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Seven Old-Timey Features You May Want To Include In Your Home

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It’s a fact that older homes are nowhere near as energy-efficient as modern places of living. Advances in materials, fixtures and construction techniques help keep new houses sealed tightly against the heat or cold outside. While this makes new houses arguably better in most measurable respects, there is no denying old-time houses still have their charms. In fact, some features of older homes may still have functional merit. Here is our list of seven old-timey features you may want to include in your modern-day home.

1. Rooftop Patio or Garden

rooftop garden

The rooftop patio or garden is a feature that has been used “on” homes since the ancient times, and it seems to be gaining popularity again in the modern age. This feature can be added to any house that has a section of flat roof. In a home with a small backyard, the rooftop patio can offer valuable extra outdoor space. A rooftop garden can be productive with fruit and vegetables or purely decorative with flowers. In either case, the soil also adds a lot of extra insulation value. To ensure the structure of your home can support the extra weight of soil, plants, furniture, etc., consult with a contractor before you begin building your rooftop garden.

2. Phone Nook

In early days of the telephone, phones were large, heavy devices. They would routinely be stored on shelves that were built into the walls. In modern times, wired phones may be falling by the wayside, but a phone nook still makes a convenient place to store and charge your cell phones and other mobile devices.  Install one by your front door, and you will never have to search for your cell phone on your way out again! Make the nook a little larger, and you can store keys, wallets and purses or anything else you might take with you. With proper planning, the humble phone nook could become the nerve center of your home.

3. Laundry Chute

If you have a two- or three-story house with laundry on a lower floor, a laundry chute might be a practical idea for you. It can be made simply from large-diameter PVC or sheet metal ventilation. As long as the chute remains close to vertical, your clothes will have no problem making it all the way to the bottom. Installing a laundry chute means you will never have to lug heavy baskets filled with dirty clothes down the stairs to be washed again. Bringing baskets filled with clean clothes back upstairs is another story, though….

4. Wood Floors with Area Rugs

area rug

In postwar America, wall-to-wall carpet became a symbol of luxury in homes.  While wall-to-wall carpet is indeed comfortable on bare feet, it is not the most visually interesting feature of a house.

The other options, natural wood or stone, have been the standard flooring materials for many years. In addition to the floor, homeowners would add area rugs for warmth and style as desired. One reason for this was that the reliable vacuum cleaner had not been invented yet. Area rugs were taken outside and beaten with special sticks to clean them every so often.

Today, style is a more pressing concern for most homeowners. Hardwood or laminate floors with area rugs break up the pattern of wood, and allow you to change the look of your home quickly and easily, simply by switching out your rugs.  In our book, flexibility is always in style.

5. Awnings / Overhangs

window awning

No old-time house would be complete without a generously sized porch and awnings to shade the windows. This made the houses more energy-efficient, by keeping the summer sun from shining through the windows. Heating and cooling in an older house was even more expensive and troublesome than it is today! Awnings and overhangs that are correctly designed keep the sun out during the summer when it’s high in the sky, and they keep the inside of the house cooler. During the winter, they allow the low winter sun to enter the home, bringing light and warmth.

6. Cupola

cupola

A cupola is a standard feature on many old farmhouses and barns. Though they do add architectural interest to a home, they are not purely decorative; they also serve a useful purpose. When the sun heats up the air inside the cupola, the air will rise and exit your home, taking the heat with it. When air leaves your home, more air must come in to equalize the pressure. Use a cupola in conjunction with open windows to draw the fresh, cooler air near the ground into your house. The cupola will act like a passive whole-house fan, ventilating and cooling your home without the expense or noise of an air conditioner or electric whole-house fan.

7. Transom Windows

transom window

Transom windows are small, rectangular windows that are located near the ceiling in a building (and typically above a door). They let in light or air without sacrificing privacy. When incorporated well, they also ramp up the physical style of a building. Think about placing transom windows anywhere you want the beauty that warm, natural light offers, but want to maintain privacy that you don’t receive with larger windows. They are a natural fit in bedrooms, bathrooms and garages. Just like cupolas, transom windows are also effective at moving warm air out and bringing cool air into your home.

These are just a few options; but there are many old-timey options you can incorporate into a modern design. Seek out the older homes in your community to see what interesting features they have; then think about which features might add style or function to your home. With a little creativity, ingenuity and work, you can have the best of both worlds.

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Alan Rosinski
More about Alan Rosinski

Alan Rosinski is an avid home renovation blogger and enjoys writing on Case Design / Remodeling Inc. home improvement and remodeling projects. Alan covers the whole house, but his main forte includes bathrooms and kitchens.

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