talktoearthworms's Profile

Emma,

Possibly not a traditional color scheme as white exterior trim was originally not nearly as popular as a trim choice as it is in modern times. The majority of craftsman homes existing today with white trim did not begin their life that way. Color choices on craftsman homes were dictated by the homes surroundings, the idea was to blend in with nature, lots of browns, greens, and other earthy tones were used, however there are always exceptions. My house for example appears to be a bit of an exception and it was built in 1913. Having done a color sanding test on the siding (siding which was covered in shingles since 1952, preserving the worn and oxidized original paint) I found the first coat to be a brownish red (likely red iron primer) and on top of that a surprising pretty bright yellow that definitely wasn't the norm. Also testing the exterior trim and details I found an ugly oatmeal light grey and better looking light mint green. My personal decision was to keep the pretty yellow siding color, light green trim, but 86 the disgusting oatmeal light grey and replace with dark green and burgundy accents upping the total colors from 3 to 4, I chose these other colors by copying another yellow restored 1905 early arts and crafts home in a historic district near my neighborhood, this made it pretty easy to visualize how the colors would work with each other.

I don't think people should be such sticklers for original exterior paint schemes as you are not causing anything irreversible unlike painting interior stained woodwork. If a previous home owner had decided to paint all the beautiful woodwork in the home featured in this tour, it would take countless hours to try and remove it all and some damage would be inevitable. On the other hand, exteriors are meant to be painted, and will be painted over and over again, stripped, then painted even more. Many of the original color schemes are considered pretty ugly by todays standards. As I said before, these homes were given paint schemes to blend in with the nature and surroundings, and 100 years later the surroundings of these homes aren't always the same. Pick colors that complement your taste, the current neighborhood surroundings, and do justice to the architecture. Craftsmans of this era were traditionally 3-5 colors, the victorian houses that preceded them had even more.

I forgot to mention, bees and humming birds LOVE Leonotis leonurus

I for once would love to have a vintage tiled bathroom like that. I hate seeing them destroyed.

Keanes later work is much happier, maybe look for her newer work, she still paints.

I hate the majority of these trends.

Not sure if it's a coincidence or not, but I notice all the stripped tiles are cracked and the painted ones are not. Now they may have been cracked prior too, but it's entirely possible the method used was cracking them, so be carefule.

Steam is an effective and lead safe paint removal method. You need to fabricate or come up with a way to trap the steam onto a small area and be able to hold it there tight and snug while the steam works it's magic. Most clothing steamers can be used with modified heads to accomplish them. It is much much slower than using heat stripping methods but i would caution against those as it may crack the tiles if they are extremely old. As for chemical strippers, i'm not a fan of em. The ones that aren't chemically nasty don't work well, and the ones that work well are really chemically nasty. In this situation you're not repainting (the main reason I don't use chemical strippers where wood will be stained or repainted) so chemicals are worth a go.

I could just dust a 256g drive on music alone.

whereas it isn't my style, the house is done well. That being said, it doesn't seem like much of the craftsman heritage was embraced, everything has been whitewashed and painted.

excellent!

jess13

Lawns are a waste, there is no arguing this. They serve one purpose, that is they look nice when properly maintained, few people will actually sit out on their front lawn, in the majority of cases it goes unused. A garden provides more ecological benefit to all living creatures. Most areas of the united states do not have the right climate to naturally support a lawn in the first place, you have to water and water and water. It's estimated that 50-70% of residential water use is used on watering lawns. Even if you live in an area which high rainfall, the pollutants from maintaining a lawn (mowing, fertilzers, pesticides) are extremely high, again multiply this by nearly every home in the united states having a lawn and you see how it's a huge waste.

Certain cities/counties are offering rebates to homeowners who remove their lawns. I took advantage of this in 2010 in Long Beach in removing my front lawn and replacing with a drought tolerant rock garden filled with native plants, cactus, and succulents. I only water it once a month during the hot dry summer months. My water bill dropped almost $100/mo, and the maitenance is extremely low (I trim back a few plants 1-2 a year). Not to mention the city gave me $2.50/square foot that I converted. Honestly I would have still done it without the cities help.

Anyways, I'm not advocating everyone rip out their lawns, but you are delusional if you come to the conclusion that it is not wasteful having an expanse of grass on your property that must be regularly mowed, watered, fertilized,