Pittsburgh "remuddling"... (Sharon, Taylor: homes, upkeep, live)

[stburr91]

Originally Posted by BrianTH

Looks great!

What are you doing for sconces?

Thanks Brian.

I'll probably go with something fairly simple, like the sconces in the second picture of my previous post. I hope to add some built-in to either side of the fireplace, but that isn't going to happen this year.

[BrianTH]

Originally Posted by stburr91

I'll probably go with something fairly simple, like the sconces in the second picture of my previous post. I hope to add some built-in to either side of the fireplace, but that isn't going to happen this year.

Simple sounds good--you have a nice clean look going already. Good luck with the future built-ins!

[Copanut]

Originally Posted by juliegt

See the movie "Tin Men" with Danny Devito. All about aluminum siding salesmen of that era. Great movie.

To be sure, those guys hit my small town back in the 60's and made a ton of money. But that was the fad back then, now, does anyone build with aluminum? I think not.

Guess I'm guilty via HGTV, although I never watch the channel. My wife and I remodeled our kitchen with granite and stainless steel. The existing kitchen had ceramic tile counter tops that were somewhat dated. Didn't really care to go the Formica route, and had a friend in the granite biz. Our house is a 35 yr old contemporary, and the first thing I did when we moved in 18 yrs ago was rip out the 45 gallon Jacuzzi, popular for only about 6 months on the market.

Tastes change, it's that simple.

[Geeo]

When my parents remodeled our house in 1967, we were the height of chic with Formica counters in the kichen and bath! I think our only avacado appliance was the refrigerator.

And I remember the aluminum siding craze. The big attraction was that you didn't have to re-paint the house (most of them were wood in our neighborhood).

[Copanut]

Originally Posted by Geeo

.

And I remember the aluminum siding craze. The big attraction was that you didn't have to re-paint the house (most of them were wood in our neighborhood).

We lived in a frame house as well. We couldn't afford to go the aluminum route, just lucky, I guess.

[Geeo]

Would vinyl siding be today's equivalent of aluminum siding back then? But then, the vinyl siding doesn't go over any wood siding, does it? I see a lot of newer houses that have brick fronts and the rest is vinyl. Guess it keeps construction costs down.

[Copanut]

Originally Posted by Geeo

Would vinyl siding be today's equivalent of aluminum siding back then? But then, the vinyl siding doesn't go over any wood siding, does it? I see a lot of newer houses that have brick fronts and the rest is vinyl. Guess it keeps construction costs down.

Personally, the last house I would buy would be one with vinyl. Looks like crap.

[eschaton]

Originally Posted by Copanut

Personally, the last house I would buy would be one with vinyl. Looks like crap.

The best fake material is fiber cement siding, as it can actually be cut and put on in slats similar to wood. That said, it's not that much cheaper than wood itself, although it needs to be repainted far less frequently.

[Copanut]

Originally Posted by eschaton

The best fake material is fiber cement siding, as it can actually be cut and put on in slats similar to wood. That said, it's not that much cheaper than wood itself, although it needs to be repainted far less frequently.

That seems to be the popular choice these days.

[SorryIMovedBack]

remuddling and stripping the historic architectural details:

1. Do you think that this sort of activity is more common in Pittsburgh than elsewhere?

No, I think it happens whenever the less affluent and less educated take over. Sharpsville, PA, is a small town with a great number of wood frame homes, probably most of which were Sears catalog or other catalog houses, purchased as a kit and delivered by rail. Sharon and Farrell also have a lot of those, because they were put there as company houses to house workers for the local steel industries. Almost all of them are covered up with aluminum or vinyl siding, and have had the Victorian or Arts and Crafts details stripped off. They are just dozens of bland rectangular boxes today. Putting in slider windows or downsizing the windows and boxing in the leftover space is pretty common, as well. People here are not very well educated and not necessarily very skilled at homebuilding. So, they do some halfazzed remuddle to make it more energy efficient or modern-looking or whatever the motivation was. Dropping the ceilings is another popular trend that was only recently halted by the equally goofy trend of great rooms with vaulted ceilings. People do all kinds of ugly and cheap changes to old homes here, because the millworker mentality is that if you want a nice house, you have to build a new one out in the boonies someplace, so you can pee off your front porch and nobody will see it. That's very important to bumpkins and the local variant of yinzer, apparently.