Got a Before & After to share? Let's see 'em!

[Nicholas]

Here are front views, the before was the day we closed the deal, the after is taken before I painted the top of the home made front step and the repaired original porch gray.

[DavidP]

In the first photo, the vinyl has begun to come off. Note how the windows are sunk into the building fabric. In the second, the vinyl is off and some carpentry repairs done, including replicating and installing the purlins. Third photo is all done; the light was poor and the colors are little brighter than how they look here.

[oaktree]

Nicholas and DavidP, really beautiful and inspiring!

[Vala]

Wow DavidP thats quite a breathtaking transformation! My congratulations to you! I'm doing the exact same as you with my house now.

[Nicholas]

DavidP, that is a nice transformation, beautiful colors and detail.

[DavidP]

Thanks for the kind words, folks. It was an interesting process. As far as I could tell, the house was always white. That seems strange given the style. The family that owned it for 50 years before me had the original blueprints and kindly gave me a copy. So I knew that there was a lot of trim under the vinyl. But why the original owners did not paint it to highlight the architecture is a mystery.

Before buying this house (1904?), I had only a very general knowledge of architecture at the turn of the 20th century. I've done quite a lot of research and have come to appreciate the multiple styles in use at the time: Queen Anne was on the way out, the Shingle Style was in vogue, colonial revival and craftsman were coming on strong, along with foursquares. The neighborhood I live in was developed from about 1890 to 1920. If you drive a half-mile in either direction from my driveway you will see examples of all of these styles, plus 1960s ranch houses (bleh) and a couple of vernacular farmhouses left over from early days. The house opposite mine is a Prairie School design. I really appreciate the diversity of what we have here, much of it well preserved.

So why was my house always white? We'll never know, but I imagine it had something to do with changing tastes. Someone (probably the man of the house) wanted a Queen Anne similar to a few already built nearby to show off his success in business and politics. But perhaps he or his wife was also aware of the colonial revival trend and thought that a multi-colored paint scheme was old-fashioned--despite the style he commissioned from a local architect. Something like that maybe. But I think it does look good in its new colors.

[Vala]

On the topic of white houses. Where did that come from? Was it the whole thing I read about the Dutch Boy paint company wanting to sell their white lead pigments and made up the story about white being a classical color (which it wasn't) around 1900? Or was it simply that people became uncreative? I notice the whole "paint it white" thing became most popular around 1920. Including painting the windows white, as opposed to the historic black or dark green.

My house got painted white in 1923 and it remained white until 2005 (a whopping 82 yrs) when it was painted that ugly green until I repainted it the original dark grey this year.

Many other houses around here were painted white in the 20s as well, in fact I've never seen a house that wasn't white when the siding was removed, except for one which was dark green.

[Mick_VT]

speculating, white as a color is often associated with cleanliness

[Sow's Ear Mal]

On the subject of white--all the classical revival, or Greek revival homes in NS are originally white. It's only later that people added other colour schemes. I understand the ideology behind the bright colour on coastal homes, so that they were identifiable to the mariners. But white prevailed from the late 1700's onward here. That being said, I painted my house rust red. ....Mal

[Vala]

Hmm, not that I'm trying to contradict anything you're saying but I read somewhere that originally colonial era homes were unpainted or did the white paint era come after that?