Beautiful Brick

Here is the brick to be used for the foundation and chimney of the tidewater cottage. It's a Cushwa handmade brick called Old Savannah. With lovely variation in texture, contour, and color, the bricks look as if they were salvaged from an old building.

Cushwa is the artisan line from Redland Brick, a company that also makes machine-moulded bricks and brick pavers at their other plants. Since 1872 the Cushwa plant has been handmaking bricks the same way: by pressing clay into sand-coated wooden moulds, then removing the bricks to be fired in a kiln. The colors of the finished bricks range from orange to black, depending on how close they are placed to the fire in the kiln.

Handmade new brick is a great choice for a new old house, but, like salvaged brick, it's an expensive one. Fortunately, there are brick products at all different levels of cost and quality for giving a house an authentically old look. Russell has spec'd Boral Thin Brick , a 3/4" thick brick facing made of concrete, in several Simple Farmhouse Portfolio designs.

The Chandler Farmhouse

At the Homestead Preserve in Warm Springs, Virginia, the Chandler is being built on a site with a drop-dead gorgeous view of the Blue Ridge mountains.

The side and back of the Chandler at the Homestead Preserve

Wouldn't this be a great spot to sit and watch the hawks ride the air currents as they fly south?

Reconfigured for the hillside setting, the Chandler now has a walk-out basement


Chandler front elevation as originally designed for flat land

The Homestead Preserve is a conservation development in a tiny hamlet close to the Homestead Resort in White Sulphur Springs, Virginia. The developers, Celebration Associates, acquired a tract of 11,500 acres of pristine land. Their first act was to transfer 9,250 of them to the Nature Conservancy for protection in perpetuity, and later, to donate conservation easements for an additional 935 acres to the Virginia Outdoors Foundation.

Homes are being built on just 325 acres of the Homestead Preserve. Residents enjoy privileges at the 200-year-old Homestead Resort, including golf, tennis, cultural and social events, and spas such as the Jefferson Pools in Warm Springs -- where a certain weary ex-President traveled in 1818 to take the waters in the Gentleman's Spa.

Like the tidewater cottage in Halfway, the new house at the Homestead Preserve was built from a factory-fabricated kit of parts crafted in Vermont by Connor Homes and delivered by truck to Warm Springs for assembly by a crew from Ilex Construction.

More "Roots of Home" Endorsements

Katrina Cottage

We have received additional endorsements for the new book, which will be on bookstore shelves on October 14th. We are grateful to author and interior designer Alexandra Stoddard, architect and Katrina Cottage designer Marianne Cusato, National Trust President Richard Moe, and Charleston interior designer Amelia Handegan as well as to a number of earlier contributors for taking time from extremely busy schedules to review the galleys and offer comments. All of the endorsements are posted on the online media site for Roots of Home.

HABS and Historic Precedents

Russell's new book is titled Roots of Home, which is how he refers to the particular mix of culture and customs that shaped an area's classic home styles. The first settlers in a region took building traditions they knew from where they came from and adapted them to the climate, resources, and landscape in the new place. Through the years the styles of the houses evolved with new migrations and cultural influences, and they are still changing today as they're modified to fit how we live in the 21st century.

To plan a new old house, we begin by researching the native-grown homestyles of the place in which the house will be built. In our office at Russell Versaci Architecture we have an extensive architectural library with more than 1000 volumes; many are antiquarian and most are out of print. On the shelves are hundreds of books with old drawings and photographs of houses that serve as a great resource for researching vernacular traditions.

Although we feel fortunate to have this extensive architectural library on site, we also rely on another resource -- one that's available to anyone with a computer. The Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS) is a huge electronic archive of drawings and photographs of early American architecture that is free and easy to search on the Library of Congress website. (For the story of HABS, read Russell's column titled Picturing Home, which appeared in the summer issue of New Old House magazine.)

All this information serves to introduce the drawing at the top of the post. It is a HABS drawing of a house that served as a historic precedent and design inspiration for the prefab tidewater cottage. The house was called Maidstone, and its record states that it was located in the vicinity of Owings in Calvert County, Maryland. Beyond that little bit of information, we don't know anything else about the house, like whether or not it still exists. Many of the houses in HABS are no longer standing. The project was begun during the WPA years to document in photographs and measured drawings the early architecture of our country before it fell to ruins or was bulldozed to make way for the march of progress.

A Prefab House Takes Shape

Outside Middleburg, the factory-fabricated cottage is looking very much like its rendering. On the second floor, the dormers now have their windows, and the roof has been covered with asphalt felt paper.

