Is that mostly because of the paneled bits on the porch and lower fencing? I got the idea from these homes below. The first was labeled as an arts and crafts, and the latter is labeled a craftsman. I have images of other older bungalows with wider than usual balusters as well.Gothichome wrote:Lily, I see a formal Victorian look to your scetch, maybe the "overly imaginative" brain of yours deeply wants a grand Victorian rather than a grand Craftsman.
Here, I know local code will require we keep the porch stairway railing as well as put another on the right hand side since we'll lose the grandfather, even if that isn't customary for bungalows. If we have to do that, I'd rather continue the rail pattern down like I saw in the image below. We could keep the pipe on the lower concrete stairs, but that already feels disjointed to me with the left wood rail that replaced the original pipe when they redid the concrete stairs with partial wood.
Garden plantings wise, though...that's a mix. We have a rather steep slope in the front, and it's mostly badly maintained grass right now, which I don't want to keep. On the driveway side, the slope currently is almost a pure vertical drop, and we've got a lot of erosion there. I've been watching water retention/pooling since the rains started, and my concern is that if we don't go with a "wall o' ground cover" or step it as I did in the sketch, we might start losing a lot more ground. The main reason for the stone under the fencing is, again, concern about soil retention.
For frontage, I like a bit more formal in look, and I do like the Victorian leaning of separating public and private spaces in that fashion, hence the short fence. The backyard, though, will be a lot more organic. I do love Victorian homes, there's no debate from me there, even if I lean more towards the Carpenter Gothics that are more like the vernacular Vics in regards to less ostentious ornamentation overall. Maintaining them, though? When I was younger, maybe. To me the bungalow is easier to keep up myself for the most part for at least a few more decades.
The other thing I pondered is our neighborhood. Most of them have fairly orderly if sparse yards in front. I thought maybe having something a bit more tailored would fit in better. The craftsman next door, she pretty much just has a lot of neatly trimmed evergreen bushes with some hostas here and there.
I guess we could go back to concrete stairs up to the porch when we finally getting around to working on the porch overall (it's currently slowly sliding downhill... ) I guess although I like pipe rails, I just don't think they mesh well with the wood porches of bungalows. I know it's still a "natural" material and all, but just about any other metal form might be too decorative or look like a bad remuddle.
Let me know what you think after knowing some of the behind the design thoughts. Now I'm a bit worried I'll be creating a weird schism.