Curb appeal - well, we are seriously lacking that at the moment. The house certainly isn't pretty and it's getting worse by the day!
As we have found in so many other areas of the house, the exterior was built with bits and pieces of other houses or whatever building materials they had available.
The ‘clapboards’ that you see on the bottom section of the house are a post Civil War era product called drop siding. Drop Siding was made to nail directly to the studs with a finished face on both the interior and exterior. It was extremely popular in cottages, where a secondary interior wall wasn't needed. By the late 1800's it was available in multiple styles.
It eventually fell out of favor, because the tongue and groove couldn’t be made water tight (especially here on the Maine coast where storms tend to come with horizontal rain off the water). It's problematic for us, because the beveled clapboards don't allow us to install new siding directly over it. Instead we are going to add a layer of sheathing to give us a continuous, water/air tight exterior. The sheathing will also help provide more structural stability, since so many of the studs are spaced far apart (remember our mantra - "how is this house still standing?").
So what kind of siding will we use for the renovation? When we purchased the house, it had cedar shingles. But we like the idea returning the house to its original clapboard style. And that's the approach we will take, except for the garage, where we can leave the cedar shakes to provide a bit of visual difference from the rest of the house.
What else are we doing to improve curb appeal? Well windows are a big, big factor. The windows were originally installed in an odd pattern and were all different shapes and sizes. We are changing that! While we can't make it all look perfectly uniform, this will be a big change. And with the addition of a lattice panel on the front, it should look pretty nice!
The other side of the house has also seen changes with new windows on the original house and the dormer.
It's so much fun to see the plan start to become reality!
The question I keep getting over and over - "what color will the house be?". And that's still a point of debate in our household. Obviously it's been white for many years. But we have also found old photos that show it was once a dark color. For now, I'm looking at options and hope to have some plan soon. I'll share as soon as we have an answer!
Looks so much better already! That sheathing should help keep it cozy during the loooong, brisk winter. However, hoping you're enjoying the beauties of summer.
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