We're hoping to have a new "old" house soon. Although, our original plans have evolved quite a bit over the last few months. Originally we were going for a 1920s/30s midwest white farmhouse look. We've finally settled on a farmhouse/craftsman mix on the outside, with SOME antique looking decor on the inside. No architectural committee requiring us to build that way- just childhood memories driving my desire.

We've still working on our plans. Hope we can start building before the summer is over.

I'm looking forward to watching these houses go up!

We are doing this too. We are on a super small budget for the size house we need, so our "old"details will be sparce. I actually took the shell of a 1905 house and straightened it out then designed the inside. I want the finished house not to look authenic but to look like it evolved over the years. Some industrial, vintage, rustic. I don't adhere to one style, just a mix. I'll be posting my plans soon as I get sent to me.

first post. glad to see this topic. Our family (my bride, our 5 girls with one unknown coming in august and myself) is slowly embarking on building a "new old farmhouse" here in Iowa. Looking forward to learning from yalls experience. And perhaps contributing to the discussion in the next year or so.

Andi K. our plan also has the various roof heights. Great way of getting that "added on" feel. from everything I read, the gurus in this "old house" movement talk a lot about varying roof pitches, exterior materials and building heights.

we are in the bidding stage. and so far, building "simple" and "new old" is going to be expensive. Its hard to cut when you are shooting for authenticity. frugal budgetary insights would be appreciated.

looking forward to a great discussion.

We are getting ready to build a small Craftsman bungalow. Budgetary restraints being what they are, I'm taking what would be a ho-hum ranch and adding the details to make it Craftsman. I'm serious about it; I take lots of pictures of period homes so I can get the proportions and details just right. The interior won't be particularly Craftsman though- I find all of the dark woodwork too gloomy.

flgargoyle - same thing here. Took a boring ranch and adding craftsman features. Builder beware for those of you starting this adventure. Our siding and trim budget went over significantly. Check all bids and ask questions. This is our first build and we made many mistakes regardless of the hours of research.

We should have asked to "see" the product and if it will achieve the period look. The vendor websites are misleading because I thought our trim came in a multitude of colors. It comes in white only. We used restoration millwork because the various sizes of trim was critical to achieving the craftsman look. DH painted 88 pieces of 18' millwork. He rocks in my book!

Good luck to those building a "new" old house.

carlrocks - you are so right about the expense going down this path! It is hard to figure out where to cut the authenticity out! We did our floor plan as we wanted it, and then did the elevation last. Had I done the elevation first, I would have hated my floor plan!

A few things we chose to not do...

1) Opted not to do the entire roof as a metal roof. We only are doing the front porch.

2) Did the 'nicer'plumbing fixtures in the kitchen, master bath, and guest powder room. All others look good, but aren't expensive.

3) Slashed the tile budget. There are soo many options now for tile that look great, but aren't the stone/marble cost (or maintenance), and we are going with that.

4) Balance lighting similar to plubming - nicer kitchen, foyer, and dining room, but others are much less expensive

5) Put the nicer cabinets in the kitchen and master bath, but opted for less options in my boys bathrooms and guest bathrooms.

6) Granite remnants - there are some spots in the house where we can actually just find a granite remnant instead. For example - mudroom, laundry and boys's study area don't have a lot of counter space, but I still need counters. I chose relatively neutral cabinetry colors and we're just going to rummage through remnants for those spaces.

Where we did splurge that I thought would make a difference -

1) soapstone counters in kitchen
2) reclaimed hardwood floors
3) interior stone wall in basement and stone 'chimney' behind range

hth

Motherof3sons, do you have any pictures of your exterior you would be willing to share? We will probably do a shingle exterior, but I haven't thought ahead about trim yet.

The plan we have sketched right now has is an L shape with three different rooflines to simulate the massing of the houses in our neighborhood, most of which have additions in the back. We hope to have shed dormers on two of the roofs and roof braces in the front. A porch would be an easy way to make our house look older, but we have so little depth to work with and we need every spare inch, I don't think we will add one. I haven't looked very closely at other details that would make it more authentic, so I am looking forward to hearing more about your projects.

We've been in our new "old" home for six years now. I'm holding sleeping baby, so can't type more... but will be back later. Kitchen linked below, has link to three part house tour.