Clapboard siding and trim moulding are being applied, and the house is partially covered in GreenGuard Housewrap. The Marvin windows are double-hung with simulated true-divided light. The hipped style of the dormer was common in early Virginia and can be seen on houses in colonial Williamsburg.

Renewable Energy from the Pond

Geothermal energy from the pond
will be used to heat and cool the house

Aided by a week of near-perfect weather, the prefab Tidewater Cottage is quickly taking shape. As you can see from the photo, it's becoming easy to imagine the finished house nestled among the trees above the pond.

Although the pondside location is idyllic indeed, the decision to site the house there was more than just an aesthetic one. The pond will be used for a geothermal heating and cooling system that will save on energy costs and reduce pollution compared to a traditional HVAC system.

Eight feet below the surface of the pond the temperature remains a steady 55 degrees year round. The geothermal system will pump water through a system of looped coils on the pond bottom to extract heat energy to be sent to the house to provide heating in winter and cooling in summer. The system is being supplied by Mark Campbell of Renewable Energy Solutions in Rixeyville, Virginia.

Of course, it's still a lovely place to put the house.

Endorsements for "Roots of Home"

James Pitot House, 1799, New Orleans, LA,
from Roots of Home/photo by Erik Kvalsvik

In the past several weeks we have been delighted and honored to receive some wonderful endorsements for Russell's upcoming book, Roots of Home. Quotes have come in from architects Allan Greenberg and Robert A.M. Stern, Barbara Sallick of Waterworks, National Building Museum director Chase Rynd, interior designer Thomas Jayne, Thomas Gordon Smith and Bill Westfall of the Notre Dame University School of Architecture, British architect and INTBAU founder Robert Adam, Institute of Classical Architecture president Paul Gunther, and Lizz Plater-Zyberk of DPZ. The quotes are posted on our online media site here, along with lots more information on the new book, which will be published in October.

Halfway in Halfway

Floor deck with waterproofing on foundation

Insulated precast concrete foundation panels and floor joists

1st-floor wall panels and 2nd-floor gable ends

Here are progress photos of the factory-fabricated Tidewater Cottage being built on a farm in Halfway, Virginia, named such because it is situated halfway between Middleburg and The Plains. The construction crew from University Homes was impeded by several days of rain and record-breaking heat and humidity, but the weather has stabilized now, and things are going quickly.

It's the first time this crew has built a prefab house. The four framers are experienced, and, while the process isn't difficult for them, it does require a shift in mindset. Working with factory-fabricated parts means assembling from instructions rather than cutting the parts themselves.

The folks in the factory at Connor Homes have marked the house parts clearly, bundled them sequentially, and provided clear instructions. Once the crew finds the needed parts, assembly is quick and easy.

A Precast Foundation

The precast concrete foundation for the Tidewater Cottage arrived and was installed in just three hours. The first photo shows the assembled foundation, which was manufactured by Superior Walls. You can see the chimney, basement window, and just about make out the ledges and ties that will help support the handmade brick veneer.

The second photo shows the crushed-stone bed awaiting the foundation. The manufacturer uses crushed stone for the footing rather than poured concrete because it's faster and easier to install and more flexible. We will be adding a liquid applied asphalt membrane to waterproof the foundation.

The Upside of the Recession

In the recent Boston Globe article Rooting for a Recession, writer Renee Loth noted that the recession is having a curious upside. Having had to reign in their driving and spending habits, people are finding that a simpler life can be a satisfying life. With more time on their hands, they're living greener, gardening, spending more time with family and friends, taking up hobbies, and discovering new meaning in life beyond the mall.

Of course, marketing opportunity knocks even in a recession. While sales of SUVs and trophy homes are flat, other products that speak to a culture turning its back on conspicuous consumption are doing well. Such as Christopher Peacock kitchens like the one shown at left, as noted in Top-Shelf Kitchens by Penelope Green in the Providence Journal. And the $125 can of paint observed by trend-spotter Faith Popcorn (who introduced the word "cocooning" into our lexicon):

“How can $125 for 2/3 of a gallon of paint speak to anyone but the super-rich in this cool-not-to-consume economy? Because while conspicuous consumption is definitely out, consumption that expresses timeless values – concern for the environment, a sense of history, genuine craftsmanship, “authentic” materials and design – is still definitely in. Consumers at all income levels are still willing to pay a premium and forego other purchases to participate in these brands that include a sense of security along with their high price tag.”

