old house styles

I don't know if I just like to torture myself or what, but I tend to watch House Hunters, before I go to bed at night.

Honestly, it's probably because it's usually mindless television and less frustrating than the news, which is lately on my tv all day.

Not to say that the show can't be frustrating.

It is!

When watching, I tend to get really irritated when people say....

"I want an old home".... and proceed to talk about gutting it.

CRINGE

or

"I want an old house with lots of charm, but I want it modernized and open concept."

What?!

Those two statements gives me a headache every time I hear them and that's when I try to find something else to do, like read a book.

Which prevents me from yelling obscenities at the tv about them destroying an old house instead of buying a new one that looks old.

Actually, I do that and then read a book while drinking a stiff cocktail cup of tea ;)

Anywho,

One of the things I've noticed lately is that hardly anyone seems to know what the proper name is for the style of home they're looking for.

The other day someone said they wanted a Craftsman and they were thrilled to see a house that they thought was a craftsman.

It was a farmhouse.

I'm sure Greene and Greene were rolling in their graves.

In case you're curious about the difference, here's the best example I could find of what the house looked like:

It's actually more of a smaller inexpensive Folk Victorian or Greek Revival, which most farmhouses, as we think of them, were based on.

Here's a Greene and Greene Craftsman:

And here is a typical Craftsman Bungalow:

See what I mean?


The craftsman homes were meant to be the antithesis of Victorian architecture that had dominated for decades.

The same goes for the American Foursquare.

And the Prairie Style, that I'm showing because no old house post about this time period should be without Frank Lloyd Wright:

People wanted simple.

Read more about the American Arts and Craft movement 'here'.

And yes, a farmhouse is simple, but an entirely different style of home.


So, all of this got me thinking that there might not be a lot of people out there that know the difference between one old house style and another.

It couldn't just be the people that run that show or the people buying the homes, right?

Maybe people that don't have access to the Google search engine?

How about a library?

And don't get me wrong. I know not everyone is a fan of owning an old home, so they wouldn't know the difference and that's understandable, but when you're buying one, I would think that you'd have done some research.

Actually never mind.

Most of them haven't even researched the prices of homes in the area they're looking and don't realize that the houses in Los Angeles and New York City are not going to be the same price as a home in Middle America.

Really?!

You thought your $200 grand, that you got for your 5,000 sq. foot home in Ohio, was going to buy a 5,000 sq. foot home on the beach in California?

I'd like to know what you've been smoking, because it isn't cigarettes.

Oops! Sidetracked by another rant.

Sorry!

Kind of ;)

Moving on back to explaining the styles...

Speaking of Victorians, most people think that all Victorian homes are Queen Annes,

when in reality, there were many different kinds of homes built in that era.

Queen Victoria reigned from 1837-1901, and it is considered that anything built between 1840-1900 is Victorian.

In other words, Queen Annes are Victorians, but not all Victorians are Queen Annes.

Read more about this 'here'.

Some examples....


There's Italianate:

Gothic Revival:

The aforementioned Folk Victorian:

and Greek Revival:

And also the Greek Revival Farmhouse:

Octagon:

Mansard (or Second Empire):

Also sometimes called the Adams Family style ;)

Richardsonian:

Shingle style:

The Eastlake, which is a lot like a Queen Anne, but more froufrou with all the ornamentation:

And of course the tudor revival:

Which is the mother of the Tudor Revival Cottage:

and a cousin to the English Revival Cottage:

Which leads us to the Storybook Cottage...

from the simple:

My home is another example :)

To the exaggerated, like you see in Carmel and other parts of California:

Of course, all the Revival Cottages were after the Victorian era, because they started in the 1920s and 30s, but I thought it was neat how the cottage progressed in America and it brings us back to a movement after the Victorians :)

More about Storybook homes 'here'.

I could go on and on about old houses and I might just do another post on them sometime in the future.

After all there's the eras before and after the Victorians and well, I just plain love old houses.

Obviously :)

I think that's enough for now though, since this post is pretty long and besides, that would take a lot more research on the before part, because shockingly I'm not all that educated on those, BUT I can guarantee you that if I was in the market for one, that I would have done my research.

Before going to a realtor, much less going on television ;)

Now I'm pretty sure this post probably insulted a few people (there's always someone), but if you know me at all, you'll know that I'm a restorer of old homes, that has had to deal with her share of remuddeling and what uneducated people do to them and that upsets me A LOT more.

Remember...
you're a caretaker of these old, beautiful, pieces of history and they should be respected, not reinvented, should you be lucky enough to own one.

I'm also well acquainted with buying and selling homes on both coasts and in Ohio, so there's that

So, I apologize for hurting anyone, but not sorry for how I feel.

Hopefully though, you learned something anyway :)

xo
rue