Here is a link that might be useful: my English cottage kitchen

As there are varying degrees of new "old," I don't know if mine fits what you're going for or not. It's not extremely rustic, but the trim could be considered so. Everyone is different aka has their own opinions. lol

My advice is to use real materials, no fauxing around. Especially stone and beams.

Integrate (repurpose) pieces here and there. Adds character and age.

A local architectural firm that creates beautiful homes with age and character are:

Here is a link that might be useful: Dungan Nequette

I could never afford to pay someone to do the details I want. Other than the big framing stuff, I'll be doing almost all of the work myself, so the only cost is materials. The various Craftsman 'buttons' I want to push are large overhangs, exposed rafter tails, a large front porch with the typical fat, tapered columns, gable brackets, and a period-looking gable vent, as opposed to the modern generic ones. The doors and windows, and their trim need to be right, also. Even the lighting fixtures need to be correct. There's some really nice repro stuff being made from that era now, since it's become popular.

Inside, it will be a very light, airy cottage feel.

Ours is sort of a new old home in that we were going for a 1920s classic Atlanta look on the exterior, with traditional details inside. Still updated and open floor plan though. Just posted recent pictures on the building a home thread - we have finally painted the outside!!!

Has anyone purposely designed part of their home to look older, than the 'later additions' even though it's all new construction?

While we're remodeling, I'm considering having the oldest part of the farmhouse 'look' older, even though we're upgrading the entire house. I think it would preserve a bit of the history of the home...and I wondered if anyone was intentionally doing that, with new construction?

Yes! WE are getting ready to build a new "old" folk Victorian famhouse in the mountains of West Virginia.
Hopefully breaking gound in May.
It def can make your headspin trying to achieve all these details with a limited budget, hours and hours of reserching, but it is all coming together.
I have always wanted an old simple victorian all white farmhouse since I was a child and my dream is coming true, it's so exciting!

Windows and floors have been my biggest problems.
Windows- period victorian windows were long and narrow, so we have went with 32"x 60" , wanted to go with 6 ft long window,to stay more within the look, but I can just imagine onery kids kicking them out! lol

My other debate which I still cannot decide on is flooring, reclaimed? oil? polyed? handscraped from a box store? I just cant decide, I really like the oiled look, but I just cant decide on the maintence and I am finding so many different pros and cons. Also, I want wooden countertops in my kitchen and can't decide on the finish for those either.

My countertops and kitchen island/farmtable will be made from an old american chesnut building on the property:)

I am also going with all antique interior door, which I have about 10 now that I have found good deals on.

So many things to think about.....

Supergrrl7 - Below are pictures of our ranch. The trim is 3 different sizes - 3.5" around windows, 5.5" trim in gables, and 7.5" band board at foundation and below soffits. We chose Restoration Millwork which has nice woodgrain. DH painted the trim with Sherwin Williams paint - Light Maple.

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We built a new old cape. We got our plans from Classic Colonial Homes. We love it and they have many different colonial styles and some farmhouse styles.

We looked at Connor homes as well, but we wanted more colonial than farm house.

Here is a link that might be useful: classic colonial homes

We tried to- not sure we succeeded but I'm happy with the result. "old" around here is 1920's so it's all relative. I love Tudor revival homes and that was the inspiration. If only I could afford the slate roof! Many of the older Tudors here are whitewashed and that is what we did.

The interior is much more. contemporary though. Tudors tend to have dark wood work and small rooms and we wants a light brighter open floor plan.

I think the main thing for us is older homesalways felt warmer, cozier and substantial. After looking at many homes, included newer construction wewere forced to build to get what we wanted.

Some of the things that make homes feel cozier and more substantial to us:

uniform exterior materials on all four sides ( we choose an all brick exterior)
wood windows with SDL
wider casings and baseboards
hardwoods everywhere including all the bedrooms ( we choose 8-12" wide plank)
solid doors

we are going to build on 12 rolling iowa acres. we have 5 girls and another babe (unknown model) coming. we homeschool, have friends with big families and want to have the space we want but want the house to look in place on the property. And old farmhouse were often not big.

like Andi K's fine elevation, we too will have a central "original house" with a Master wing on the "R" side filling in some of the front porch. the "kitchen addition" on the "L" is a step down in roof height. we can't afford the masonry originally planned in the drawing. I'm struggling with how to make that section look from another period in houses life. Thought about board/batten but the vertical makes the section look taller when we want it to look shorter. Would love yalls thoughts on making that section different.

finally, there's a "bridge" between the house and "the old barn" that got incorporated (at least in my mind's story for the house)

appreciate the thread and the feedback.

