If you grew up in the 1960s or ’70s, then you must remember Captain Kangaroo’s sidekick, Mr. Green Jeans, who would bring cute little animals on the show?

Well, this post isn’t about him, but it is about being green with jeans, as in Bonded Logic UltraTouch Natural Cotton Batt Insulation, made using the by-product of blue jean material. If you decide you’ll never fit into those size 32 Levi’s again, you can also donate your old blue jeans.

We used the UltraTouch batts in the interior walls that weren’t sprayed with Icynene®, such as the bathroom and laundry room walls, because it is supposed to have good sound barrier properties.

We didn’t have a lot of wall area to cover, so it was worth the additional cost to me, versus fiberglass. Being able to install it without skin protection, unlike fiberglass, is also a big plus. It was easy to tear to fit around electrical receptacles and pipes, but from what I understand you could also whip out the handy electric knife that Dad brings out once a year at Thanksgiving if you want to make clean cuts.

At Green Depot (formerly Greenmaker Supply at 2500 N. Pulaski in Chicago), where we purchased the insulation, someone suggested a pizza cutter, but it didn’t work for me.

We were also fortunate to be able to add some insulation to the exterior wall in the kitchen. Since the adjacent wall was removed for the attic stairs, the tile backsplash was partially removed. They removed the entire backsplash to install the new drywall, which I was very happy about.

While there was some original plaster (under a layer of drywall that the PO installed), it was in sad shape and overall unsalvageable. Just like StuccoHouse recently posted, our original plaster also had the look of subway tiles pressed into the plaster. (The pink paint must have been a late ’50s/early ’60s style.)

While I’m all for restoring certain aspects of the house to their original splendor, I’m not a true purist, so in this case drywall behind the cabinets is fine with me. I plan to use subway tiles for the backsplash, in a modern nod to the past.

But I digress. On the plus side, we now have some insulation between the exterior brick and the interior wall. The 10 sheets of newspaper we found behind the plaster from the June 12, 1963 edition of the Chicago Daily News really didn’t cut it. I think this will work much better.

In the attic, we added some to the soffit overhang behind the kneewall. Günter gives it his “Very Cozy!” stamp of approval.

Tags: attic renovation, eco-conscious, green products, green remodeling, insulation, kitchen

Earlier last week I talked about our decision to go with Icynene®, a low-density, open-cell foam for our attic insulation. Insulation Day finally arrived on Thursday, a day I had been anxiously anticipating.

Unfortunately for the guys, the HVAC wasn’t yet up and running, and it was going to be a hot, hot day. By the time they arrived around 8 a.m., the attic temps were already in the 90s. Covering everything in plastic, including the windows, wasn’t going to help either, but they didn’t complain and were good-natured about it.

By mid-afternoon, they were done. In areas that are to be dry-walled, they shave the foam flush to the rafters, but in the knee-wall area behind the ducts they left it unshaved for added insulation.

Now that it’s been a few days, I can say that it has definitely made a difference, both in temperature and in sound deadening. On subsequent hot days following their visit, there was a good 10-degree drop in temperature.

There was initially a slight odor to the insulation, a little like latex paint, but it has dissipated and I don’t even notice it any longer.

Overall, we’re very pleased with the job that Tom, Josh, Peter, Alex and the rest of the hard-working team at Eco-Tec Insulation did for us and would highly recommend them for your insulation needs. You can give them a call at 847-675-1400.

Tags: energy efficiency, insulation, Resources

Wow, I just realized that we closed on the bungalow exactly two years ago today!

While a lot has changed in a relatively short period of time, some things remain the same in a manner of speaking, so I thought I’d do a little That was then, This is now picture show.

