It was so much fun to read about everyone's paths to a "new old house." We are finishing our build in the next month, and I was very inspired by the concept of the new old house. For me, it was about capturing the classic proportions of old houses, rather than attempting to replicate them. For us, budget was a major concern, so I could not afford all of the materials that a true Versace-approved new old house would require. Instead, we focused on not making the mistakes that poorly done "new old houses" seem to really suffer from, like wrong roofing, wrong windows, etc. In some ways, it is just as important to focus on what NOT to do as it is to think about what TO do. I used two books, in addition to Versace's and lots of books of historic homes from our area, that gave detailed information about construction patterns. One is "Traditional Construction Patterns" but I can't recall the other right now. They are both on Amazon. (And I probably reviewed them there.) What they did was teach me what the obvious markers are of a poorly-done traditional construction...they are the things that - once you can recognize them - make the house obviously "wrong." By adhering to traditional construction practices and using new materials, we were able to avoid some of the mistakes that we would have inevitably made attempting to build a "new old house" on a budget. The homes in Versace's book and portfolio are gorgeous, but totally out of our reach. And, as other have suggested, really studying the home in the area helped me immensely. I paid attention to the size and placement of windows and doors, shape of window lights and number, trim details, porch raining profiles, etc. I was really obsessed! Good luck on your design and build. This is such an exciting process.

Dsnine.. okay.. well.. I just have to get you caught up on something I am sure about! You are going to experience a lot more bugs than Alaska! I am familiar with upstate NY, near Buffalo, Rochester and Finger lakes. We almost moved to Ithaca but the taxes ;). The summers are really lovely in that zone more than VA! The summer; the heat, bugs, humidity, but I still have lots to do with kids. Plus still need to keep gardening for me (food, harvest, sowing again for more susscesions like lettuce, sometimes carrots (a bit later) and radishes and beets.. but eventually, life suddenly tells me, to go inside and drink some ice tea and homeschool the kids! Take them to the pool, etc. It seems like my choice not to do summer is also based on native annuals that are super happy! And some others like daisies. I guess I was trying to say; I don't try for summer but I keep up with what is going on; watering. I don't like to weed unless a weed is going to flower because the earth gets like a sun burn (top soil death)! And I relax in the heat a whole bunch to protect the roots of the plants I want to stay happy near by. I should have had all my weeding done but, nothing is perfect! Summer to me is a time to get busy and relax too! Lol! It is lovely weather for all kinds of fun in the evening here at least and some days; telescope out, campfires etc. Spring and fall for people that eventually grow green thumbs are a big deal and people that grow cheaper thumbs- FALL! Not only cheaper but surpirsingly well established plants had the luck of fall planting or seed sowing. Many native bulb like plants (perrienals) that will be gorgeous and give you so much interest and spread well, are almost unknown to me without fall seed sowing. Many annual seeds I tried sowing in the spring for our fenced garden showed up the following year due to, my layman's guess, a freeze! There are some nice bushes and bulbs (you will see Lillies in Ohio I bet in summer) that love summer. That is absolutely worth a try! You have figured me out by now that I can't stay away from the plants lol. We were suppose to not garden this year for house! But I was trying to voice that I threw seeds; tickseed, echineace and echineace and daisy keep on each year like almost wild flower annuals here. This is how I define my "no summer gardening plan" (starting self sowers (annuals, each fall, or when a free seed packet comes, even in winter under the snow sometimes.) I want to water the fruit trees and veggies on a timer one day! But we have to share the well for now and too tricky. The summer flowers and ornamentals need to be totally independent plants and they absolutely are! Drought tolerant or just not me tolerant. Watering in the spring and fall is so much more enjoyable with breaks with the rain and cool weather. Summer watering is so hot too, and basically, we feel irresponsible if we do more than for our food sake; very minimal for other plants. Small trees are okay to help start. Winter gardening is a new book topic (and fall too, but that book points mostly to color and sometimes to fall blooms, but chances are if it is foliage, the plant will be thriving in the spring too.) I love talking winter gardening! This is still new to me but what it says to me is mostly about form, evergreen and surprising blooms! The winter garden can be so everlasting! Elegant and besides sourcing the plants, easy! It is lovely to think of still forms placed carefully that add enough grace year round that the garden feels like a familiar room. Much like a favorite tree and a bench or swing. I don't see winter gardens that often and I know I will be one of the first in my circle. Many people have them if you thought about it a tiny bit.. like all the landscaping basic installments that people line their homes with. That is almost exactly it. You just take those plants and make them in front of your and on a path that you focus your attention on instead of something hugging your house or porch, like walking down a brick, or mulch, pea gravel path to a bench and a winter garden delighting around you. That is what it felt like to me anyway! You need to go to more historic gardens than most to find some. Here is the book! It is like a catalog and very few pages are the same but chapters do hold the similar ideas together. https://www.amazon.com/Cultivating-Garden-Style-Practical-Personality/dp/1604694777 Praire nursery is great eye candy too! (And a teaching and design catalog if you read it right.) It can help you sow wildflowers seeds on your septic leach field. We didn't buy a mix from them of it, but have gotten seeds from them before. (It can be pricey but easy and a good source for seeds; they always tell you the mix). They have your style for sure! And btw, you might like some purple grass! A sedge is like a grass (but not) and a wonderful mate to iris and others if you have water spots or gutter runs.

