Compilation of links to my Lakeside cottage architecture stories

Most of these were written during the summer of 2008 and 2009. There has been more remodeling, more upgrades, more rules, but essentially Lakeside remains the same. My garage posts are pt. 11 and pt. 12. Not everyone writes about old garages, but that’s the advantage of following this blog!  Here’s a story about what Lakeside (and the Bruces) looked like in 1974.

What we looked like in 1974.  http://collectingmythoughts.blogspot.com/2008/07/lakeside-2008-nostalgia-thats-one-of.html

This is pt. 4 with links to 1,2,3 http://collectingmythoughts.blogspot.com/2009/07/lakeside-cottage-architecture-pt-4.html

http://collectingmythoughts.blogspot.com/2009/08/lakeside-cottage-architecture-pt-5.html

http://collectingmythoughts.blogspot.com/2009/08/lakeside-cottage-architecture-pt-6.html

http://collectingmythoughts.blogspot.com/2009/08/lakeside-cottage-architecture-pt-7.html

http://collectingmythoughts.blogspot.com/2009/08/lakeside-cottage-architecture-pt-8.html

http://collectingmythoughts.blogspot.com/2009/08/lakeside-cottage-architecture-pt-9.html

http://collectingmythoughts.blogspot.com/2009/08/lakeside-cottage-architecture-pt-10.html

http://collectingmythoughts.blogspot.com/2009/08/lakeside-cottage-architecture-pt-11.html

http://collectingmythoughts.blogspot.com/2009/08/lakeside-cottage-architecture-pt-12.html

http://collectingmythoughts.blogspot.com/2009/09/nimfy-not-in-my-front-yard.html

http://collectingmythoughts.blogspot.com/2010/01/garage-slab-winter-issue-is-now-out.html

http://collectingmythoughts.blogspot.com/2009/07/every-town-should-have-guys-club-as-far.html

http://collectingmythoughts.blogspot.com/2011/07/down-side-of-historic-preservation.html

http://collectingmythoughts.blogspot.com/2010/07/made-in-usa.html

A haunted painting?

When you live with an artist (or two if you count me), you have a lot of art in the closets (we also buy it), so we're always rearranging. Last week we did a major shift. I've been hearing really creepy noises in the living room in the early a.m. I’ve decided it is the painting of the big house near Delaware, Ohio,  It is so large it has acrylic instead of glass in the frame to reduce the weight. When the heat comes on it makes expanding noises, then contracts.

He was an architect before he was a painter, so as architects will do, he remodeled it a bit for the painting--took off an addition that detracted from the original bones of the house. I think he also gave it a coat of paint. It had been refurbished about 20 years ago, but had fallen a bit in recent years. So if you drive by this house, it may not look quite like this.

The environmental regulations have become so restrictive that it is very difficult to save homes like these—lead paint, sometimes buried fuel oil tanks, etc.  Plus the heating costs with 12’ ceilings is often prohibitive. 

The down side of historic preservation

I love “historic preservation.” After all, preservation, conservation and confirming what was good in the past is what conservative politics means. It represents what is often years of work and lobbying by local groups.

But there is a down side of unintended (or sometimes intended) consequences. There is no place for the poor or low income in historic, authentic neighborhoods, whether it’s Lakeside, Ohio, the German Village area of Columbus, Bay Point, Michigan, or Williamsburg, Virginia. Even if the government (assuming it is done with government grants) has set asides for low income, the requirements would mean a low income resident would lose his home if his income rises, and it won’t bring back the former residents now scattered through subsidized housing--it will only draw new “poor.” Nor is there any way you can require that your next door neighbor on government assistance or who is a plumber's assistant with a 25 year old truck, will necessarily have the values of the rest of the "preservationists."

A case in point is the restoration and renovation of The Abigail Tearoom (1933-2008). I used to suspect that the wallpaper (pieces of which are for sale at the Archives) and grape vines were holding it together. We had many wonderful meals there from 1974 until it was sold and then closed and auctioned, purchased by a young, talented architect. The meals were not gourmet, but ham loaf, stuffed green peppers and Swiss steak tasted pretty good there topped off with home made peach pie, or Mississippi Mud cake. The Abigail was two houses--one on Central built in the classic 19th c. style, and one on Third, a former boarding house with sleeping porches. The two houses were probably only about 2 feet apart, so a passage was built, and a kitchen tacked on to the rear.

The 20th c. house has been finished, staged, and is for sale--for $549,000. The other one which is still a work in progress will have 5 bedrooms, a family room, huge bathrooms, a lovely patio and landscaping, plus all the amenities today’s family thinks it needs, and will probably be around a million. Not even school teacher DINKS will be able to afford such a home--it will need to be lawyer, businessman, funds manager with a stay at home wife, and some money in the family tree that will fall when shaken.