Then, the PO’s storage pod sat on the lawn:

Now, our dumpster sits on the lawn:

Then, lots of weeds and a bunch of crap in the yard:

Now, less weeds, a bunch of dirt and a little crap in the yard:

Then, painted woodwork, textured walls, plaster cracks everywhere:

Now, woodwork refinished, cracks repaired, and we have color:

Then, fireplace takes over the living room:

Now, fireplace still taking over the living room (but looks a little nicer overall):

Then, guest room not very welcoming:

Now, guest room says, “Come for a visit” (but don’t stay too long):

Then, TV room doesn’t look too comfortable:

Now, sometimes it’s hard to get off the couch:

Then, attic sat unused, had no insulation and too much drywall:

Now, attic is well on its way to becoming the coziest spot in the house:

That’s it for now. Tomorrow: report on the insulation

Tags: before-and-after, celebrations

When our attic renovation was still in the planning stages, I began researching insulation options. It made my head spin: closed cell foam, open cell foam, blown-in cellulose, venting or not venting the roof…

I knew for sure that I didn’t want to use fiberglass batts. From my own research, unless the batts are installed correctly, the R-value can be greatly compromised (and supposedly many contractors don’t take the time to install them correctly). It also may contain formaldehyde and it doesn’t address air leakage, such as gaps around electrical receptacles, which is a big factor in energy loss.

When we had our energy audit last fall, they recommended using dense-pack blown-in cellulose for the attic rafters. To add an additional R-value of about 6.5, they said we could add an inch of rigid foam insulation over it and under the drywall without losing much in square footage.

The rafters are only 2×6s, so getting the most bang for the buck is important. Not having to beef up the rafters with 2×2s would also be most desired.

It seems everyone has differing opinions and puts their own sales and marketing spin on it, so it’s hard to figure out what is fact and what is hype, but it seems there is no clear-cut answer as to what will work best in your situation.

I’ll briefly describe the options we considered, tell you what we decided to do, and why. Maybe you’ll disagree, but I’m not putting it up here to start a debate.

We sought estimates for several types of insulation: blown-in cellulose, open-cell sprayed-in foam and closed-cell sprayed-in foam. Our contractor also included fiberglass in his initial quote, which we eliminated.

Fiberglass insulation would be the cheapest option. It would also mean, however, that additional steps would have to be taken to seal up air gaps and vent the roof using ridge and soffit vents, thereby eliminating some of the savings.

Blown-in cellulose was the second-most economical; maybe 30% higher than fiberglass. Made from pulverized newspapers and treated with borate for insect- and fire-resistance, it’s more eco-friendly than fiberglass. It also wouldn’t address the venting and air gap issues, so there would still be additional expense.

Open-cell (low-density) foam costs about twice as much as cellulose. While there are several choices in this market, we received quotes for a non-descript brand of open-cell foam and Icynene®. From my understanding, these are the basic options:

• Soy-based foam, such as BioBased Insulation® uses soybean in place of some of the petroleum and contains no CFCs or VOCs
• Icynene® contains no formaldehyde and is water-blown, so like soy-based foam it doesn’t contain ozone-depleting HCFCs. They offer one version of their product which uses castor bean (in place of soy). Their rationale is since soybeans are a food source, castor beans are a greener alternative.

  Whether soybean or castor bean, from what I can tell the total percentage may only comprise 5-7% of the product, so you’d have to decide for yourself if the cost is worth it to you.

• Other open-cell foams will likely contain HCFCs if they are not blown in with water (in addition to potentially containing formaldehyde), so be sure to find out.

The last estimate we received was for closed-cell (medium-density) foam. While touting the highest R-value rating, it was also twice as much as open-cell and almost 5x as much as cellulose. The cost was one of the main reasons we chose not to go with closed-cell — it just was not in the budget, for one, and based on the information we had, we were skeptical that we would ever recoup the additional cost in energy savings.

In the end, we decided to go with Icynene® for these reasons:

• Up to 40% of energy loss is caused by air leakage. Icynene® (and other open-cell foams) would seal gaps and holes while also providing at least the same amount of R-value as fiberglass and cellulose
• Icynene claims to be hydrophobic and will allow water to pass through it. Closed-cell foam proponents claim this isn’t a good thing and their product prevents water from passing through. If we have a leak in our roof, I want to know the roof needs repairing before it gets really bad.
• Whether or not you go with their castor bean version, it’s still widely reported to be a green product: no HCFCs, no VOCs like formaldehyde, and it contributes to green building certifications (LEED)
• Open-cell foams have superior sound absorption properties over closed-cell
• Tom Silva, of This Old House fame, recommends open-cell foams in most situations (in my book, if it’s good enough for TOH, it’s good enough for Bungalow Chronicles!)

