Colonial Plantation House – Part 6
The kitchen has 6 over 6 double hung windows.
The main house has 9 over 9 double hung windows with bull-nose sills on the first floor.
Historical Exterior Details
Our house looks as described above and has roof framing for a true gambrel roof. Modern gambrel roof houses today have the roof line kicked out beyond the exterior vertical walls to make it look like a gambrel roof house. The true gambrel roof was achieved by supporting the load of the upper, flatter part of the roof on specially constructed trusses that run the length of the main house and set on multiple posts on each storey that carry the load down to reinforced concrete pads in the basement floor.
Some of the exterior details include beaded weatherboard siding with hand-forged rose-head siding nails, corner boards, dentils under the roof eaves, 9 over 9 double hung windows (6 over 6 on the kitchen wing), an English basement with hand-molded bricks in the English bond pattern (alternating courses of headers and stretchers), and bars over the basement windows.
Note in the picture of the foundation bricks that “closer” bricks (shorter bricks than the bricks in that course) are used next to the corner and window in the header rows to make the bricks align vertically at the corner and window. Only one “closer” brick is needed in the stretcher courses. Brick ground gutters were more common than gutters on the roof fascia boards as is common today. Ground gutters prevented the rain running off the roof from draining down along the foundation wall. Three chimneys with wood-burning fireplaces on the house and a chimney on the Carriage House provide authentic colonial details.
Finding energy efficient windows that look like colonial era windows, which had wood muntins with single individual glass panes, took considerable research. Our windows are Jeld-Wen double-hung windows with two panes of glass containing an inert insulating gas in the space between the panes. Permanently applied 1¼ inch muntins, on both the outside and inside of the windows give the appearance of being historically accurate. An inter-pane-space metal grid with the same 9 over 9 or 6 over 6 pattern adds solidity to the windows.
Beaded siding weatherboards with hand-forged rose head siding nails.
Hand-moulded bricks laid in the English bond pattern with closer bricks used to keep the corner and window edge plumb. Brick ground gutter below.
Dentil moulding under the soffit on the front and back of the house indicate sufficient wealth to add decorative details.
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