Exterior cladding, floors and painting finished

Here are some new photos of the house.  The exterior cladding is almost complete.  All of the brick, the siding and most of the cedar shakes are in place now.  Inside, the floors have been put in, the painting has been completed and most of the fixtures are in place.

Traditional style wins out

After much back-and-forth, we decided to go with the more traditional looking house. The contemporary design was nice, and we loved the porch that Linda designed, but in the end I think I'm a sucker for the strong horizontal lines produced by the prairie style. I also didn't care too much for the windows in the contemporary design. I felt they were too plain, even though they were very characteristic of the Modern style. In addition, the hipped roof of our house does not really lend itself to the modern look.

In terms of deciding factors, cost was not one of them, as both styles cost about the same. Similarly, fitting in with the neighbourhood was not really an issue, because all around we can find examples of Arts and Crafts, Modern, Mid-century Modern and Victory houses.

Another consideration that was raised, which we had not thought about, was that our house might end up looking too squat in the modern style. If you look at all the examples of modern houses in my previous post, they are all tall; they have a lot of presence on the street. Our house would lack that height (at least in the front) making it potentially look squat from the street.

So, with that sorted out, its onto the next step, designing the kitchen and starting to find a builder.


Examples of Craftsman and Modern style homes in the neighbourhood

Modern vs Traditional style house

Because we really like to make things difficult for ourselves, we asked our architect to do a concept drawing of the house in a more modern style so we could compare it to the more traditional, Arts and Crafts/Prairie style.

The only problem is that we like the new concept as much as the first.

Tell us what you think.

Below is the more traditional look, with the first picture the front of the house and the second of the rear of the house. (the picture of the front of the house was provided in black and white, so I had to colour it myself, which is why the colours don't exactly match)

and below is the more modern look. First, the front of the house. We both really like the asymetrical porch that she has designed. It's a bit difficult to tell on this picture, but the porch would be covered by a flat roof with wood sticking out the front so it looks sort of like a pergola. There is a wall at the front of the porch, about 3 feet wide or so, that screens the front door from the road. This provides a place to put things like strollers, snow shoves, etc. so that they are in front of the house, but not in sight from the road. The porch would be open at the side behind the wall. The cladding is a combination of stucco and wood siding. The siding would be by a company called Maibec, and they have a 25 year warranty of their siding (which means I don't have to paint it every five years).

and here is the rear of the house. The same basic design, but different windows from the more traditional look. This more modern look would allow us to have large corner windows in the bedroom and the living room.

Inspiration for the exterior cladding for our bungalow

Some of the inspiration for the exterior cladding of our renovated bungalow in Ottawa comes from homes like these below. The styles and colours of these homes are quite different, but they are characterized by a mix of stone and either stucco, siding or brick cladding.

This first house is considered by some to be a characteristic example of the Prairie Style of architecture with a hipped roof that juts out far over the walls and no gables. Clean, horizontal lines are the dominant architectural feature with a pronounced use of natural materials.

The house below was designed by our architect. She used a brown stone at the base with a dark green/brown stucco and an accent of red along the top of the wall. She then brought this inside this house using the same stone for the fireplace and for the base of support beams, which themselves were made of the same wood as the beams on the porch.

This prairie style house uses a grey-coloured stone on the front. They have also used a more modern style window, unlike the Arts & Crafts style window proposed by our architect for our bungalow.

This house designed by another Ottawa architect uses a light-coloured rough stone cladding on the front of the house and stucco on the sides and rear of the house in the same colour. The wood of the porch and soffits provides contrast.



Here is an Arts and Crafts style house with a large grey coloured stone that goes quite high up the wall combined with a beige/light yellow stucco and greenish trim.

And here are a few more colour combinations:

Finally, here are some combinations that use a smooth stone on the bottom. Some of these homes use brick on the top, but I think it is unlikely that we would do the same.

Decisions, decisions, decisions.