Insulation installation is tomorrow! I’ll let you know how it goes.

Tags: attic renovation, decisions, eco-conscious, eco-friendly, insulation, research

It’s been a while since I’ve talked about the previous-POs, the Milke’s, who owned the house from 1932-1966.

In honor of the 85th anniversary of their daughter Muriel’s birth, I give you this snippet that appeared in the local paper on this day in 1932:

Mr. and Mrs. Leo Milke entertained 17 guests Sunday evening in honor of their daughter, Muriel’s eighth birthday and Saturday afternoon Mrs. Milke with Muriel, enjoyed many games and a lovely luncheon in the Forest Preserves with 17 of Muriel’s friends.

Tags: history, previous owner

While the temperatures soared in the attic…

…Günter enjoyed himself a little bath in the oppressive heat.

The AC unit hasn’t been hooked up to the attic yet, so the contractor’s guys were suffering up there today (we have central air on the main floor and are adding a second unit for the attic). The HVAC guys are supposed to return tomorrow.

I wanted to monitor the temperature up there over the next few days, mainly to see how the insulation will affect it. I’m hoping for a marked difference.

Tags: cat, heat, insulation

Just a few random things today. A lot has been happening, but nothing too exciting, in pictures or words.

We had our rough framing, electrical and mechanical (HVAC) inspections last week. We needed to fix a few things on the electrical and framing, but it didn’t seem to be anything major. We passed our mechanical inspection.

We were able to move the furnace out of the laundry room, where the architect originally planned it, and into the knee wall in the stairway landing closet. We went with a high-efficiency furnace that can be installed horizontally in smaller spaces, and upgraded to the 16-SEER Air Conditioning unit that will allow us to take advantage of the Federal Tax Credits for Energy Efficiency. Between the AC, windows and insulation, we will easily meet the $1500 maximum tax credit.

Pete and I started cleaning up the nooks and crannies in preparation for insulation. The contractor’s guys have been good about cleaning up, but it’ll never be as much as you’d do yourself.

Yesterday they started framing the soffits that will hide the master bathroom plumbing. I think we came up with a good solution that will make it look more like a design element. I’ll post more photos once that is farther along.

We finally decided on a color for the cedar stain on the windows and dormer trim. It matches the aluminum window trim closely, and we’re happy with the results.

Finally, we were just re-inspected this afternoon for electrical and framing: APPROVED! Insulation is scheduled for Thursday! (More on that later.)

Tags: attic renovation, changes, cleaning, HVAC, windows

We went back to the family cottage yesterday, for the first time since the Robin’s nest issue.

I can’t say with certainty, but I’m sad to say that I’m pretty sure they didn’t make it. We had several terrible storms over the past week with strong winds and driving rain.

My brother-in-law, who wasn’t around last weekend and didn’t know what happened, drove up mid-week to retrieve the cover that blew off his boat. He said the awning was sagging with water and what was left of the nest was all over the deck, which he cleaned up. It was dark, so he didn’t know if there were birds in it, but he was sure that if they were there, they hadn’t survived.

I wish I had just driven the birds to a wildlife refuge in the first place, but the refuge seemed to prefer that the nest stay where it was.

If we hadn’t had these storms, they probably would have been fine — who knows if their nest would have survived in a tree or elsewhere? Nevertheless I just feel terrible about it and I hope they somehow made it (but I’m doubtful).

Tags: wildlife

…three to go.

We passed our rough plumbing inspection yesterday! Woo hoo!

Isn’t she pretty?

Master Bathroom

Laundry Room

Pipe in floor joists

Rough framing, electrical and mechanical will be combined into one inspection.

Wish us luck.

Tags: building code, plumbing

Not to worry — it wasn’t our house. It was Robin’s house.

There we were on Sunday, ready to enjoy a beautiful summer-like day at the cottage Pete’s family owns just over the Wisconsin border. But first there are always a few chores to do before the relaxing can begin.

