Transforming, uh, this thing.

[Texas_Ranger]

Are "stucco" finishes for foam board insulation available in the US? They're all the rage here, but I strongly suspect if you can live without the texture you can use thinset too and paint it using mineral paint. Don't forget to embed some kind of mesh in the whole thing though, or the seams of the foam board will crack. You don't need any support structure for the foam board if you go that route, just stick it to the wall using small dabs of thinset.

If you want, you can even create some plain-ish "trim" by putting up thinner pieces of foam board on top of the first layer, e.g. around the doors and between floors. Around here you can get all kinds of ready-made foam trim, but I doubt that's available in the US.

I'm not really sure I understand what you want to do about the entrance. Do you want to remove the exterior wooden stairs and use an existing door into the garage level as the new main entrance? If so, which one? The slightly better-looking door half hidden behind the tree or the rotten something underneath the upper-level balcony?

In either case I'd only do that if the opening is tall enough for a regular door. If that works out ok, I'd install a decent-looking door, flank it with lights or flower pots, maybe trim it a little and voila, you've got an entrance. Then you can remove the wooden stairs, fill in the railing and have a balcony.

Otherwise I'd strongly consider enclosing the stairs and balcony.

[zollydog]

My code guy strongly recommended against stucco. He tells me it's hard to maintain in our environment, and a lot of people don't know how to do it decently in the historic district, which leads the Historic Review Board to decline its use on a regular basis other than for additions or other projects which are done in a way that ties them to an existing stucco structure. For that reason, we're not considering it.

*I'm not really sure I understand what you want to do about the entrance. Do you want to remove the exterior wooden stairs and use an existing door into the garage level as the new main entrance? If so, which one? The slightly better-looking door half hidden behind the tree or the rotten something underneath the upper-level balcony?*

Correct. The rotten door is a utility door, which allows the fuel oil guy access to the tank -- it'll be replaced. The door behind the tree, which is a standard-height door but only 31" wide, is the entrance that we would prefer to use, converting the current stoop into a balcony and maybe eventually to a balcony/wrap-around deck. I am considering a roof for the stoop area -- but I don't really want an entrance to come off that stoop -- as it is, it does bad things to the flow of the living room, leaving almost no usable space that isn't some sort of traffic pattern. (The stoop front door is the same type of door as the lower door.) As for the entrance, I think it would improve its usability and also be more clearly an entrance if it had a roof of some kind -- a pergola or an arbor or a small portico. Anything, really. What do you think?

[Texas_Ranger]

My main reason for suggesting stucco over foam board was that it would significantly reduce material costs and probably also the amount of work. If you actually used thinset you'd get a very smooth surface, not heavily textured like other stucco surfaces. Stucco over foam board does have a reputation of attracting algae and other crap, requiring more frequent paint jobs to keep it decent-looking. If you choose a paint colour that takes some darkening without looking too bad, you might get by though. Across the street they're replacing the foam insulation after about 25 years because it started to fail a few years ago. So I guess that's about the life span you can expect. They never painted it during that period and the beige/yellow is a bit grey but still looks decent. If stucco is frowned upon by the authorites that's it though.

The entrance. 31" is a bit narrow, but widening the opening sounds like a major pain. Do you have any idea if the block is hollow or solid concrete? If it's hollow and the lintel above the door is long enough you might be able to gain an inch or two on each side without too much trouble.
I'm not really sure I'd add a roof on a house with such simple lines, but an arbor sounds like an idea. I might just go for lights on either side.

[zollydog]

It is hollow block -- so not too hard. But the header over the doors seems to be solid concrete, and the same width as the door.

[pqtex]

I like the idea of board and batten for the carriage house. That would be simple, appropriate for a building like this, and would look nice. If you replace the garage door, consider a vintage look instead of a replacement of the same kind. There are some nice looking doors that are functional but look fantastic.

[zollydog]

FYI, this is my rudimentary rendering of what I want to do with the carriage house in the short term.


Carriage House Plans by Athens Nikita, on Flickr

[eclecticcottage]

It's not a architectural style. Its' a utility building. IF anything it follows a 1950's cottage or bungalow style. I think "cottage" is your overall theme. Warm and inviting So it's form following function with cost being the primary concern.

hm...I'm not really seeing 1950's cottage (which, quite literally, what my house is), but it might vary by location for what "cottage" really is.

However, if you do decide to just go with cottage, it can be super fun and pretty cheap...er...inexpensive. Cottage style here anyway, is basically a mishmash of whatever was available. None of my original windows match for instance-they were all probably salvaged from other houses as windows were replaced. My cottage theme is whatever works, lol. I don't think, aside from the kitchen (which is pretty much 50's), that there is a distinctive era here. Our "new" living room floor (as yet to be installed) is actually sheathing from a garage that was taken down, I'm guessing by the era of houses in that town it was built in the 40's. Also in the livingroom, the paneling is 70's, but we whitewashed it to be able to "weave" in new stuff without trying to match the fade/stain. We have a 1920's china cabinet (that we got for free) as a display piece with random things on it (everything from a ball jar filled with beach glass to a vintage schooner reproduction windvane). We also have about 15 or so old farm crates serving as shelving, and a lake stone covered hearth pad for our brand new wood stove, which sits between two sliding glass doors with new curtains-but the curtain rods are hidden by vintage boat oars covered in chippy blue paint.

I guess what I'm saying is IMO, cottage is whatever works, it's a "make-do" style that can be whatever you want!

[zollydog]

You guys ever get that "my God, what have I done?" feeling? Because that is totally how I feel right now, having talked with a contractor yesterday about just the Hardie plank project.

I was blithely assuming that I could just do that project, but of course he was like "so, what do you want to do about this?" and "what do you want to do about that?" and now I'm thinking about doing practically EVERYTHING to make it not so hideous.

Specifically, practically everything that I want to do should probably be done at the same time as the siding, which creates a serious monetary outlay. And I discovered last night from my husband that, uh, the electrical panel is maxed out! So, we're having this conversation about the washer/dryer -- we have two sets of hookups, but he was all like "yeah, let's see if we can put that project off." And I was like "why? We have to have the washer and dryer in in October." And he was like "yeah, well, I think we should put it off." So, it turns out that in the process of some of the recent work that we've done there that the panel is maxed out and can't handle the washer and dryer that we own. So...grrr.

Is this how it goes? Try to fix one thing and you have to fix damn near everything?

[pqtex]

Sigh. I understand EXACTLY how you feel.

Every project I start seems to land me smack dab in the middle of this song...nothing is ever as simple as it should be. Good luck with what you decide to do.

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The back bone connected to the neck bone,
The neck bone connected to the head bone,

[eclecticcottage]

Is this how it goes? Try to fix one thing and you have to fix damn near everything?

Uh...yeah, in our experiance it is. Just to keep from copy/pasting everything, you can read about how me wanting a wood stove in the living room ended up with us tearing out the floors including the joists in my blog with pics. or the condensed version: take out old stove and find flooring doesn't continue under (we're moving the stove location at this point). Take out a layer of flooring to lay a different floor and find rotted subfloor. Take out rotted subfloor and find rotted joists and a barely existing sill plate. yup. Rebuilt the whole darn thing. And found the electric was a hack job so we're rewiring the whole place too.

You need a good sense of humor or a well stocked liquor cabinet (or maybe both) when you own an old house...