These renovations are private money, but there are always tax credits for “green” and energy efficient appliances and building innovations, even insulation, which most cottages don’t have. Tax credits are also something only the well off can afford--like cash for clunkers and home insulation breaks. And what they truly cost after they pass from the tax payer in Ohio to the agency in Washington which will redistribute the money though dozens of agencies and the paychecks of bureaucrats, to the appliance dealer who has to fill out the paperwork and the owner’s accountant who has to figure it all out next April, with several forms, each costing you. Home mortgage “loopholes” are something we’ve all come to expect, but which the low income can’t really qualify for. At least I hope we've learned from the last housing bubble that tried that and crippled the nation economically.

Save the Seneca County Courthouse!

AIA Columbus invites you on June 22nd to come to Tiffin, Ohio. [from the newsletter]

The Seneca County Courthouse was designed by Elijah E. Myers in 1884. He designed the Michigan, Texas, and Colorado State capitols as well as the Utah territorial capitol. Seneca county’s courthouse is particularly distinctive in that it had such a well known architect do this in rural Ohio.

None of the studies have indicated it would be more expensive to rehab, and with the rising costs the past two years, it’s a safe bet “new” will cost more. Particularly since the commissioners turned down $2 million from Governor Strickland to go towards restoration.

The battle to save the courthouse is in its last days and weeks, and AIA Columbus is encouraging people who care about architecture to meet in Tiffin on Sunday June 22, to take a stand and say NO--Speakers at 2:30, "This Place Matters," Photo at 3:00,
On the Seneca Courthouse Lawn. It’s a good building and they oppose it being put into any landfill. See Heritage Ohio for more information and photos.

3976

Green architecture

Because my husband's newsletters come to my e-mail, and we still get 3 or 4 architecture magazines, I see a lot of articles about green architecture. I read so much green, I'm getting moldy! Now there's a watch list of endangered buildings and cultural sites, and global warming has been added to the list of problems. This year New Orleans made the list because of global warming and Iraq's cultural sites made the list because of political conflicts (nothing political about this list, right?)

New Orleans is a mess because of the political graft and corruption at the parish, local and state level. From the governor to the mayor to the levee boards. It is and was run by Democrats who managed to create a helpless, poverty mired population through a victim creating welfare state. They must like it this way or Ray Nagin wouldn't have been reelected.

The people of Iraq have been liberated from a terrible dictator, whom unfortunately we helped along the way to total power. He's gone now, and let's see what they can do. It won't be our type of democracy, and there are days when I ask who would want what goes on in our halls of Congress?

Which do architects value more? Preserved cultural sites or mass graves of religious and political conflict? Don't answer, I think I know the answer. We got out of Korea with a truce 50+ years ago, and our military are still there and the people of North Korea have been starved because of our "peacemakers." We fled Vietnam in disgrace, and millions died. Now there are Americans who want to continue this inglorious tradition. Baffles me, but I suppose there are Americans who want to be sure that no country ever asks for our help.

3747 Homeowner fights back, gets his way

Amy Ridenour reports on a man in Atlanta who was turned down on his request for a porch by a local historic commission, so he painted his house lime green with purple spots. Eventually, he got his way. This was reported in the 5th edition of her book Shattered Dreams: One Hundred Storiesabout government abuse. However, I know this quote just isn't so:

"Randall Carlson, a builder who has done work in Avondale Estates, told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that the city's preservation officials should have their power curtailed: "Most people are not going to do anything that would detract from the value of their home. I think the [commission] should be a last resort, only if people do something way out of line." "

We own property in an historic community--people buy there because they love the nostalgia and ambiance, and when the ink on the contract is dry they immediately try to add a 21st century design addition to a 19th century house, or add a huge storage shed that blocks a neighbor's view of the lake, or create a huge footprint to add a garage in an area where many of the lots are only 33' wide. My husband is an architect who probably has had 30+ jobs in that community that make it more beautiful. Now that he is virtually retired, he is part of the design review board. He has seen the problem from three angles--as a home owner who wants to protect his property values, as an architect who wants the best interests and best design for his client, and as a board member with a larger view looking out for historic preservation. The home owner is much more likely to be the problem than the association or the design board.

At our condo we have the same problem. Everyone who has ever visited here remarks on the beauty--if it were to be built today, there would be double the number of units and it would have an army base look with row on row of garages or porches. We have quite a selection of colors available to the individual unit owners, and variety in landscaping, but there are rules. Often it is the wealthiest owners, or those who spend part of the year somewhere else who think the rules are for everyone else and ignore the owner's handbook.