Over the years we’ve lost a couple of trees in the yard, so now there’s an awning attached to the house that we have to set up manually to provide shade on the south-facing deck.

It takes two people to lift it off its hooks and walk it out to the opposite side of the deck. The awning unrolls and the two posts lock into a base that is secured to the deck. Then the support arms are tightened to extend the awning.

As Pete and I started to lift, he noticed some dried hay and grasses tucked into his end of the rolled-up awning. We rolled it out a little more and all of a sudden, PLOP! A bird’s nest falls to the lounge chair below. Along with it: two fledglings and two robin’s eggs.

The eggs weren’t cracked, but we think the eggs may not be viable since the nestlings have feathers already. They were uninjured, but still too young to fly. We found a box to place them in along with the nesting material while I called the nearest wildlife rescue organization, Flint Creek Wildlife Rehabilitation.

Did you know that, under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, native birds are protected by federal law, and “once a protected bird builds its nest on your property, federal law prohibits anyone from disturbing the bird or its nest, eggs or young”?

Not that I would ever disturb one, but this was completely inadvertent. Nevertheless, the person I spoke with told me I needed to find a way to put the nest back the way we found it, or as close as possible. Well, there was no way we could roll the awning back up and stuff the nest back in there without potentially harming the fledglings.

If we put the nest on top of the awning, it would be in sunlight most of the day and exposed to rain. The woman at the wildlife rehab suggested a hanging planter, however it needed to be placed close to where the nest was — no more than a couple feet — or the mother wouldn’t return.

It turns out that handling the fledglings isn’t a problem, because robins have no sense of smell and will not reject the young. Getting her to return to the nest to feed them was going to be the questionable part, especially since my stepdaughter was having a small party that day and there would be lots of people about.

We were finally able to find a smaller box that would fit just under the eave and on top of the awning. We placed it sideways to simulate the way the mother would enter the rolled-up awning, so it was pretty darn close to the way she built it.

Later in the day I saw a robin in the nearby tree, and we heard the babies chirping for her, but we left without knowing if she would return to feed them. My stepdaughter stayed overnight with a few friends, and one of them noticed a bird flying away from there, so it must have been the mother. I’m anxious (and a little reluctant) to see if they made it when we return on Sunday.

Tags: diversions, wildlife

Well, after all the angst over the shed dormer in past weeks, I’m totally fine with the outcome. We had it constructed according to the Historic Chicago Bungalow Association’s guidelines, in that it’s located more than 20 feet away (much more, in fact) from the front of the house.

While it would have been nice if it were a little less obtrusive, it’s only because it overlooks the side yard that it’s more noticeable than others. Once our oak tree grows up, it will be much more hidden from the street.

The HardiePlank® lap siding went up quickly and looks spectacular — much better than vinyl would have. It perfectly matches some of the darker color in the common brick below it.

If we had chosen Weather Wood for the roof shingles, a warm gray color that the framer had suggested and was also my initial choice, the dormer would have stood out more, so I’m happy with the Shakewood color we chose.

We also decided that we should stick with white for the gutters and soffit. We thought it would look strange if those were a different color than the rest of the trim.

The face brick on the front of the house could use a good cleaning, so we’ll get to that once the construction is done. It’ll be nice to get a decent shot of the house without the huge purple dumpster too.

And the best part: the protective plywood covering the patio is off and we have our patio back. I’m looking forward to using it if we ever get decent weather around here for more than one sporadic day.

Coming up: plumbing, electrical and HVAC.

Tags: attic renovation, decisions, shed dormer, siding

We’ve just completed week four of our attic renovation (technically 3-1/2 weeks as they started the project mid-week), and the work has been humming along steadily.

The exterior work is essentially done and I’m really happy with the outcome.

Last Monday the windows were installed and they are beautiful.

The long-term plan for the front of the house is to replace the aluminum storm windows with wood storm windows. The current storm window frames are too wide and creep into the window space way too much. Wood storm windows would have a much smaller frame and would make the first floor windows look much bigger.

