Out with the Old: Here’s Why We Said Goodbye to These Four Design Details
The other day, I stumbled upon an article written by Tim Carter for The Washington Post. It mostly covered older homes and the wonderful richness of character they carry, as well as their beautiful design features. I agreed wholeheartedly with about half of what he was saying.
True, many of these gorgeous design decisions from the olden days have sadly left the building (pun intended)—but it’s for a good reason. Let’s take a look at a few of the features he mentioned…
1. Garages
Garages are a lot different than what they once were. For one, they used to be detached and situated in the back of the house. No surprise here: We interact with garages in a completely different way than we ever did before. And the design of our new garages have been bad. For instance, many designers skimped on square footage in their garage, which made it nearly impossible to get out of the car once you pulled in. Who wants to drive into the garage, park the car, and shimmy out of the passenger door? Not me.
That being said, some people come to Springhouse asking for more garages. For us, the standard is around three garages, but more often than not, people ask for four or five. If space is what you need, there are different ways to accomplish it. This space could include an accessible storage area, which doesn’t have to be on a motor court with a driveway and a huge overhead door. Instead, we can do a smaller, overhead door in the back for access, if it’s just for things like yard or pool storage. We don’t need to make multiple, unsightly garage doors. Instead, you’ll see three and a half. It just goes to show, there are different ways to design storage without cramming items into your garage.
2. Attic Space
The second design feature that Tim Carter mentioned he loved from the days of yore was a dry, unfinished attic used for storage. Personally, I love that feeling. I remember the smell of my grandma’s when I was a little girl. Such great times!
However, the reason we don’t use attic space anymore isn’t necessarily because we “forgot” or don’t want it—or even that we don’t want to pay for it anymore. The real reason? Everyone wants an open floor plan.
Open floor plans have very long spans of open space—and the only way we can achieve this (without a bunch of columns and beams) is to have attic trusses, which distributes the load all the way to the outside walls. Otherwise, you end up with an attic that has traditional framing with posts and beams, or segmented rooms with additional bearing walls, which won’t give you that open floor plan feel. This is why we’ve transitioned away from beautiful attic spaces.
These days, attics are full of webbing and trusses, so you can’t store anything up there—which is okay, because these modern attics aren’t designed for storage loads anyway. This isn’t a bad thing! We’ve just evolved and changed our taste.
3. Laundry Shoots
These days, we're receiving more requests from clients than ever before to not include a second story in their home. If you’re looking to build a one-story home, a laundry shoot isn’t necessary. On the other hand, the laundry room is typically on the first floor, which means if you do have a two-story house, a laundry shoot can definitely be incorporated—but you’ll need to ask for it upfront.
Here’s why: More often than not, we’ve had clients request a laundry shoot at the tail end of their house being completed. Unfortunately, we have to design around the laundry shoot, so it takes some planning in the beginning. For example, it should be in a central place that’s accessible from all of the second-floor bedrooms, but not out in the open. Not to mention, it needs to be a straight shot down to the laundry room. It’s totally possible, but also totally difficult—especially after we’ve already designed the house without it.
4. Elevation Change
Did you know that many homes in the old days were built 30 to 36 inches off the ground? If you drive into older neighborhoods, you’ll notice every home has four to five steps leading to the front porch (another outdated design feature, but I digress). There were good reasons for this—they prevented leaky basements and slabs, for instance.
If this is something you’re interested in doing for a custom home, it will look lovely. However, if you’re building in a neighborhood where all the houses are closer to the ground and closer together, the elevation change might look a little awkward.
Have any questions?
Although we covered a lot in this post, you may still have some other questions about translating old house details to your modern home. Whether you’re involved in the custom home process now, or even just considering it, join our free Facebook group—we’ll help you answer any questions you might have! Also, feel free to invite anyone that you think would benefit from this collaborative. You’ll not only get advice from me, but from other people who have been through this, too.
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