The Historic District

I ordered the "Cottage Panels" for my house; see the attached photo. Dan (the owner) is easy to work with.

If the roof had been replaced circa 1930, the previous owners who bought the house in the 1950s may not have had any idea, as 20+ years would have passed between the new slate roof and the house coming into their possession. I was told the house was built in 1904, although there is some evidence it...

Vermont gray slate and copper flashing will outlive all of us. They did a good job. I agree on both counts. I wish more people in our society would take the "long view" when it comes to houses and other things. I'm glad I could do my bit. The more I look at the pictures of your old slate ...

OK, folks, here we are! The job was finished late Thursday and I have just added the last two blog ‎entries . I also updated the antepenultimate [your word of the day ] entry with some very cool pictures I ‎finally got from my contractor. Check out the gutters and copper as seen from the roof!‎ I’m ...

In coastal areas, copper will form patina a lot quicker than in dryer climate. Makes sense -- I hadn't thought of that. I am inland. I will let the weather do its thing without any (ahem) chemical assistance from me. Update: my contractor somehow ended up short one piece of ridge roll. Everything e...

they did a chemical analysis of the original paint and determined that it couldn't have been pure white That agrees with what I learned when I was researching paint colors for my house: the brilliant whites that we can get today, along many other shades, are products of 20th century paint chemistry...

. . .that copper puts your slate roof over top of any I have seen The alternative was aluminum, which just didn't seem right and wouldn't look good over the long term, I think (see next comment). The copper wasn't that much more expensive, relative to the whole job, because most of the cost is the ...

Your house painted in colors is so much more soothing, inviting and interesting than the stark white. Thanks! It's definitely more interesting. I had not thought of it as being more soothing and inviting, but you are probably right about that. It is also much better proportioned now that the horizo...

James, if you go here you can see a before and after picture of my house. Scroll up three or four posts from there and you will see a larger version of my avatar. Agree 100% about windows. Older neighborhoods are architectural treasures; within a half mile radius of my house I can see Victorians, Cr...

I just have to vent. I mentioned in an earlier post that a house up the street, similar to mine, had its slate roof replaced with shingles. As I drove by today, I saw that they have started installing vinyl siding; dark gray vinyl siding. The people who bought this house about 15 years ago gave it a...