With wood storms, we wouldn’t be locked into using white as the accent color as we are right now, which is why I went with taupe (specifically, Cashmere) as the color for the upstairs windows. It matches the colors in the shingles.

The trim was installed using cedar 1×4s, which need to be stained. Unfortunately we didn’t have time to stain them before installation, so we’re going to have to figure out what to do about that — if we’re going to attempt to do it ourselves or hire someone. There’s not much to do, but roof work is scary to me, so unless I can feel really secure with it, we may have to hire out.

As far as the color goes, according to my research, using a dark color for the window trim can create a “picture frame” effect and cause the window to stick out like a sore thumb. I think it can look really great on frame houses, but for a bungalow like ours, a lighter window trim color definitely looks better. I’m thinking of using a stain color that will mimic the color of the limestone sills, window box brackets, and accents that you can see on the front of our house. It’ll be whitish, but not as stark as the gutters and soffits. My rationale is that it will help to transition from the dark brick colors to the stark white of the gutters and other trim. In a perfect world, I’d replace all the gutters and soffits with something other than white. That’s not going to happen anytime soon, so I have to work with what I have.

All-in-all I’m really happy with our choices, especially with our decision to clip the front and back gables and using roof shingles instead of siding on these two dormers.

Next post — the shed dormer — coming right up!

Tags: attic renovation, roof, windows

…the attic (please — I’m not going to use that old cliché!).

I need to catch up on the progress around here. Things have been moving along, although the changes aren’t as noticeable as the first few days.

We lost most of our kitchen the very first day in order to widen the staircase. It has been a little tough without a sink (and dishwasher), but at least that horrible butterfly sink is gone for good. The laundry tub has worked out fine.

Now without further ado, here is the staircase progression.

Kitchen before:

Cabinets down:

Wall gone:

Stairs gone:

In a short amount of time, the stairs were built:

The view from the kitchen:

The plumbing will run through this wall, so the wall will be replaced.

In addition to not being wide enough, the previous steps were also too shallow. Climbing the stairs was very awkward and unnatural. These stairs make such a huge difference.

There was a slight trade-off in that the stairs had to bump into the first floor hallway a little bit:

This will be covered with drywall. It’s not ideal, but it’s something I can live with and is not uncommon to see in a house like this.

I’m just meeting a work deadline, so I’ll catch up on my posts over the next few days.

Tags: attic renovation, construction, framing, staircase

Construction is moving right along. They have most of the master bedroom and bathroom framed, so it’s great to be able to walk through those spaces. The roof window in the bathroom is going to be fantastic.

Here is the dormer, which houses the master bedroom and bathroom, after the first day:

Interior framing started, looking toward back of house (and into master bedroom) from the stairway (mid-house):

View from master bedroom gable dormer window (shown above) and looking toward bathroom and stairway beyond:

Looking into the master bathroom:

Yesterday’s progress: framing of master bathroom continued, with walk-in shower and bench.

Master bedroom closets flanking window seat (window currently boarded up):

It looks like they’re working on the stairs today, so that will make a huge difference.

The roofers are also back today after staying away yesterday due to a stormy forecast. Too bad it turned out to be a decent day. We have a couple of good days predicted mixed in with several more rainy days. Hopefully they’ll make good progress; it’d be nice to have that part of the job done.

Tags: attic renovation, bathroom, construction, dormer, framing, master bedroom, progress

Our front and back gable dormers have been clipped, and we couldn’t be happier with how the house is coming along. It makes a huge difference in appearance, and I can’t wait for the roof to be complete!

Before

After

Before

After

The windows are on order, but they’ll take 2-3 weeks to arrive. We got a great deal from the good people at Evanston Lumber, both on Marvin Windows (a splurge, but they’ll qualify for the energy efficiency tax rebate) and on HardiePlank™ Lap Siding.

They had a supply of HardiePlank in Desert Sand which had been returned or canceled or something, so they wanted to get rid of it. I took a sample home to see how it would look for the shed dormer, and you know, I think it may work really well. It blends with the side brick and goes well with the roof shingles too.

