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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!

Thank you for posting so many lovely, inspirational, and informative photos. I am extremely impressed by your kitchen, but actually, I was wondering if you could give me the paint colors you used for your exterior clapboards and trim--they look fantastic! tia, Alex indentured servant to an 1887 victorian, hoping to actually be done in 7 years.

Thank you all for your words of advise! I always forget to give more back info. Our pre-civil war house was 2 rooms and 2 stories. In 1887 it went through an addition that doubled its square footage. The entire roof was redone in slate and Victorian details were added to the Georgian floor plan. Wow Calliope it sounds like you have wonderful details and a great house! We have found nothing that would indicate a large hearth in the walls or the crawl space. We also have a spring for water by the railroad. I am sorry to say, but I do not think we had a pump until the people living in the house had to carry it themselves. We are very fortunate we had a first hand source for information. I'm pretty sure we had a detached kitchen- we are in VA- and we have some pictures that show where Caroline worked. Ms. Ethel remembers her from her youth- she was over 100 when we spoke to her about the pictures (20 years ago). That puts us around the turn of the century. Ms Ethel even told us about the man who added the front portion and completely redid the roof. When the house was a 2 room 2 story building, it may have had a small cooking hearth- smaller than the average fireplace measuring 3' on the outside of the brick....so clear until the 40's most if not all cooking seems to have been done in the out building not far from the house but detached. The water pump was also located only in there. No pump in house until they put in plumbing. This of course is word of mouth;but, we also can't find any evidence on the grounds except for where the detached kitchen was. I came up with the slate- a throwback to the roof- Buckingham slate is local to us. The bathrooms of the later era used the marble tile and I thought that would be easy to clean...I did think of brick Maryinthefalls, but thought how would I ever clean it? I had no idea about quarry tile- that is a better option! I hope this makes you giggle Circuspeanut: I am an art teacher and you would think this is all second nature to me; but, Marmoleum simply gave me too many choices!!! Patterns, Bright yummy colors. I was simply overwhelmed! By the time I picked colors and a pattern hubby asked if the cotton candy on the floor was edible? :^) Thank you again for all the help! I'll try to narrow down the options, check the brick and try again with the linoleum. Heather