Now i'm going to try to attach/link photo. here it goes

Here is a link that might be useful: front elevation

that didn't work. So, I'll become a blogger now, and try that

Here is a link that might be useful: second attempt

Motherofthreesons,
Thanks for the pictures! I especially love the colors you chose. I am going to have to go out and study our neighbor's houses and figure out the trim measurements. I dont know if we will be allowed to use non-wood siding and trim, but I hope so. I want shingle, but I have seen how poorly old wood shingle can age.

Carlrocks - i love your elevation. If money were no object and i had a house full kids again, that plan could be my house! I wanted to build on the family farm for years and incorporate a really cool barn. I shall live through your vision. Best of luck!

I love the info and pictures on this thread. We are starting on our Southern Colonial Farmhouse on 13 acres next week (excavation). We've had to revise our plans a few times because the "footprint" was too expensive, so we recently removed an upstairs balcony and switched from hardy plank to white siding. I still want the 9" plank look, so I'm hoping that since we're going with the upper end siding, it will still save about $15K over the hardy plank. My challenge right now has been picking a brick color for the foundation. I'm thinking Spalding Tudor by General Shale. Does anyone have any other suggestions? Also, instead of regular columns, I'm thinking of doing brick columns. Another thing I've been researching as of late is a good wood front door and the best value on an apron sink. Any suggestions?? I'll post pics of our new front and back elevation as soon as the modifications have been made by our architect.

Supergrrl - Thanks for the compliment. Colors were difficult for us. We wanted an "older" color scheme and reached back to our childhood memories of older homes we loved. The face of the house and garage front will be all stone. The price came in lower than expected which allows us to carry it on down the side and wrap around the walk-out. We are having gable brackets built and there will be a shed roof over the walkout door and windows with brackets. Best of luck with your project.

if anyone is interested i posted our first story plan on the link below. feedback and thoughts welcome.

Here is a link that might be useful: first floor

Oh wow. I'm so envious of all of you going all the way with this style. DH isn't into it enough to do it in our house, but I'm trying to get in as many classic farmhouse style touches as I can. I think I'll end up doing it a lot more with furniture and decorating than with actual architecture. So far I'm getting my white cabinets, farmhouse sink, and faucets. Unsure if we can afford the wide plank hand scraped floors.

If anyone has suggestions for resources (aka lots of pictures) for turn of the century farm house style decorating, please share! I hope all of you continue to share your pics too. :)

farmhousegirl, we did this. We love old white clapboard farmhouses but not the peeling paint, old wiring, tiny closets, and leaky windows. So we built our own (an older picture - still under construction).

The great thing about a farm house build is that you can keep it really simple. Simple trim looks best, which really saves money. Reclaimed cabinets for the laundry room and butler's pantry, repurposed huntboards for vanities, and so on add to the charm and help the budget.

Like some other posters above, our master suite looks like an addition and is blissfully isolated from the ruckus of 3 teenagers.

If you want to see more, you can follow the whole grueling process from beginning to end on my blog.

Here is a link that might be useful: Buckheadhillbilly's blog

Buckhead - Your house just makes me feel good. This is what I wanted to build when the kids were home. Enjoy that beautiful house!

We built a "new old" house meant to look like an 1840's Virginia farmhouse. All I can say is that I love the result, and it takes a lot of research. Most everyone who comes to the house asks about our "renovation" and is shocked to find out that it is not actually old. We used reclaimed heart pine flooring, painted cypress siding, reproduction historic door hardware (you know, the kind with the big keys), BM Historic colors, and copied the molding from an 1840's house building book. I am terrible at posting pictures, so I will refer you to the October 2010 "It's October - how is your house coming" thread on this site for pictures.

I will say, however, that many (most) people are kind of befuddled when we tell them that the house is new, and not always in a good way. The expression says, "Why would you build a new house to look old?" Most new houses around here are the kind with many gables and huge bathrooms and mudrooms, and we get a lot of grief for having real wood siding ("you'll regret that", they say, with a knowing shake of the head), and weirdly, for not having a daylight walk-out basement (we have cellar doors a la Wizard of Oz). If you do it, you need to be ready for the parade of comments. Good luck!

oh, kristin, I love it!!! do you recall your exterior siding/trim colors?