The great thing about HardiePlank is that if we really hate the color, we can paint it, unlike vinyl siding. On top of the great deal they gave us, it’s a win-win solution.

Tags: attic renovation, gable dormer, modification, roof, siding

Okay, I’m happy with the color we chose for the roof. While I think the warm gray would have looked really nice and helped to ground the roof, it would have made the white soffit and gutters stand out more and I really wanted to downplay those. By clipping the gable dormer in the front and back, we’ll ground it that way instead.

Now that the dormer is framed (yippee!), I don’t know about shingling it. It’s an awful lot of dormer to shingle, and we only have the one window there. The rest of the space is for the bathroom shower on the left side (one of the skylights is going in the bathroom, so we’ll have lots of light in there), and then two small closets flank each side of the window in the master bedroom, forming a window seat between them.

The roofer also warned me (in addition to his opinion that it’ll look crappy) that the shingles may get blown off in a strong wind because they’re at a 90° angle. Hmm, do we really want to risk that? This is the Windy City, after all (yes, I know how Chicago really got its nickname, but it does get windy and there’s not much protection from it here).

I’m really leaning back toward the siding…on the shed dormer only. Won’t it blend with common brick on the side of the house below?

Tags: aesthetics, attic renovation, decisions, roof

While I may be somewhat unsure about roofing color, whether to use siding or shingles for the dormer, etc., I definitely know what not to do:

Wait, it gets worse.

To their credit, these homeowners have solar panels (and have had them for as long as I’ve been around this area — 20 years now), but WHAT DID THAT POOR BUNGALOW DO TO DESERVE THIS??

Thanks to everyone who commented in my last post: it’s decided! We’re going with the hip roof on the front and back dormers — or as Josh at Bungalow ‘23 pointed out, a clipped gable dormer (that sounds more accurate; thanks for clarifying Josh!) — and we’re going to shingle the whole thing.

I don’t want to end up with a mansard roof look on the shed dormer — I really don’t like mansard roofs — but I also want it to disappear a little, so we’re going to go with the shingles overall on that too.

When it came down to color, we had decided on Shakewood, a yellowish-brown. We felt that the lighter color would be better for energy-efficiency, it pulled out and complemented the lighter colors in the brick, both on the front and on the side, and it would be a better transition to the existing white soffit and gutters.

When I told the framing/roofing foreman what I chose, he tried to steer us toward Weatherwood, a warm browish-gray. That color was initially my first choice, but I ended up with Shakewood for the reasons stated above.

But, he has done a lot of roofs, so it made me think twice. I went back to re-evaluate it and was able to pick up a sample of Weatherwood at Home Depot. While I do like the darker color, I decided to stick with Shakewood. I hope I’m not making a big mistake!

In the comments, Carol, who has an Oak Park bungalow, stated that their original shed dormer is sided with shingles, so I feel better about going with shingles on all the dormers, and Cheryl made a great point about matching the shingle for trim instead of doing white. I’m going to talk to the contractor about that for sure.

Thank you so much for all your input — roofing is going to start tomorrow already.

Many more posts to come: we had a huge hole in our roof today!

Tags: attic renovation, construction, decisions, roof

Thanks for the comments and suggestions about our roof conundrum — as always I appreciate others’ input and ideas and I get a lot of insight from your experiences and opinions.

I do agree that one of the problems with the look of our roof is how far forward the gable dormer sits in the front. Unfortunately, I think pushing the dormer back to make it look more squat will be cost prohibitive, but I also know that the way this was built is original because the interior framing and rafters haven’t been touched.

I’m guessing that the dormer was originally clad with roofing shingles instead of siding to help it blend into the roof. But we still kind of like the look of the hip roof, so we’re going to talk to the contractor about costs to change it.

And while I do really like the look of shorter windows, to meet current building codes we need to make sure the windows meet egress requirements. Unfortunately double-hung windows will not meet those requirements for fire safety, nor will a smaller size, so we’ll have to go with casements that match the current size.

Although they are beyond repair, the original double-hung windows were still stashed in the attic, so from those I know that the original window sizes actually match the current rough opening and existing vinyl windows. Go figure. I was actually a little surprised myself. I’m hanging onto the windows and plan to use them for a future art project.

