impressive portions and embellished with modillions, the roofline serves as a fitting crown to this beauty.
If only I had my hedge trimmers with me (and the permission of the owners) to prune away the greenery blocking the view of the green house I encounter next. It's tricky but, by maneuvering, I am able to catch glimpses of the home's glorious details and stitch them together into a coherent image. The house is a double, and each half has access to both the downstairs and the upstairs porches. To individualize each unit, roof features differ from one side to the other. On the left, I spot a gable with stucco and millwork strips. On the right, a hipped roof with a dormer. No imagination was spared here, from the square-within-square pattern of the porch railings, to the stained-glass dormer window, to the wonderful configuration of the glass panes in the transoms over the downstairs doors and windows -- all was done with the utmost attention to detail.
If the first three two-story houses were large, the fourth is a behemoth. I study it for awhile trying to figure out why it seems larger than its neighbors and realize that it is at least 50 percent wider. Whereas each unit in the double house on the left is one room wide, judging from the placement of windows and doors, here each unit has a hallway in addition to the one-room-wide living space. The plan is similar to that of a sidehall shotgun or a double-gallery townhouse. Although the tall, narrow, stained-glass window on the roof dormer enchants me, I find the dual front porches -- their roofs supported by a colonnade of Tuscan columns -- to be the home's most appealing feature.
Life on the street
In my years of Street Walking, I have met preachers, bowling alley owners, sultry singers and any number of fascinating people who make life in this city so astonishingly captivating. But today is a first.
Rebecca Taylor-Perryman is sitting on the front porch of the buttercream house, yellow hibiscus shrubs blooming in the yard in front of her. She is seeking solitude with her iPad but is too nice to send me packing when I begin barraging her with questions.
"I have only lived in this house since December, but I like it," she tells me, then explains that she was drawn here by love. "I moved in with my boyfriend."
A California native, she came to New Orleans for graduate school and will graduate in December. Her course of study? Archaeology, specifically the Upper Paleolithic.
Hmmm... does Paleolithic mean Stone Age?
"That's right," she tells me. "The Upper Paleolithic is late Stone Age, from 10,000 to 40,000 B.P." ("Before the Present.")
Her excavation site is in southwest France and is called "Peyre Blanque."
"White rock, for the flint that was used," she explains. "The site dates to about 14,000 B.P. and is contemporaneous with many of the cave paintings."
I ask her to spell everything for me so I can get it right.
"You don't need to write it down?" she asks. "You must have a very good memory."
Not really. But receiving an impromptu lesson on the Upper Paleolithic from an archaeology student while on an Uptown Street Walk is a rather memorable experience, wouldn't you say?
********
R. Stephanie Bruno can be reached at housewatcher@hotmail.com.
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Uptown homes are lovely on Loyola Avenue
Just east of Tallahassee is Jefferson County, which is suddenly a symbol of all that's going on during this legislative session as it relates to the economy of Florida.
Jefferson, with a population of about 14,000, is a tranquil place of rolling hills, plantation-style homes with broad porches, and towering oaks. A drive through the area is a nostalgia trip back to a Florida of the 1950s and '60s.
A stately courthouse in the roundabout at the center of Monticello, the county seat, resembles Florida's historic Old Capitol.
Jefferson is a poor county, where one out of three residents relies on the government for work. The county has high poverty rates and a narrow tax base, and the little downtown is pockmarked by drab, vacant storefronts.
Jefferson is so small that it's the only county in the state without a stoplight.
There's no mall, no Publix, no Walmart. You can't even find an Internet cafe, the current scourge of Florida communities.
So when Gov. Rick Scott decides to erase state jobs, it packs a powerful wallop in a place such as this.
The tranquility in Jefferson County was shattered recently when Scott's administration said it would soon eliminate the county's biggest employer, Jefferson Correctional Institution, a state prison that has been open since 1989.
The inmate population is about 1,100, equivalent to nearly a tenth of the county's population.
JCI is one of seven prisons slated for closing by July 1 in a cost-saving plan necessitated by a dwindling inmate population. The state ranked prisons based on various factors in which JCI scored poorly. But the ranking system did not consider the fact that under state law, Jefferson is a fiscally constrained county and is a rural area of critical economic concern, which means state agencies must factor that in before making changes affecting the local economy.
JCI inmates mow grass and pick up trash in Jefferson, and they work at a county recycling center. The state promises to offer displaced workers jobs at other prisons, but gas costs nearly $4 a gallon.
