'Good bones'
Architect-y types like to talk about the 'bones' of a house. I'm not sure what they mean, but this seems like an appropriate use of the term.....

Hoffman Street has a long harmonious stretch of nicely maintained late 50s houses. Judging by names and appearances, many of them are still occupied by the first buyer or his widow.

Hoffman is the best part of my daily walk. If my morning has started badly with poor sleep or inadequate dump or annoying demands from New York employer, Hoffman makes it all better. A strong dose of civilization. The visual equivalent of Albinoni.

One of those houses is getting new siding this week. Not an ideal week for the job, with a couple days of wind-blown rain, but I suspect the house won't be bothered much. It's stripped down to the sheathing now. High-quality 1x8 boards, placed solidly with zero gaps in alternate rows. All perfectly straight and flat after 60 years. You could paint it and you'd think the house was complete.

Good bones.

Most earlier houses (including mine) used poor random-sized scrap lumber for sheathing, and most later houses use soft particleboard. These '50s houses are a dramatic exception.

Peak bones.


= = = = =

Couple weeks later, after the siding is done: ACK! This is awful! The new metal siding is misproportioned and LUMPY. I don't know how they managed that; none of the neighboring houses are lumpy. Even my little house, sided in 1979 by Carter's Weatherizing Job Corps, isn't lumpy. Makes me feel empathetically embarrassed for the nice Hoffman house. She thought she was going to get a sharp new wardrobe, and now she's stuck with garage sale rejects.

And another week: ACK again. The lumpy siding has been painted. I thought maybe they were going to come back and finish, but apparently this is the "done" condition. Lots of missed spots, lots of exclaves and enclaves at trim borders. I couldn't do the siding better, but I could definitely do the painting better. Even more embarrassed for the house.

Labels: Heimatkunde, TMI

  ¶ 8:17 AM