What is different about the original windows is that the upper sash is divided vertically into 3 panes, so we can not only add a horizontal divider to make it appear more like a double-hung, but also add the vertical dividers in the upper portion to match the original look. I think unless you really look at them closely you probably won’t notice the difference.

Originally we wanted to avoid having to re-do the entire roof right now, but it’s going to be too hard to match the new dormer to the existing roof, and there could be some problems in getting a tight enough seal when patching it in, so we’re going to take the plunge.

I did some mock-ups to try and envision how it would look with these changes, and I would love to hear what you think.

Current dormer and roof:

Probable roof shingle next to face brick and common (side) brick:

Mock-up of new roof color (it’s a little bit on the dark/brown side, but I think you get the idea), with new casement windows, and keeping the gable dormer:

Mock-up, same as above, but with hip roof dormer:

The shed dormer addition mock-up is a poor rendition, but this is the color scheme I’m toying with:

The top right would be the HardiePlank® lap siding in Khaki Brown. The lower right is the window trim in Cashmere.

I’m also thinking that maybe we should clad the sides of the shed dormer with roof shingles and only use the siding on the face of the dormer.

Let me know what you think. We have to make a final decision, FAST, because OMG they are starting TOMORROW!!!

Tags: attic renovation, decisions, dormer, roof

Pete and I have been talking extensively about our roof this weekend. One of the things that has always really bothered us about it is the gable dormer in the front. Bungalows are supposed to be ground-hugging with a low-pitched roof but ours looks like the roof is about to take off!

That’s not the only thing that bothers me:

• The two attic windows are too far apart and separated by vinyl siding — it just looks plain wrong! They should be separated by a mullion, a vertical member between window units
• The white trim seems like too much contrast to the red brick
• The fireplace chimney is U-G-L-Y!
• I have loathed the roof color — kind of a mix of red, white and gray — which just makes it look pink and gray. (The photo is a little overexposed, so it’s hard to see the true colors)

I don’t think Pete likes the roof shingles either. The windows, chimney and trim doesn’t really bother him, but he’s usually not as opinionated as I am.

We’ve often talked about modifying the gable and creating a hip roof instead, one that cuts across the top horizontally instead of coming to a point at the top. It seemed to be more in keeping with the true Chicago bungalow style and would give it more of a ground-hugging feel. And because our attic height is taller than many other Chicago-style bungalows, it really needs to at least look more low-pitched.

So after breakfast this morning we took a little walk around the neighborhood to look at other bungalows. There was a mix of gable and hip dormers, and somewhat minor details could really make a huge difference in looks.

In the two below, both have hip roofs, but you can see what a huge difference the “wings” make to the appearance of the one on the left. That one also had very old diamond-shaped roof shingles. It definitely needs a new roof, but for its apparent age, it was still in relatively good shape.

The single window in the bungalow on the right also looks out of place. (The arched French doors are nice on the entrance to this one, but it is not original to these bungalows; small open porches were the norm.)

The next one has a similar brick color to ours. The pale orange window trim on the first floor tones down the white trim a bit. I don’t know if I’d use orange, but I’ve thought about doing something like this to ours. The hip roof looks nice here. It’s interesting to note how much further to the front of the house our dormer is situated.

According to Historic Chicago Bungalow Association guidelines, side dormers are supposed to be set back 20 feet from the front of the house in order to be less obtrusive. Many of the bungalows we saw with side dormers “violated” this guideline, including this and the next one, and you can see it makes a difference in appearance.

The last one has a gable dormer like ours, but you can see it looks much nicer. I think one reason is that the attic height isn’t as tall as ours, but I think the main reason is because the gable is set back further and is therefore more “squat” than ours.

Another thing we noticed is that while some dormers were clad with siding, traditionally the dormers were covered with roof shingles so that it blended in more with the roof.

All good things to consider as we move forward. (Stay tuned — lots of things happening at Bungalow Chronicles!).

Tags: aesthetics, Chicago-style bungalow, research, roof