Jefferson's leaders are mounting a full-court press at the Capitol to stop what they see as an economic disaster that would unfairly punish a community.
"We're a community that's on life support, and this decision will equate to pulling the plug on our community," county clerk Kurt Reams told a House committee.
Jefferson votes Democratic in statewide elections, and residents showed a strong preference for Alex Sink over Scott in the 2010 election. But state officials say politics played no role in selecting which prisons to close.
"Twenty years ago, when everybody said, 'Not in my back yard,' Jefferson County opened their arms and embraced the opening of the prison there," said Wendy Bitner, recently hired to help lobby against the closing.
Bitner is the widow of David Bitner, the former state Republican Party chairman who recently died of Lou Gehrig's disease.
The people of Jefferson County are in a fight for economic survival in Tallahassee, and with the session nearly half over, they don't have much time.
Steve Bousquet can be reached at bousquet@tampabay.com or (850) 224-7263.
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Tiny Jefferson County fights to keep prison open
“I'm preserving them in my own way, by incorporating them into
my pieces,” Hill said.
She handles each flag with infinite care, covering it with rice
paper before she begins to paint on top of it.
The resulting pieces are very textured and layered.
“People are curious about her pieces because of the texture,”
said Rayla Kundolf of Masters Gallery.
The flags, and horses, are both reoccurring themes in Hill's
work.
“The horse is a metaphor for beauty, freedom, mystical
thoughts, and also a timeless force of our own spirit,” Hill
writes on her artist bio.
While the unique texture initially draws gallery visitors to
Hill's work, they often find a deeper meaning within.
“They love the patriotism and power that the flags represent
and then with the image of the horse, that adds to the
strength; (it) just resonates with people, not just Americans
but people all over the world,” Kundolf said.
“I like the emotional connection that people have with her
pieces, the rustic elements and raw honesty in the simple
images,” she continued.
Hill will be at Masters Gallery Friday and Saturday for an
exhibit of her work. Masters Gallery has carried her work since
July; she also has work in galleries in Dallas, Park City,
Utah and Jackson Hole, Wyoming.
Old wood, from fences and churches, is often the base of Hill's
paintings. She finishes most of her pieces with surfboard
resin, giving it a high gloss, chic look. On the back of each
piece, she puts a star, a dollar sign and a heart.
“The star is for spirit, the dollar sign is for prosperity and
the heart is for love,” Hill said. “They're simple symbols, but
they mean something. I like to put that out there. If you draw
a picture of a skull and dark things, you feel darkness coming
from it. I really believe that.”
“We get to see lots of wild life. I saw a golden eagle in my
back yard and now I'm painting a bald eagle for the show,” she
said.
In her former life, she managed high end retail stores, like
Ralph Lauren, in both Aspen and New York City, and was an art
dealer.
When her daughter was born, she wanted to be home with her and
she soon started painting.
“My work has a lot of Ralph Lauren influence in it,” Hill said.
“Watching horses running free, or a flag blowing in the wind,
those images moved me throughout my entire life.”
In the last eight years, she's sold more than 400 paintings,
she said.
“They started selling right from the start,” she said. “It was
meant to be.”
Recently Hill got a letter from a woman who had bought a
painting called “Unconditional Love,” of a mother horse and her
mare.
“She bought if for her son who was diagnosed with a rare blood
disease. She told me ‘this painting has hung outside of my
son's hospital room and has meant so much to us.' Her husband
was off in the military. Those are the things that make me
grateful. I'm able to support myself and I have this amazing
freedom to give back. Hopefully everyone one day will find
their gift.”
High Life Editor Caramie Schnell can be reached at 970-748-2984
or cschnell@vaildaily.com.
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Mixed media artist Sybil Hill visits Vail for exhibit
As the number of town houses in Seattle-area neighborhoods has
mushroomed in recent years, one particular design feature has
caught the eye of many a homebuyer and neighbor; the
"auto-court" parking area around which some town houses are
clustered.
With a central, cavelike driveway, often shaded by the town
houses' upper floors extending overhead, auto courts typically
consist of two rows of Smart Car-sized garages.
Rishad Quazi lives in a town-house complex with auto-court
parking in the Broadview neighborhood of Seattle.
He is happy with his home, particularly the relatively large
back yard, which he estimated at about 20-by-30 feet, the
newness of the home when he moved in, and the fact that his is
an end unit, with only one wall adjoining another home.
