Very nice!

Love the windows in the kitchen! The master bath doesn't seem to fit the era of the house, to me.

Their website is a terrible design, at least on Firefox.

Casey

I noticed the bathrooms too - but then it is described at a "Modern Craftsman"

I have nothing to do with them - posted the website because I preferred viewing the photos there as opposed to Houzz.

The bathrooms were a bit of a stretch - I agree.

I like the outside a lot and is spot on for a Craftsman in a Southern state. The windows are to die for.

The trim around the windows and doorways inside looks right to me, especially with interior transoms.

Agreed -- the Shoji screens and Japanese soaking tub are a bit off for this craftsman.

Sorry, but NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. Would love it as a new house, but an abomination to do that to an old one.

Amen, writersblock. When I saw the outside I was really excited. First inside picture lowered my expectations. by the second inside picture I just kept clicking through looking for something I liked. Never found anything that looked like it belonged in that house.

Nothing "historic" about the renovation, but at least it saved the house.

Diane

With the exception of the Shoji screened bathrooms, I would be quite happy to live in this house.

I was impressed with the state of the home when it was purchased - and where they took it.

You don't always need to stay true to a style. I appreciate when a homeowner imparts their own style to a space. Whether that be modern in a traditional home - or vintage in a tract home.

The trim in the "before" photos was kept and continued in the renovation.

You don't always need to stay true to a style.

No, but there's no reason to buy an old house if you want a new tract home/condo.

I was just on a cottage tour this weekend and I feared that most of them would be like this place, but luckily there were only two where the owners felt it incumbent upon them to make you think you were in a NY loft once you closed the door (and one had the excuse that the house had been used by druggies and such for so long that the interior had to be gutted to the studs). The others managed to renovate without destroying the character of the homes.

Very interesting! I like the inside. I like the outside. But they do not seem to comprise one and the same house to me. Having a hard time wrapping my head around this renovation.

I'd like it if was a new house too, but I agree that most of the internals just don't seem to go with the historic nature of the building, although I agree that you don't necessarily need to stay true to a period when decorating - our last house was a Georgian thatch but that didn't stop us furnishing it with our Arts & Crafts stuff. We didn't rush out to buy cutesy cottage or typically country house furniture. What we did do though was respect the historic elements and leave well alone.

We get lots of this in the UK as well though - people buy lovely, characterful houses then gut them so that inside they resemble a newbuild. I was on a UK forum the other day where a poster was planning to do just this because it was the only way - or so she said - to get a large house with acreage. Other posters suggested she buy land and self build, but she maintained this would be prohibitively expensive in her search area.

a poster was planning to do just this because it was the only way - or so she said - to get a large house with acreage. Other posters suggested she buy land and self build, but she maintained this would be prohibitively expensive in her search area.

I always wonder about this reasoning. At least in my area, by the time you figure in the cost of a gut renovation, it's always as much as a new house would have been.

To me, it's one thing to put some arts and crafts furnishings in a Georgian house, but it's a whole other thing to make the inside look like an ikea display, which seems to be far too common in Europe these days.

crl did what I think is a fine job of modernizing her kitchen while respecting what she had:

http://ths.gardenweb.com/discussions/3642845/something-old-something-new-kitchen-reveal?n=52

Having had three new builds in the past, I can report that renovating my 1939 house has been expensive and slow...and still isn't complete because we've tried to keep 1939 original parts and remove the 1950s, 1990s updates that were done, handle asbestos and lead. I bought the house in February last year.

I could have been finished in a few months if we had gutted the house to modernize it, and I could have saved more than $100,000 by doing so. I think that is why so many older homes are gutted and modernized. It's very expensive to restore an older home. I've put more into my renovation than the local market would indicate as wise. Houses here are priced by square foot, not the level of quality/details/fixtures. Sad. But, I bought in a highly desirable, walkable old neighborhood.

My original plaster ceilings and walls were repaired, not removed. It was tedious. There is lath in the walls behind the plaster. Gutting would have been done in 1-2 days instead of a month of repairs.

I had to replace electrical and plumbing, but since we didn't gut the house, this was done, one wire/pipe at a time. The electrician and plumbers didn't come in once to rough-in and come back for final. No, they've been here off and on, almost every week since May because the walls weren't opened up.

The trim, such as crown moulding, isn't one piece like today's trim. It is in separate pieces, built up. My carpenter meticulously replicated that trim on-site on his machines, for my addition (where I did take liberties with my new master bath and kitchen, in terms of decor, but not trim).

