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Rose Covered Arbor
Rose Covered Arbor on Hammond Street
Rose Covered Arbor It’s been a long time since I’ve done a House Parts We Love entry – cripes it’s been too long since I’ve posted anything for that matter – the Cambridge real estate market has been humming and I’ve fallen off the blogging bandwagon. Time to get back on track and start filling in all those empty days (it’s one of my guilty secrets – blog posts are dated but I have complete control of the dates). So don’t be surprised if multiple posts show up in your email.
Back to today’s favorite feature – Rose Covered Arbors. There’s a bumper crop of roses out and about in Cambridge and Somerville and nothing’s prettier than a arbor gate covered with roses. This pretty arbor is next door to a house I sold on Hammond Street in Cambridge.
I’m a bit of a wimp about bees so I’m not sure if I could walk the gauntlet every time I come and go but these sure are a pretty sight – from a safe distance!
Here are some more house features we fall for:
Looks Like The Electric Needs Updating
Original Edison Electric Wiring Box
How cool is this?
I spotted this vintage electrical wiring box / gizmo in a carriage house in Somerville during our weekly tour of new real estate listings.
Yes – that’s knob and tube wiring visible at the top of the photo. But what I really love is the original “Edison Service Cut-Out” box. Never have seen one of these before!
I can’t remember when Boston Edison turned into Nstar but this piece of equipment clearly predates that by many a decade.
Decorative Window Trim on Cambridge Houses
Bracketed window trim on a mansard on Avon Hill in Cambridge
Decorative Window Trim
Window crowns – curved trim, bracketed or pedimented window tops - became popular on houses during the Italianate period. Second Empire mansards often had trimmed window tops like the one at right and window-top ornamentation can be found on Queen Anne Victorians as well.
Here are some of my favorites spotted on houses in Cambridge. For the life of me I can’t get larger versions of the photos to show in the slideshow. If you click on it you’ll get the larger views.
It’s often a certain special feature that makes us fall for a house. Here are some more house parts we love:
And for more favorites, click on the House Parts tag link below.
Window Boxes Decorated For Winter
Wondering what to do with your window boxes now that winter’s on its way? Here are some of my favorites spotted while we were on the Marblehead house tour this afternoon.
Window Box with Pineapple and Greens
Pair of Marblehead Windowboxes
Marblehead Window Box with Deer
I’ve yet to put window boxes on my old house but when I do I’ll remember these when winter comes.
It was a beautiful day for a house tour. The sky was clear and blue and most of last night’s snow had melted from the ground. Marblehead has an astonishing collection of restored pre-1800 houses. What a treat!
Next weekend is the last of the holiday house tours for 2009. Make your plans now!
Glassed In Vestibules – House Parts We Love
Glassed-In Entry on a Cambridge House
The magic of house parts we love is that they can make us fall in love with a house. Glassed-in vestibules do it for me – I bought my house in large part because of the charming glassed-in entry out front.
On my house the glassed-in entry replaced the two original porches on the front, similar to the porches on the other houses on the street. Now the glass paned entry with a round top gives the house a special charm. My theory is that the original owners of my house admired the rounded top entry on the house around the corner and made the change to their house.
My house’s vestibule is in the slide show below. It’s not the best picture of the entry – you can’t see the curved top – but it’s a great picture of my parents standing out in front of the house.
These glassed in vestibules provide shelter from the elements and add a great deal of charm to the facade. Here are a few of my favorites:
Ribbon Driveways – Old Fashioned and Green
It's a ribbon driveway!
I’ve always loved this driveway style but never knew it had a name – it’s a ribbon driveway and it’s today’s installment in the House Parts We Love series.
Popular in the 1920s to 1940s this is the obvious evolutionary first step in driveway paving – before driveways were paved you’d have packed down ruts in the dirt. Ribbon driveways paved those ruts with concrete, leaving the grass in the center.
You don’t see many of these old fashioned driveways around the city. But I’m always happy when I come across one. This one is in North Cambridge near Davis Square. I always called these grass strip driveways. Sometimes you’ll find them paved with cobblestones rather than cement.
The city tends to have way too much pavement so a ribbon driveway with its minimal paved footprint makes a lot of sense. I hate to see the runoff in the rain when all the asphalt means the water ends up in the sewer system. “Green driveways” with a plastic grid underlayment are the newest thing but the good old grass strip version works for me.
One municipality in California, Fullerton, even recommends the installation of historically appropriate ribbon driveways in their remarkably thorough preservation guidelines for a bungalow neighborhood. How cool is that?
More House Parts We Love:
Porch Railings with Curved Spindles
Entry Brackets – House Parts We Love
Entry brackets are one of my very favorite Victorian house parts and Cambridge is a hotbed of them. There is a remarkable variety in styles and designs of cornice brackets. Many homeowners have accentuated the details with paint. The slide show below has some of my favorites that I’ve spotted around town.
Here are some other House Parts We Love:
Porch Railings with Curved Spindles
Fences – More House Parts We Love
Diamond Patterned Fence Near Harvard Square in Cambridge
I think of fences as house parts since it’s the whole package we fall in love with when a house catches our eye. And a fence is often the first thing someone sees when they walk up to your house.
If you’re trying to decide on a style, Cambridge is great for getting ideas – you’ll find all styles of handsome or charming fences here – from the modest to the elaborate or fanciful. Most are made of wood – believe me you won’t be seeing any plastic on these pages – from picket fences to grander versions, some vintage cast iron can be found as well as ones that use granite for posts or bases.
There are a couple of popular companies in our area if you’re thinking of adding a border at the street or want to enclose your yard:
Walpole Woodworkers‘ exquisite work can be spotted along Brattle Street and elsewhere in Cambridge.
W.J. McDonough Fence has done a couple of fences for me and does very nice work
Here’s a gallery of local fences and walls:
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