dreamywhite - sounds good, have you considered vinyl (don't know if Hardie makes trim) or something that doesn't need painting? We did all vinyl (Certainteed) on this house after having cedar clapboards and shingles (with apparently *unprimed* pine trim) on the last house. Fascia boards in particular can be subject to a lot of moisture and are really hard to paint after the gutters are hung. superchick - I sure hope you're right b/c now more than 2 yrs after setting the house on the foundation, we're finding more things that were done half-@$$ed. Latest - just trying to get trim up around sliding glass door. Top piece cut too short (OK, I've got plenty left from the door casings that were cut too short in the kitchen that I had to replace). My carpenter (cousin) cut new piece(s) (recut legs as well since he didn't trust modular factory's miters), joined them up and was looking at door, noticed casing won't lie flat over right corner b/c wall & jamb aren't flush, then asked "Who put this door in?" I told him the factory, he pointed out there was a 2x6 (or multiples) right over the door instead of open header like all the windows have. No big deal, I said, though I noticed that too when I was putting in foam insulation, you can just cut out the drywall behind the casing like you did with the bathroom door and other window casings upstairs. Yes big deal he says, there IS no drywall over this 2x6, they just skimmed joint compound right over the wood! He asked why they did that, my answer is I don't know why the did anything the way(s) they did in this house, but best we could figure, they cut the opening for the door too tall (maybe same height as windows), drywalled, then went to install the door and had to fill the gap so nailed/screwed (?) 2x6(s?) in to fill the gap then just mudded over it(them). "Builder" (dealer) who of course earns his living from the factory had fixed a big crack over the door for me a few months after set, never noticed or at least never mentioned this to me, even though he told me about all the high/low studs (and one joint taped on back with duct tape instead of front with mesh tape) when he was fixing other cracks. It hasn't cracked again in almost 18 months, so I'm leaving it. (Sigh) so I told my cousin if he can just route out the wood (there's a 1/4" overlap in worst place) so that the casing lies flat, and put up the casing the same day so DH doesn't see it, let's just do that. I'm not into exploratory surgery, demo, drywall work and who knows what else right now. If we ever decide to build a breakast nook/sunroom off the back where a double window is now near the kitchen, we'll rip out the whole back wall of the FR and do things the right way then. I'm not even telling DH - he's even more sick of this house than I am (if that's possible). At this point, the less he knows about the screwy construction and the work-arounds my cousin and are are coming up with, the better (cousin has already replaced 1 window jamb and is working on a continuous bay window stool as soon as he figures out joints in corners since they aren't symmetrical, and the center bay wall is thicker on one side than the other, which is why I noticed the stool was narrower than the others originally).

jennybc-yes and yes and more yes! We are all on edge and the crying and nit picking pushes my buttons much faster than it has. They do definitely feel our stress. Trying hard to keep it in check, not always possible. Not enough hours in the day, still adjusting to loud traffic while trying to sleep, etc. etc. We are hoping to do the same sort of thing when we get to our heavy DIY part. We will have a set up for them to keep busy but it will be tough, I know it. We did see the old kiddos quite a bit until school started.........then it was almost a dead stop. I think part of it is because when we lived there - during the school year even if it was a quick 15 minutes before we were off and running they could run across the street and get some play time in. You could see who was and was not home. Now where we are that is not possible. We have tried to have his closest friend from the neighborhood come along with us to the property so they could run around together and check it out but it hasn't worked out. He has 2 older siblings in sports and he is too so.....never a free night! lori-yep. Same story different day. Or they start playing and it's all good until one particular kid comes around in which it 100% of the time falls apart. Kids fighting, crying. Ugh. I really enjoyed our neighbors too. It was 14 years - felt sort of like leaving family. Yet as you said - I do not miss the continual barrage of kids in and around the house. donna and houseofsticks - ouch. :( We moved when I was 5 and I really barely remember much of it. Or I guess I remember the moving part but none of the emotions part??? Maybe I should ask my Mom.... My sister was an infant then so she will have no recollection. chicago-I was trying to get him excited about the new house, not really replace his friends; yet I see your point. Fall seems to be the busiest time of year for us and hooking up for play dates has been really hard. I hope this winter we can do more of it, especially with breaks from school. We have fall break right now and his fav friend is here playing as I type. :) Now that I think of it - his bouts of crying have really started since school has been in and the visits of summer ended. We moved August 1 so we had a month of still seeing everyone fairly regularly. I had thought seeing them at school would be enough but must not be! We have asked him what he misses - the house?, his old room?, his friends?.....he just shrugs and says he doesn't really know - he just misses 'home' and this is not home. I suppose it would be a combination of all of the above that make up that feeling of home. Thank goodness blanky has made the move. Not to mention at least half of their things are in storage so we are on bare necessities here. This too shall pass, this too shall pass and I pray that when it does, it's GOOD!