Quazi parks his car in his garage, though he said that it was
tricky at first to maneuver his vehicle — at the time a Hyundai
hatchback — into the small space.
"I scratched it on both sides before I figured out my correct
angle of approach and my proper visual markers to get the car
in correctly," he said.
Some of his neighbors choose to park on the street, he said,
due to the tight configuration of their auto court.
The high cost of land, the push toward density, and earlier
building code requiring off-street parking have all contributed
to the proliferation of auto-court town-house development.
Town houses are meant to squeeze more dwellings into tight
places. Taking up less space means that town houses are more
attractively priced compared with free-standing homes.
For example, an upscale three-bedroom, three-bath,
1,730-square-foot town house built in 2006 in Fremont was
recently listed for $479,000.
It's on a block where the land alone under a single-family
house was assessed for a higher amount, according to county
property-tax records.
Though popular for their affordability and relatively new
construction, town-house design sometimes has appeared more
awkward than functional.
A recent building code update in Seattle intends to change
this, by favoring features such as front porches and common
outdoor space instead of auto courts.
The Seattle City Council last year updated its
multifamily-building code with new rules and incentives that
steer development away from the auto-court style of town house
and toward row houses, cottages, and apartments.
In place of car-oriented auto courts, the code update
encourages visible pedestrian entry doors and more windows
facing the street. These features aim to connect homes and
their residents with neighbors and communities.
In addition, a system of "floor-area ratio" incentives allows
the building of slightly larger units on the same size lot if
developers choose dwelling types other than auto-court town
houses.
The code update also allows common outdoor space in town-house
complexes, rather than requiring individual, enclosed yards.
And in certain areas with frequent transit service, multifamily
complexes do not have to include parking for each unit.
To arrive at its final update, the council took feedback from
the public. Councilmember Sally Clark hosted a neighborhood
forum in 2008 titled "Townhomes — Can the Patient be Saved?"
and drew on input from neighborhood groups and developers.
Among citizens speaking up was Bill Zosel, a resident of
central Seattle's Squire Park neighborhood. He felt too many
formulaic, auto-court style town houses were popping up in his
community. He brought to Clark at another meeting a photo of an
auto-court development with a red circle around it and diagonal
line striking through it; the graphic symbol for "No."
Interviewed recently, Zosel said he objected to what he called
the auto-court town houses' "diminished relationship to the
street."
Most of the existing single-family homes in his neighborhood,
he said, have "useful front doors and ground-level living space
facing the street." By contrast, the only visible entrance to
many auto-court complexes is the driveway.
Some areas outside Seattle have stricter rules regarding town
house developments. Snohomish County updated its multifamily
code in 2009 with new design standards that aim to foster
attractive streetscapes and architectural design that blends
into existing neighborhoods.
The code update was written "with Seattle's auto-court issue in
mind," said Clay White, director of Snohomish County Planning
and Development Services.
Under the new standards, "auto-court style town houses cannot
be developed" he said.
Auto courts have been much less of an issue in Bellevue. The
city has not experienced the same proliferation of auto-court
town-house projects as Seattle has, according to Carol Helland,
Bellevue's land-use director, who said: "We've had relatively
robust design expectations in place for some time."
Such design concerns, however, aren't necessarily a priority
for many people who buy town houses. Price, location and newer
construction are what count.
Meredith Spacie and her husband, Tom, bought their auto-court
town house in Seattle's Fremont neighborhood in 2008, though
they did not set out looking for a town house in particular.
"Our most important element was neighborhood and location and
not having to do any work on the house before it was
satisfactorily livable," Spacie said. "There were really no
single-family homes in our price range that fit those
characteristics."
Based on what she recalled seeing at the time, Spacie estimated
they paid at least $100,000 less for their town house compared
with a similarly-sized single-family house in move-in
condition.
Most of the neighbors in their complex of eight town houses do
park their cars in their auto-court garages, but the Spacies do
not.
"Our garage is no tougher to get into than anyone else's,"
Spacie said. "We basically just have too much stuff and are
using it for storage."
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The changing face of town houses
21-12-2011 17:21 Three in Somerville, two in Quincy... and one alleged Grinch in Canton -- all accused of stealing or trying to steal packages off people's porches!
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Packages Stolen Off Porches - Video
30-11-2011 12:54 http://www.front-porch-ideas-and-more.com We love this screen enclosure product from Rekal Company. Visit our website to learn more.
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Screen Porch Windows that Rock! - Video