Historic, thanks for posting these examples. It's always enjoyable to see historic houses, and these are lovely. Each of these is proportioned to be narrow in front and deep to the rear, which is typical of city lots. Have you looked and compared the street front proportions and scale of these houses with your drafted elevations? If you do you will quickly see that these houses have proportions and fenestration that is largest on the lower level, somewhat smaller on the second level and smallest on the attic (third) level. This is very typical of classic houses. Your elevations do not have the same progression and scale--something that your lumberyard drafter probably doesn't have a clue about. Also look carefully at the roof line. There are simple and single gables, and none of the mulitple gable, multiple materials elevations. While Victorians are often highly detailed, and frequently colorful, there is a unity and harmony that characterizes the best of them--as evidenced in your photos. These photos offer good references for your build. If you can get your plans and elevations to this level of refinement you will be very successful and enjoy your new house for many years. Good luck on your project!

I have some terrific carriage lights that are somewhat similar to the second one you posted but without the curlicues. I prefer that shape to the dangle beneath the light. I wanted chandie not regular sized lights and a slightly more artistic look. I found mine new in original boxes on Ebay from closeout store for 1/3 or less of retail. Also, I second Restore as a good source as I've donated tons of usable house items when renovating. As noted, many locations carry new items. Goodwill and other outlets are also possibilities. The swap shouldn't take more than 15 minutes so labor costs should be reasonable. Maybe if you have any other small jobs combining them would make sense so you can get your $s worth since it's usually appropriate to pay a handy person for travel time in additional to time involved with the job. Good luck with tackling those boxes! Here is a link that might be useful: ebay outdoor wall sconce

Do I understand correctly that someone has proposed spraying closed cell foam on the underside of your slate roof to insulate it and create a so-called "cold roof"? That sounds like a terrible solution to me! Terrible because it goes against the way slate roofs actually work. Terrible because it will cause damage to the slates themselves over time because slates must be fairly loose to succesfully withstand extreme temperature changes over the course of a year. Terrible because it will make any subsequent repairs very difficult, if not impossible. Terrible because the foam expansion could force the slates, which now lie flat against each other, apart actually creating places for water to enter where there are none now. Slates are not sealed or nailed down tightly to the roof beyond the two nails from which each hangs; their collective weight is what keeps them in place but an expanding force from underneath, like sprayed foam, would disrupt that. Terrible because it won't really solve the problem, anyway. Slate roofs are inherently a loose and essentially free hanging roofing material. The foam would inevitably interfere that and would result, I'm pretty sure, in considerable eventual damage when the slates were denied that movement. Slate roofs are completely different from other roof materials in this way. The field of the underside of a slate roof is not intended to be hermetically sealed against water penetration (except around protrusions, valleys, edges, etc., where flashing is used to make a water tight seal.) but instead relies on redundant, overlapping (but loose) slates and the never-failing force of gravity to channel water away safely. That's why the ice and watershield product isn't really a recommended thing for slate. Not detrimental, just not needed. A proper slate roof is laid over builders' paper above 5/4 wooden sheathing, but the builders' paper is not there to make the roof watertight, except during the brief period the roof is being first installed. (And used again if large areas must be later opened up all at once due to casualty or structural changes.) Nor is the wooden sheathing intended to be water tight. Mine, which is nearly 140 years old, was simply rough cut lumber laid up as tightly as the uneven, still bark-edged slabs could be. Both the builders' paper -or what passed for that in 1870 - and the wooden sheathing are absent in about 25% of the toal area of my roofs where you can look up and see the underside of the slates themselves - all without leaks. The wooden sheathing is there for stiffening of the connections among the common rafters and to be nailers for the slate. Ice dams can be prevented or managed by other means from raking to removing and replacing lower rows of slate with flashing in intractable cases that can't be accessed by rakes. How high is your slate roof? Two stories, three? Is there a wing? I live in an older house than yours, timber frame w/o a speck of insulation, and with a slate roof. I'm in northern NY. We use roof rakes to keep the critical roof surfaces clear of ice dams, when and where they are likely to occur, which isn't on all surfaces, and not every winter, or indeed from every storm. Study of each roof and the patterns will help keep the work load at a minimum and still effective. I also have several nearby barn buildings which are completely unheated, some of those roofs develop ice dams on occasion, so despite conventional wisdom, it's not just insulation (or lack thereof) at play in ice dam formation. I also repair all my own slate roofs, all ten of them. I don't think that insulating the underside of the entire roof would be either wise or effective. Ihe ice dams aren't forming on the majority of it and you don't need a totally "cold roof" you just need it above where warm air is rising through the wall assembly, which happens to be the place where the roof plane and the wall plane meet, and hence you couldn't realistically spray anything there. There are other more effective ways to block that convective and radiant channel. With all due respect the Building Science Institute, they can't be talking about slate roofs in this quote: (from Worthy's post above) "Closed-cell spray foam has negligible water permeability, minimal water absorption, and excellent adhesion allowing it to act as a secondary rainwater barrier to limit damage when primary roof assembly rainwater control membranes leak..." (my emphasis) Slate roofs don't have "rainwater control membranes", they rely instead on carefully calculated, redundantly overlapping but loose layers of slates, and of course, gravity. One final thought: slate roofs being actually thin layers of rocks are perhaps the ultimate in a "cold roof". Mine acquire a thick coat of frost inside the attic, easily visible from underneath between sheathing members. This is of no concern because the loose, unsealed nature of a slate roof also means it's extremely self-ventilating and impervious to moisture as long as nothing interferes with that, such as any man-made material (Watershield, closed foam, pink sytrofoam ventilation channels, etc.). When you introduce these foreign, unnaturally tight layers you risk changing the environmental conditions in unforeseen, and possibly detrimental ways. Old houses have survived many decades, and even centuries, because they possessed inherently successful technological systems. Old houses with different technological systems have failed and disappeared from the scene. What remains are building technologies that work. Be careful when considering adding newer systems to the old houses - you may very well be altering a critical factor. A some good resources for you are: John Leeke's website: www.historichomeworks.com (Many topics of old house care maintenance covered from a profoundly conservationist point of view. Particularly useful re insulation and window repair issues.) John Jenkins webite: www.slateroofcentral.com (Site with much info on proper care, repair and installation of slate roofs.) and, of course, the National Parks Service Preservation Briefs Series on variety of topics, including #29 on care maintenance and repair of slate roofs. See link to index of the series below. HTH, L Here is a link that might be useful: Preservation Briefs Topics Indexed

There was a GW member (I forget who) that bought a new condo or single house. I recall that it was a new development situation and that the house set close to the sidewalk and close to neighbors homes. It was brick. I recall the interior being gorgeous! The trim was thicker and more built up then any new home built to look old. It was at least as thick and pronounced as my 100yr old Victorian/ 4 Square hybrid. Last night I was taking notice to a home featured in the most current issue of Traditional Home. It was new built to look old. The outside looked old but I still thought that the interior trim was too small. In reality it was probably really thick trim if in an average sized house but it seemed but it didn't stand out to me in any way, shape, or form in this particular home.