("you'll regret that", they say, with a knowing shake of the head)

Wood is more work but it looks a lot better in my opinion. I've lived in an old home with wood siding and the work wasn't that big of a deal. We just had to have it painted every 5-7 years.

Vinyl isn't maintenance free either. I've seen it warped, faded, become brittle then shatter, and grow large amounts of algae. Builders love it because it's so easy and fast to install but I personally don't like it mostly because of aesthetics. Hardiboard is probably the next best thing to wood but wood looks the best.

Andi - the exterior is all painted Brilliant White by Benjamin Moore. The roof is a color called Virginia Green from a local paint store. The door is an attempt at Charleston Green and I can't recall what company my DH got that paint chip from. The porch floors are painted Templeton Gray (BM), and the porch ceilings are Yarmouth Blue (BM). I really hope you do it - old houses are so beautiful.

Kristinva, your house is beautiful, I love the all white farmhouse, love love love it! Is your siding and trim around the windows the same color white? I am adding a link to my new house plan hopefully stating to build in may. I want it to be all white too. I have to go with a wood look vinyl though, husband says no to clapboard and fiber cement, he dosent want the upkeep and we are on a very limited budget to achieve this house. again your house is beautiful!

Here is a link that might be useful:

Kelvance -

Yes, we used Brilliant White on everything - siding, trim, and windows. Your elevation looks very comfortable and cozy and will be great. Good luck!

Motherof3sons, thanks for the compliment. I also have 3 sons, by the by.

Kristanva, I remember when you posted your finished house. My heart stopped for a moment. I absolutely love it. I had a moment of panic that we had done the wrong thing with ours. Hope you are enjoying it!

Billy - LOL about the moment of panic. If I had a dollar for every moment of panic like that I experienced! I mainly lurk here, but I do follow along and your house is absolutely beautiful, and very appropriate for its urban site. Ours would look wrong in a close-in neighborhood, and only works because it is by itself in a field. I guess that's one important thing about the "new old" house concept - make sure it is right for its site. We originally planned a brick version of that house, and then we had a sudden moment of realization that the brick plan would look stupid in that field 20 minutes from the closest stoplight. We do love living in it, and I am thrilled that the building process is over!

Kristinva and Buckhead....LOVE your houses!! We must be all long lost sisters with our taste! Thanks for the colors Kristen! Buckhead, can you tell me your house colors (exterior)? Also, do you have a floorplan? I'm curious how it all flowed together. We are doing a very similar main front to yours, but the porch will wrap around and the house is more long than wide...sort of an L shape.

farmhousegirl, I can't really share the floorplan, since it is the intellectual property of my architect. I will, however, try to give the layout in words.

On the front of the house, the center section has the foyer and the library. Above that is a bedroom and a bathroom. The "connector" to the left of the foyer is a small hallway leading into the dining room. The dining room has the bumpout with the shed roof. Above that is a bedroom. to the left of the dining room is the laundry/pocket office. It has one window facing forward and one window onto the side porch. The gable for this "add on" faces North whereas the front of the house faces West. The side entry from the side porch is East of the laundry/office. beyond that and behind the East wall of the dining room is the mud room. The mudroom "T's" into the butlers pantry which is between the dining room and the kitchen. East of the butler's pantry and mudroom is the kitchen. The kitchen and family room and screen porch form an "L" with the front of the house. The gable for this section faces East. The windows over the sink and in the breakfast nook face North. The bumpout for the breakfast nook has a North facing gable. This has the window for the secret art studio.

Going back to the main section of the house, there is a small section between the foyer and the living room on the back of the main section that houses the coat closet. between the kitchen and butler's pantry and the living room are the pantry, the powder room, and a stair tower with stacked closets for a future elevator.

To the right of the central section, the library jogs back to the right of the porch. the "connector" beyond that is a closet. Behind that closet (still part of the connector) is a small hallway with offset doors leading into the master. The master is a small cottage unto itself.

Because of the topography and an existing easement driveway, we used the drop in elevation to our advantage, putting one garage bay under the family room and having the open, arched brick carport/party pavilion under the screen porch.

I'll bet that's about as clear as mud. As I've said before, we had a difficult lot and some peculiar wants/needs, so our plan wouldn't be of much use to anyone else.

