Another what style is my house post.

13 years ago

If you could help me identify the style of our house, that would be great!

Western, PA (USA)

1300 sq ft

Built around 1915/1920

Flat Roof/No attic.

House is partially attached to the neighbors. Our only party wall is the small kitchen wall & the small room above it.

The exterior looks very boring and plain. The inside is more much more decorative.

-4 ceramic tiled fireplaces

-Lots of dark feather painted moulding (Fireplaces NOT feather painted)

-Transoms

-The stairs turn and have a landing.

-Shallow closets upstairs

-Large windows throughout the house

The upstairs and the downstairs are nearly identical, including the fireplaces.

Downstairs:

-Living Room

-Dining Room

-Small Kitchen

Upstairs:

-Bedroom #1

-Bedroom #2

-Small Room above the kitchen... this is attached to Bedroom #2. I don't understand what this was used for.

-Small Bathroom

-Full Basement. Partially exposed. Because of this, the house is 3 stories from the back.

Dining Room

Bedroom #2

More photos on my Flickr page

Toward the end of my album there are better detail photos of how the house actually looks when it is not under construction.

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Comments (12)

sombreuil_mongrel
13 years ago
It would be classified as a detached 2-story rowhouse/townhouse with a two-bay facade, full-width porch, and flat roof. The trim is vaguely craftsman-ish, but more like a builder's vernacular style of trim circa 1915. Off-the-shelf items. The tiles with the variegated glazes have always been a favorite of mine. And the woodwork, while not showy, is substantial and well-done.
Casey
kindred_ny
13 years ago
Oh, I am so in love with that woodwork and the fireplace!
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patser - Thanks for the link. I'll probably get those for the switches I was planning to upgrade. I saw them at a house our two while looking for our home and I really liked them. We don't have a coal door on the house. A PO cut large holes into the concrete foundation and put in glass block windows throughout. It was a great upgrade that let tons of light into the basement during the day. Even at night the sparkle of the glass is nice and it feels much more open than with tiny dingy windows. (I just wish they would have kept/left pieces of history like a coal door.) My wife really wants a functioning gas fireplace so we'll probably install one at some point. I'm certain the f/p was never functioning, but I still wonder why it was built like it was. civ IV fan - I'm pretty sure the porch is original. The roof staining matches that of the rest of the house perfectly. The foundation also shows no changes - so the porch was at least there; although that doesn't rule out the possibility that the roof was reworked at some point. Thanks for the compliment on the window seat. I truly love it. If we get a nice sunny day sometime soon I'll open the curtains and take a picture of the full floor to ceiling woodwork that makes up the whole window seat. We've also got blue velvet curtains that look much nicer than PO's ugly curtains imho. Now for some more questions: Does anyone know about the type of brick used here? It's dark brick, which I don't see very often. It also has an interesting texture added to it, which I've shown in one of the additional pictures. Some of the bricks merely have textured vertical lines, but many have this curvy texture in addition to the vertical lines. Is there a name for this type of brick or a way for me to learn more about it and why it was used? Also, there's a patch that was clearly replaced below the kitchen window. It looks like there was something in the place before that window that took up more room, but I don't have a clue as to what it could be. Any ideas? I took a video of the problem with our pocket door the other day, but it's 5 minutes long and 300 mb or so so I'll have to break it up and change format to upload it. Is there someone here that knows about pocket doors and might be able to help? (i.e. is it worth the time and effort to figure out how to make this into appropriate sized videos to upload it?) Thanks for the wealth of knowledge! I'm truly enjoying learning more about my house (and older houses in general by reading everybody's recent and not-so-recent posts). Here is a link that might be useful: More pictures
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Thanks everyone. Yes, in my research (learning a lot the past few months) I picked up the cape cod elements as well. I looked at lots of kit home plans online but didn't this one. I'd like to play up an arts & crafts interior with warm colors and woodwork. A lot of the window sills have been painted white downstairs, but the "sunroom" (not sure of it's original name) has unpainted sills. Most of the first floor is painted white contrasting with the bedrooms which are in very bright colors. I'm hoping to get a vintage restored stove in the kitchen down the road as well... Lots to do! The matching car is actually the next door neighbor's. Our driveway is on the other side. Closing in 3 weeks... Can't wait to move out of my mid 90's subdivision house (although I'll miss the big closets.)
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Change out you siding with hardi board. Add a porch roof like the pic.posted that partically follows the roof line to camo. the fact that the roof is wider on one side. Starting at the new porch roof edge add a wide trim board that goes across to the other wall., where the main roof meets the side wall and use hardi shingles above in a different color than the body of the house. Consider nicer window upstairs. I cann,t see the total slope of your yard put it looks like you have enough slope to put in a rock retaining wall. Add a few semi large focal rocks above and some low growing evergreens and a nice stone walk way and multch . Add something like river rock and easy care plants down in front of the rock retaining wall and you probly have the nicest house on your block and it would all be easy upkeep if you use the right plants and multch.If your able to do it your self all that should be less than 3000. We did alot of the same stuff with ours this last year and consider it a learning exp. as well as sweat eguity.
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We have a small courtyard between the house and the street. The fence and hedge provide privacy because the large living room and dining room windows look directly onto the street which is very close to the house. We got tired of waving to neighbors during dinner and dislike closed drapes.
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ideagirl2
13 years ago
Yeah, the woodwork is gorgeous!

