I don't think they are even capable of building proper houses anymore

[Gothichome]

There is certain warmth about homes and furniture with the personal touch of a human hand in there making. A look that just doesn't come out with the perfection of modern manufacturing efficiencies. The scrolles , carvings, and fits of hand tooled furniture are not precisely the same from one side to the other, that hand carved scroll, although looking at a glance looks perfectly matched, but if you really look, there are ever so slightly different. Any two door frames in our old homes, made on the spot may, may look the same but once again a closer observation shows ever so slight differences. I think these little differences that the eye pics out but the brain doesn't acknowledge is the source of my mystical sense of warmth.

[Gothichome]

JRC, as a pro, your thoughts on building this in today's world. With mods it could be brought up to code. Could it be done for the same 4 million, or even 5?
http://i1075.photobucket.com/albums/w43 ... 61b2d2.jpg
I see nothing here that could not be souced today.

Unfortunately, I don't have much experience with cost estimating. But, depending on your location, I don't see why that house couldn't be recreated for less than $4M.

Location is important, though. For example, the house in the original post would probably only sell for $750k-1M in one of our toniest suburbs.[/quote

I have to backtrack a little. I looked more closely at the listing, and I think that house, considering its size, would probably go for more like $1.5-2million. But still significantly less than $4million.

So in your view it could be built. curious, that those who want a 'new' Victorian seem to fail in their attempts. Lack of education, commitment, or just not willing to step out of the McMansion mind set. I don't know. But it would be nice to see a the resaults of those with the knowledge, and commitment to build one.

[Willa]

So in your view it could be built. curious, that those who want a 'new' Victorian seem to fail in their attempts. Lack of education, commitment, or just not willing to step out of the McMansion mind set. I don't know. But it would be nice to see a the resaults of those with the knowledge, and commitment to build one.

I think the execution of the house itself - the building of it - is one issue. The faults I see with the 4M house are less about the building (though some of the materials/finishes used are not to my liking) - but more about the understanding of the design and use of the house.

As others have said, the interior proportions are not victorian at all, with ceilings that look too low for the scale of the rooms. It has a sort of grandiose condo look to it, inside ? This is the fault of the architect and designer. To my eye, there is a lack of comprehension about how a victorian house is put together, and how the house functions.

A true victorian or even Craftsman house has a particular logic about the scale of the rooms, sightlines, privacy. An old house that is completely intact, in well maintained condition, is probably a house that doesn't have negative surprises like drainage issues, or mold issues, because the house was considered in its entirety when it was built.

This 4M house looks like a collage of various houses, without a comprehension of functional design basics. The education which informs this may be the missing link as to why building an authentic period house is such a challenge. The house is built by carpenters, etc. who are following blueprints, right ? They are not improvising the design.

[Vala]

Well not sure if this is pertinent to this discussion, but has anyone heard of the "Castle Victorian" house. a House built in 2002 off of plans (though slightly altered) of an 1885 house?

Though it was built with modern construction techniques this has to be the best/only example I've seen of something coming out looking like an actual old home. The website is defunct now however it can be found on the wayback machine.

http://hookedonhouses.net/2010/08/18/ca ... t-in-2002/

https://web.archive.org/web/20120101000 ... torian.com

[JRC]

A couple thoughts:

The house in the original post wasn't intended to be a recreation of a Victorian/historical home. It's just a high-end modern house. I do think some of the design criticisms are valid, though. (I'm on the fence about the downspouts on the front; if you're going to spend the money for copper downspouts and collection boxes, why not show them off?)

As for the CNC argument, weren't many of the details in our old houses (if they were built after 1860 or so) machine made? I'm pretty sure that most of the moldings, casings, etc. in my 1902 house were chosen from a catalogue.

So in your view it could be built. curious, that those who want a 'new' Victorian seem to fail in their attempts. Lack of education, commitment, or just not willing to step out of the McMansion mind set. I don't know. But it would be nice to see a the resaults of those with the knowledge, and commitment to build one.

It's a little of all that, IMO. Some people think that lots of gingerbread and turned porch posts, bought at the local big box store, tacked onto a house, makes it Victorian. In other cases, people just aren't willing to pay the extra cost to have historically accurate details made, instead of just using what's commonly available today; they assume that the commonly available stuff is close enough. And, then there is just the modern way of doing things, vs. doing things a little differently to achieve a more authentic look.

[Manalto]

The house in the original post wasn't intended to be a recreation of a Victorian/historical home. It's just a high-end modern house.

I can't tell if you're being facetious. For the interior, yes but the exterior employs way too many blatant imitations of the Queen Anne style to be merely coincidental. This is "just a high-end modern house":

LA house by James McInnis, on Flickr

[JRC]

The house in the original post wasn't intended to be a recreation of a Victorian/historical home. It's just a high-end modern house.

I can't tell if you're being facetious. For the interior, yes but the exterior employs way too many blatant imitations of the Queen Anne style to be merely coincidental. This is "just a high-end modern house":

LA house by James McInnis, on Flickr

Sorry for the confusion. I didn't use "modern" as a style name, but as an adjective for current/new.

I still say the house in the original post is just a high-end new house that uses some traditional details, and they were not trying to recreate an old house.

[Lily left the valley]

Transitional. That's what they call them now. Apparently that term excuses a number of evils and just wrong choices. To be fair, I have seen a scant few that are not hideous. They exist.

I can't remember who it was that recently posted here about their effort to build a new Victorian, but they ran into a LOT of code problems. Folks who are given rules to follow that were based on safety concerns (like porch railing heights that now wreck the sight lines with the bottom of the windows) don't care what is architecturally correct. They have to make sure the code is enforced. He even had a problem where he had to lower the ceilings for a reason I can't remember (it was in his blog), which killed the wonderful windows he had originally designed for the home.

This isn't to say that happens everywhere. Still, I've heard the code issues mentioned more than once in recent years when folks try to do this very thing. The biggest complaint is almost always porch railing related. People have come up with some insane work arounds in some cases.

The other problem is finding actual craftsfolk who can do the stuff, CNC or not. You also have the difference of the wood and other materials being used, and how that can affect a build. Budget too, because a lot has changed as to how much folks "need" to make to live, what's really "needed" to meet that drives costs, etc. etc.

Code issues aside, I do wish sometimes that architects would try harder. Of course, they often also have to answer to their client, and the client may not give two spoons of syrup about whether or not the house looks like {insert your most twitch inducing transitional mistake here}.

[Lily left the valley]

Ah ha. Something was bugging me about that house, so I went back and looked. The windows in the doors are off proportion. It looks liked they could just fall out. Yes, they're likely steel and that won't happen, but the "weight" of the fake muntin is off, as is the outer edge. And I just realized what it is...too flat. My eye wants to see the natural shadows from the shape of the muntins and moulding, and it's just not there to cast it. So the overall "weight" of them is off to me.

Even the windows have no recess in and of themselves because they have new super efficient whatever windows, and didn't think about that. Look at the difference:



I know they were trying to make it fancy Vic while keeping to some Craftsman "grounded" proportioning, but what they wound up with was a house that looks like it got squished by a giant just long enough before the spire pricked the giant and they backed off and stepped somewhere else. See how wide the collar detail (no idea what this word should be) between the different floors' windows? It looks too wide (tall) in the newer home, even though it meets the horizontal line of that siding type throughout that front facing receded corner.

[phil]

the problem with all new windows is they come with black frames or white frames. usually neither really work with the house colors but no one likes to paint them so they use one or the other. note how the frame colors in this house dont' at all suit the house. they also completely eliminated the outer casings and window sills. these are lost design elements. I see this time and time again with old houses that have gone the replacement route.