Any pieces we removed to widen (note, we didn't remove walls, we made wider openings) the dining room, we saved and used in other places, such as wainscot for the powder room that had been renovated in the 1950s with tile walls. I kept the tiny sink and put down marble hex floors.

The kitchen cabinets (not original to the house, looked like 1990s due to hinges and shelf supports) were repurposed for the back hallway as extra pantry space, in the laundry for storage and in the basement. There were two large bookcases, but not built-in. One is now my shoe storage in my master closet and the other is in the basement for storage.

I kept all internal doors and door hardware, including skeleton keys.

A previous owner had messed up the fireplace, so we used black slate to cover the damaged brick that was chipped and painted.

The hardwoods were refinished and I used the same size oak for the addition.

The original upstairs bath -- I had the cast iron tub refinished; replaced the 1950s tile and 1990s vinyl with white subway on the walls and white hex on the floor. I tried FOUR faucets in trying to keep the 1950s shelf-back sink and none fit. I finally had to replace the sink with something that went with the look.

I took liberties in the addition. My kitchen addition has white cabinets, but I went with modern bar pulls (but no knobs on cabinets) to keep it simple. My backsplash is penny round white porcelain tile--something from the era used in a different way. I couldn't use anything linear due to the floors/ceilings of the original part are no longer level after 75 years. The round tile fools the eye. On the outside, my kitchen is off the side, balancing the sunroom on the other side. There's a chippendale balustrade on the (nearly) flat top that is like those of other homes in the same style in my city.

My master bath addition is more 1930s Parisian influence than American. That's my luxury escape and I make no apologies for not building it true to American styles. That said, I did buy a 1933 pedestal tub and had it refinished.

The front vestibule addition took a lot of research. I needed a place to come in from the weather on the front of the house as there is no garage attached. I had to look at colonials in the northeast to find vestibules that wouldn't muck up the look. I think it worked with a real stone exterior. We couldn't replicate the wood siding from 1939. We tried all types and ended up using lapped cedar siding on the addition on the side and back.

Anything left from my renovation was given to the architectural salvage warehouse, where they didn't pay me, but gave me credit ---which we used to find trim pieces and parts, here and there.

Sorry to post such a long explanation, but I think it's a reality check on what goes into renovating an older home. It's a conundrum for an owner--how much to put into the house.

Not all old houses are as intense as yours. We restored our 1908 home, including the plumbing, electrical, plaster repair, new kitchen, and foundation work. We did all of the work ourselves, paying only for the opinion of a structural engineer. We came to the project with very few skills but knew what we were in for before ever buying the house. The point of this comment is only that yours may be an extreme case. For us, our previous not-old-home took almost as much work and dollars to make it ours as our old house. I consider this part of home ownership.

I hope you are happy with the outcome. I certainly applaud you for making the choice to do it right.

Diane

Diane - you're fortunate to be able to do the work yourselves. I'm on my own since my husband's death in 2014. I've had to hire people to do everything. Fortunately, my neighbor from my previous home is the contractor. That's helped. Glad yours worked out. I'm happy with mine, though I feel a bit poor from it all!

I like it. I don't think they did anything so totally out of character as to ruin it. I don't even mind the screens. I love arts and crafts, and there was some Asian inspiration for that even during the period. Changing out styles of kitchens and baths happens all the time. The main damage to the house had probably already been done in the 70's, 80's or 90's. I hate to see all these perfectly good custom built solid wood kitchen cabinets being torn out for veneer or particle board kitchens with all kinds of detail, but most of it made out of fake wood. Don't know if they did that there or not, but so it goes. I love all the big windows and window trim in that home. There's nothing sacred about some old bathtub style. They went classic with most details. If they tore out or painted some vintage built ins, or destroyed some precious "nook," well then I would be sad and jealous, but since there is no "before" photo, hard to say.

Edited after I found the "before" photo. Frankly they kept whatever was worth keeping, except I don't like the fireplace. I love the previous mantle, and I think the newer mantle is totally out of keeping with the woodwork in the rest of the room. I mean it is OK, I have seen worse, and whatever floats their boat, but that's not the direction I would have gone in. However, nothing ruined there, could always be redone a dozen different ways, even back when the house was built.

This doesn't look at all "new tract home" to me, or at least nothing at all like new tract homes in our area (which have very little, if anything, in the way of trim/woodwork and certainly no bold color choices). I especially love all the woodwork and windows, and think they did a nice job in keeping some old character while giving it a tasteful modern flair. Yes, some of it is trendy and will probably look dated in 10 years or so, but IMO the original "bones" of the house are still there to enjoy.

Thanks for posting it, jpmom!