Burger King?

[Inspectorjoe]

I’m having a bit of trouble pinning down the style of this 1920 house.

There’s definitely Craftsman influence, the gables hint of Stick and the front steps have buttresses like a Foursquare. What has me really puzzled is the thing on the porch roof. What style/period is that? I’m thinking c1985 Burger King.

It looks even worse in person. I think some people just shouldn’t be allowed to own an old house.

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[hausdok]

Can't you tell?

It's so obvious; that's the bridge of an alien spaceship that's re-formed itself transformer style to try and look like a house. Go through that door though and you're inside a huge 12th dimensional intersteller-interdimensional craft.

If there is any better example of good cause to charge, try, convict, and execute someone for crimes against architecture, I'd like to see it.

OT - OF!!!

M.

[SonOfSwamp]

Originally posted by Inspectorjoe

I’m having a bit of trouble pinning down the style of this 1920 house.

There’s definitely Craftsman influence, the gables hint of Stick and the front steps have buttresses like a Foursquare. What has me really puzzled is the thing on the porch roof. What style/period is that? I’m thinking c1985 Burger King.

It looks even worse in person. I think some people just shouldn’t be allowed to own an old house.

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That's what we used to call at OHJ a "remuddling." Histo-presto types would probably just call it an "eclectic" house. A little Tudor timbering, a little bungalesque front porch. It's just a mix of stuff from -- best I can guess -- the late 20s to the late 30s.

In my little 300-house ca. 1900-1930 streetcar suburb, we have zoning that precludes any hideous additions to the front of the house. They could use some of those restrictions on this ugly booger...

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[AHI in AR]

I don't see what all the fuss is about. Simply put some of those electrical-tape-looking fake muntins on the windows -- in the appropriate diamond pattern, of course -- and it will blend in perfectly with the half timbered gables. []

[hausdok]

A bungalow with impudent Tudor aspirations and a big ugly honkin' zit on its nose.

OT - OF!!!

M.

[Brian G]

Hideous. [:-yuck]

Brian G.

Still Hideous [:-blindfo

[emalernee]

Looks like the neighbor to the right did the same thing, but at an earlier date with different material.

I am wondering if what was there was a false porch to allow the use of full length windows or was it a functional porch?

Ezra Malernee

Canton, Ohio

[kurt]

Sometimes, I've seen these & they're called sleeping porches; it's a screened in porch on top of the front porch for use in hot weather before AC.

It might have been a sleeping porch that devolved into it's current execrable state.

[Bain]

I wonder how much the 2" x 6" rafters/floor-joists have sagged?

[kurt]

Originally posted by Bain

I wonder how much the 2" x 6" rafters/floor-joists have sagged?

Probably not much; it's only about an 8' span. I see these weird porch thingies on a semi-regular basis, and they're not all bad.

[AHI in AR]

I inspected a home which previously had a sleeping porch that had since been closed in entirely. Originally, there was a neat system of "pocketed" windows which dropped into the lower wall section to allow for ventilation. The roof had deep overhangs, so I guess water didn't get into the cavities much. They were actually in good shape. Anyway, when I looked thru the narrow slot into the wall cavity which the windows previously dropped into, it was full of old pints and half pints of gin and vodka, and tobacco tins. Must have been the "vice" room.

Presumably the full pints were from weeks when the paycheck was better!

Oh...In case anyone didn't get the meaning of the winking smilie in my earlier post, I was being facetious regarding the stick-on muntins.

[Bain]

Kurt,

Around here, the sleeping porches are always on the rear corners of houses--for privacy, I've always supposed. That's a regional thing, I guess. Chicagoans must be less concerned about being seen in their bloomers by neighbors.

[kurt]

Same here; rear corner is most common. But, I've seen a few where the thing is front & center; in fact, I was in one last week.

[AHI in AR]

I seem to find more on the front on smaller homes. The larger ones have them on the rear most often. I attribute it to economics. Your basic small home layout wasn't conducive to an additional bump out on the rear for the sleeping room.

You already had some of the necessary structure in place in the front courtesy of the front porch ceiling; adding a sleeping porch at the rear would have added complexity and cost.

[Inspectorjoe]

Looks like the neighbor to the right did the same thing, but at an earlier date with different material.

In the next block, there were a number of similar houses that had a flat open porch surrounded by a metal railing in this same space. The roofing material was likely soldered sheet metal. The house on the right closed in the open space quite a while ago. The windows didn't quite seem to match the age of the original windows in that house, but they were close.

I am wondering if what was there was a false porch to allow the use of full length windows or was it a functional porch?

I'm not sure, and from my angle of view, I didn't see the wall areas of the houses down the street too well .

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I wonder how much the 2" x 6" rafters/floor-joists have sagged?

Given the fact that there has been a long term leak, they've sagged pretty much. I asked the buyer if the leak was on the seller's disclosure. He gave me a blank look and called his agent to ask her. Aaarrggghh!

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[Steven Hockstein]

In this area, a smart investor would buy that house, restore it, and make $100K profit.

[SonOfSwamp]

My guess: There was a little metal-roofed "balcony" on the original house. The old metal roof started leaking, and the homeowner decided that installing a cheap uglyass abomination was the way to go.

Back in 1986 or thereabouts, I wrote an article about sleeping porches for OHJ. Here's a link to a link: http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-3780679.html

And the teaser text that starts the article:

Not long ago, sleeping in a closed bedroom was considered trouble.

In the 19th century, Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote of a child who "this morning sits up in bed with his hair bristling with crossness, strikes at his nurse and declares he won't say his prayers."

She concluded: "The child, having slept in a close box of a room, his brain all night fed by poison, is in a mild state of moral insanity." Well, Stowe may have had a gift for hyperbole, but her ideas about stuffy sleeping quarters weren't too different from those of her contemporaries.

By the turn of the 20th century, much of American society had embraced the idea of open-air sleeping. From that time until around 1925, many ...

WJ

[Jim Katen]

Originally posted by SonOfSwamp

. . . In the 19th century, Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote of a child who "this morning sits up in bed with his hair bristling with crossness, strikes at his nurse and declares he won't say his prayers." . . .

Well I have a cat who's like that every morning. I'll try tossing him outside each night to see if it improves his disposition.

-Jim Katen, Oregon

[AHI in AR]

Originally posted by Jim Katen

Well I have a cat who's like that every morning. I'll try tossing him outside each night to see if it improves his disposition.

If not, it should improve yours to a degree directly proportional to the force applied to the cat. Either way it's not a waste of time.

[Jim Katen]

Originally posted by AHI in AR

Originally posted by Jim Katen

Well I have a cat who's like that every morning. I'll try tossing him outside each night to see if it improves his disposition.

If not, it should improve yours to a degree directly proportional to the force applied to the cat. Either way it's not a waste of time.

Indeed. Yesterday a client said, "If your dog were ten times bigger than you, he'd still be your best friend. If your cat were ten times bigger than you, he'd eat you."

- Jim Katen, Oregon