Unless your "flat" roof is sloped, it would blow my mind if the original roof was flat. In your climate, flat roofs probably didn't work well at all until newer technologies came in (mid-20th century, maybe?). My guess is it originally was something different, and the change has made it harder to attribute a specific style to the house.
karinl
13 years ago
Whatever the style, "Oh!" to that doorway with the transom above it. What is the whole height of that arrangement - what's your ceiling height?

KarinL
jiggreen
13 years ago
Wow, I love it!! I love how it is so unassuming from the outside, and then.....the woodwork and built-ins on the inside just completely blow you away! I would kill for charm like that! Ok, maybe not "kill"...but then again...I sure do love that fireplace..lol!
atlantic123
Original Author
13 years ago
Hi!

Most of the homes on our block have flat roofs. It was a housing development in the city. I do agree that flat roofs aren't extremely common here, but Pittsburgh does have some! I think our house would look A LOT better with some sort of slanted roof!

The ceilings downstairs are 9' high. Upstairs the ceilings are little lower (8.5').

Thanks for the compliments!! :)
jey_l
13 years ago
Hi atlantic,

Did you ever do anything with your kitchen or is that still a work in progress.
atlantic123
Original Author
13 years ago
I just took photos of the row homes across the street. They also have flat roofs, but have an ornamental detail to their roofs. What is the architectural term for that detail? I LOVE IT! Those homes were built 5-10 year before ours.

Jey,

Thanks for asking! Because of you, I just updated my kitchen post. :)
sombreuil_mongrel
13 years ago
Decorative parapet wall; false front, etc. They are emulating Flemish gable styles.
Casey
atlantic123
Original Author
13 years ago
Thank you, Casey!
Pipersville_Carol
13 years ago
The interiors are beautiful! It's so pristine. Those fireplaces are gems. Even the transoms over the doors have survived! What a pretty, solid house.
kframe19
13 years ago
You know what those houses look like?

They look like company houses for mill workers.

My Mother lives in Lewistown (near State College). There was a very large rayon/acetate factory there from the 1920s until the 1970s.

In the 1920s the company built a town, called Juniata Terrace, for its employees. There was a paved path from the town down to the mill so the employees could walk to work.

The houses look somewhat similar to the houses in your photographs.

I can't find any decent pictures on the web of the houses in Juniata Terrace, but from Google Maps it appears that a lot of the roofs are flat...

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