Obviously, the recession will have disastrous effect on people whose livelihoods depend on failing industries and unsustainable practices. But for people who can afford high-end products, the desire for products made with a concern for the environment, historical sense, craftsmanship, and authentic materials and design is a promising trend.

Tidewater Cottage

This drawing shows the side elevation of the English tidewater vernacular-style cottage to be built near Middleburg. The front elevation is shown in the previous post. The house, which will be a caretakers' cottage, is to be built from a knocked-down kit of parts.

The sloping roof on the front and back of the main section of the house is called a catslide, and it was a signature feature of the Chesapeake Bay English tidewater cottage style.

The earliest versions of these cottages were one room deep, with steep roofs and gable ends. By extending the overhang of the roof in the rear, the cottage could be enlarged with additional bedrooms; the ensuing variation was called a catside. Later, the roof in the front was extended in the same way to shelter an outdoor living space called a porch. By the 18th century, homes all over the South had begun to sprout porches, galeries, verandas, and piazzas to help people cope with the sultry southern summers.

Home Delivery

In the past year we have begun working with Connor Homes in Middlebury, Vermont, to have houses fabricated and delivered flat by truck to the client's home site. Russell sees great potential in prefab and modular technologies to make good traditional design more affordable. He has written about the topic in two Architect's Principles columns in New Old House magazine, House in a Box in the Winter 2007 issue and Pennywise in Winter 2008.

We have two fabricated houses being built in Virginia at present, one at the Homestead Preserve in Warm Springs and one at Bundoran Farm near Charlottesville; both are designs from Russell's Simple Farmhouse Portfolio. A third is a custom design for a client that we expect to be delivered this week. We are especially excited about this one, since we'll be able to see the process at every stage from delivery to finished home.

The design is for a caretaker's cottage to be built on a Middleburg horse farm, and it's styled after the English tidewater cottages of colonial Maryland and Virginia. Tidewater cottages were timberframed and weatherboarded, with low brick foundations, double chimneys, and front porches. The front porch was new to the English colonies in the mid-18th-century, and it expanded the living area and served a social function as a place to chat with passers-by and greet visitors.

The design for the house in Middleburg is an amalgam of Russell's design and designs done by Rob Hale for the Simple Farmhouse Portfolio Tidewater Collection. Rob is the project architect on this house.

We'll photograph the house in its various stages and post photos here. Watch this space...

Wall Street Journal

Today the Wall Street Journal ran the article Selling History by the Square Foot, in which writer Christina Lewis noted a number of new communities with historic-style houses. Russell is quoted in the article, as is our friend Joe Barnes, Development Director at Bundoran Farm near Charlottesville, Virginia, where the first house will be the Currier from Russell's Simple Farmhouse Portfolio. Other communities mentioned include Brook in Waterland, a small development in New York State with 17th-century Dutch-style houses; Serenbe, a large community in Georgia with housing options ranging from loft spaces and townhomes in villages to cottages and estates edged by open space; and Phelps Settlement and Avery Lane Settlement in Connecticut, both of which feature traditional New England-style houses from Classic Colonial Homes of Deerfield, Massachusetts.

Marianne Cusato, "Get Your House Right"

This may be the best handbook on traditional design published since the 1920s, informative for both layman and professional alike. If you wonder what makes today's so-called "traditional" houses look so ugly, Marianne Cusato provides answers in a guidebook that walks you through "how things go wrong" (avoid) and "how to do it right" (use). In meticulously-drawn illustrations, she charts the course of design from first concepts to fine details, providing pearls of wisdom on things that can make or break the authenticity of a home design. Notations accompany each drawing, describing essential building elements and how they go together. Never before have I seen a more comprehensive or practical guide through the minefield of traditional design. Clear, insightful directions make Get Your House Right the perfect learning tool for builders at all levels, whether novices or those needing a refresher course. This book should become the primary text to teach architects the fundamental building blocks of the classical tradition.

Roots of Home

The final cover design for my new book, Roots of Home, arrived from Taunton Press. The photo was taken at the Tillman house, a new old house designed by Ron Arnoult in Louisiana. It was shot by Erik Kvalsvik, who took the photos for Roots of Home as well as for Creating a New Old House. Between the two books, Erik and I logged a lot of miles together traveling across the country photographing new old houses. Fourteen-hour days, the uncertainties of weather, and the stresses of travel made for some hard times, but our shared love of red wine, old books, and vintage clothes made it bearable.