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I agree with all you said except for the hired help.
(I love the old-house design for the very reasons you said... it keeps the energy bills low. The windows and porches are put in the exact places to allow low-light in the winter and avoid high-light in the summer. Kitchen doors can be shut to not steam the house in the summer and the heat rarely kicks on the winter with the doors open. Simmering soup easily heats the entire first floor.)
There are so many census records of extra people in households, and not affluent ones. Hired people were paid a pittance, with their primary compensation being housed, minimally clothed, and fed. Orphans or children from poor families whose parents couldn't house and/or feed them anymore. Going through genealogy records, I kept wondering who Kate or Marie or Mary, etc. were. "Occupation: Dom." Domestic servants. The more affluent the family, yes, the more domestics. But there were plenty in ordinary, even lower-class homes, as long as they could be fed.
Yep, up until World War 2, it was common for young women to get positions as domestic workers. Even though they earned a pittance, it was one less mouth to feed at home and most of that pittance still made its way back home and every penny helped.
Once the war started, these young women had many more opportunities and even after the war, things didn't return to the way they had been before and hiring domestic help, particularly full time, live in help, became increasingly limited to the well to do.
Not surprisingly, housing stock also started to change and Levittown and similar styles of houses became more popular, and were built without that small bedroom off the kitchen for the cook (now converted to a mud room in many older homes) or attic bedrooms for these domestic workers.
I can assure you that there was central heating in CT 100 years ago.
Houses were designed then to allow air to flow through them. Our forefathers were actually pretty smart like that.
Yes! I actually closed off the ducts, at the furnace, to the heating vents for the upstairs, down-the-hall rooms. By the time the heat arrived there, it wasn't very hot. And we don't like sleeping in warm rooms. And those rooms have no plumbing that needs to be kept warm. They're also small rooms that are easily warmed up by a body. And you'll be warm if you're dressed for the winter: turtleneck, sweaters, pants, socks, slippers or shoes, not barefoot in a tee shirt, complaining it's too cold.
Heat rises. We open up the doorway at the bottom of the stairs and it all goes up. It's plenty enough. We shut it again when it gets TOO warm. Closing the furnace's ducts to those rooms cut our heating costs in half. That wouldn't be possible in a rambling, one-story house. In the summer, we have AC downstairs and keep the kitchen doors shut. The staircase's doorway stays open, as does the door to the attic, where we throw the windows open. Two ACs keep all we need cool and usually, only one is ever on.
There's a reason why these older houses were built the way they were... and very often, it's still valid.
I can assure you that there was central heating in CT 100 years ago.
Houses were designed then to allow air to flow through them. Our forefathers were actually pretty smart like that.
And traditional southern houses often were as well. The Southern Home with high pitched roof and large porches prevented the sun from cooking the inside of the house and the high roof allowed heat to rise and escape creating natural ventilation.
Open concept was instituted (then forced) on people because each and every wall inserted into a house plan adds construction cost.
I never liked it. It's like living in a noisy gymnasium. Why on earth would I want smelly spattery bacon grease floating out all over my living room furniture, not to mention smelling up the whole living area? I always envied the British who have kitchens as a separate room with a closeable doorway. Worse yet is a hardwood floor (pretty but echo prone) in a 24' room with a high ceiling. Ugh.
Then, there is the layout. Do you know that you can have a "palatial" home with 1450 sq feet? Of course you can. It takes walls though. The single most important (and simple) way to make a modest style house seem much larger? A circular traffic pattern! That's all it takes. It can involve just a small portion of the plan, or be incorporated in the larger overall plan. People do not realize this (or even think about it) until they actually see it. Building costs are calculated in sq ft with no regard to whether its an "open garage" or an actual living space. Tasteless - I say!
But walls add cost to construction, and builders have pockets to fill and mouths to feed.
Don't even get me started on cathedral ceilings (too often of poor design unless you're talking high end) or, even worse, those non-expandable superstory houses with high peaked roofs but the area below is filled up with rick rack trusses making a huge amount of space totally useless. 2X8's are not extinct - but the cost of those 2X8's, and that of framing a roof "by hand" as opposed to hauling in pre-fab trusses is significant. But they never offer the former option in anything less than full custom. And they never explain the difference in useable (expandable) area and most people never even think about it.
Last edited by TwinbrookNine; 03-21-2019 at 01:38 PM..
Yes! I actually closed off the ducts, at the furnace, to the heating vents for the upstairs, down-the-hall rooms. By the time the heat arrived there, it wasn't very hot. And we don't like sleeping in warm rooms. And those rooms have no plumbing that needs to be kept warm. They're also small rooms that are easily warmed up by a body. And you'll be warm if you're dressed for the winter: turtleneck, sweaters, pants, socks, slippers or shoes, not barefoot in a tee shirt, complaining it's too cold.
Heat rises. We open up the doorway at the bottom of the stairs and it all goes up. It's plenty enough. We shut it again when it gets TOO warm. Closing the furnace's ducts to those rooms cut our heating costs in half. That wouldn't be possible in a rambling, one-story house. In the summer, we have AC downstairs and keep the kitchen doors shut. The staircase's doorway stays open, as does the door to the attic, where we throw the windows open. Two ACs keep all we need cool and usually, only one is ever on.
There's a reason why these older houses were built the way they were... and very often, it's still valid.
Yep! I've turned off radiators in a couple of rooms. I'm actually running the upstairs on 2 out of 4 radiators, so the upstairs isn't always boiling anymore. I take full advantage of the sun, and slippers and base layers are a wonderful thing.
Quote:
Originally Posted by JONOV
And traditional southern houses often were as well. The Southern Home with high pitched roof and large porches prevented the sun from cooking the inside of the house and the high roof allowed heat to rise and escape creating natural ventilation.
Southerners designed houses the best for cooling, that's for sure Up here, we're more concerned with keeping warmth in the house
What I've read, but have not been able to try in my house due to an additional wall added for shower pipes, was to open the attic windows, open the cellar windows, close all the main windows but keep doors between rooms open. The hot air will escape out the attic windows and draw cooler air from the cellar through the house. In the right setup, it's supposed to create quite the breeze! I've seen it in action minimally if I shower with the attic door open and the attic windows open - I can just see the steam fly up the stairs.
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Up here, we're more concerned with keeping warmth in the house 