Thank you so much for all the detail! Sounds amazing! You were able to fit so much into your home. What is the sf of the two main floors? We are going with about 3500, plus a finished attic, and a finished basement.

Do you know the length of your front (covered porch)main part (part covered by porch). That is the look we are going for...not too wide or too narrow..something that looks like an old home was there; but a big mcmansion that is super wide. The architect thinks we are crazy because everyone does a mcmansion. I'm not quite sure he 'gets' it.

Again, thanks for the incredible detail!!!

The front porch is roughly 10' x 24'. The two main floors are about 4600. We have 3000 on the main floor and 1600 upstairs.

Hope this helps

Hi Motherof3sons. Really like the colors. My wife and I just built a craftsman style house and have not painted it yet but have picked out a green close to your color. We are using SW paint also and liked the idea of the big dormer being painted another color. Could you please give me the names of the colors? And what kind of siding did you go with? We used cement board and are not very happy with it. May be pulling it all off.

Hi Iceman59 - The siding is Certainteed Monogram double 4" in 'Spruce', Certainteed Northwood Impressions 7" shake shingle in 'Mountain Cedar'. The trim work is Restoration Millwork painted (by DH) 'Light Maple'. Our local Sherwinn Williams store matched it to their colors. If you would like actual samples of the items (scraps), I can mail them to you. DH does have the formula for the light maple.

Would love to see pictures of your Craftsman!

Love your home. What a beauty!! So inviting and just perfect! We are trying to get the old look but new home in a cape cod with dormers. We hope to break ground by late April.

We used 100 year old year old chicago brick(cleaned up) from a torn down building, as well as very old stone from a nearby quarry. love our new old house!
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Marciab10 - what is there NOT to love about that house? Beautiful and with unique details. Congrats on recycling Chicago brick.

oh, marciab10, I wanted so much to use reclaimed brick. Do you have any closer shots of the brick? I love the simplicity of your wood work. I want to touch your doors. They are so beautiful!

I didn't but went and took one~

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we really lucked out.. after much looking for the perfect old looking brick, a friend who was a developer said he was tearing down a 100 yo Christmas Tree factory, built with Chicago Brick.. we loved it! The cost was very reasonable.. but there were additional labor charges.

Our doors are all Alder.

Buckheadhillbilly, Do you mind sharing your exterior paint color for siding/trim/windows? Beautiful home!!!

you all have such pretty houses!

we are trying to build a new old home--a Georgian revival. most details are as authentic as possible, though we did simulated divided lite windows with spacer bar instead of real divided light windows, our kitchen is in a central-ish part of the house, which is not at all authentic to a real Georgian house, we utilized most of the proportions and ratios to adhere to the golden ratio, and i've chosen hardware that is all reproduction in living finishes.

our keeping room is meant to look like an addition to the house. we intended to do a wall of exposed brick so it looked like it was "tacked on" to the house, but the architect forgot to spec that in the plans and the floor wasn't built to accommodate it. instead, we are doing knotty pine paneling and reclaimed lumber beams in that room.

i'm hoping with all my might that our house looks believably historic in the end. the biggest battle now is the soffits, which look very prefab and contemporary. our brick looks like it came from the revolutionary war, which is exactly what i wanted. our mortar looks old, and the limestone sills are all really believable.

i love trying to make this house look historic and think it will give it a unique feel once it's done.

Kinta, the siding and trim are painted in SW Extra White (7006) and the windows are Pella Architect windows clad in Classic White. Hope that helps!

threeapples, I look forward to seeing more of you house. Sounds splendid!

We gut reno'ed and added on, and we wanted the home to look old. Most of our home has random width wide plank floors, and we intentionally kept ceiling heights low in certain areas. Three of my favorite elements that I think make it feel old 1)flat trim painted in a slightly darker off white then the off white walls, 2)all old doorknobs and door hardware on solid doors, and 3)in one area where we added on a craft room, PR and a mudroom, we sheathed an interior wall in cedar shake to make it look like that portion of our home was an addition to an old exterior.

PS BuckheadHB - love the beautiful restraint of your home!

Thanks, mtnredux!

I stumbled across this and thought it might provide inspiration for some in the design (or even in the decorating) stage.

Here is a link that might be useful: 200 year old bayou house