How about a design thread on what can be done to 1960’s bi-levels to improve their facade, anyone have pictures, drawings? So many of them around here but IMO are quite homely, so short of teardown, what have you seen that actually looks good?
Rich
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Replies
How 'bout a photo of yours for a fulcrum to this springboard ...?
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Piffin, I don't own one but I'll try to post a photo of a generic NJ bi-level.
Fire.
PTP, you know the type, eh?...I've had that thought too.
Rich
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So that's a pretty typical bi-level. Sometimes no columns, sometimes garage loads from the end or back. What can be done to make these more attractive ?
Old girlfriend use to have one of those and everytime I walked by the livingroom to the kitchen, by a hutch sitting against a wall, the floor would vibrate the wine glasses in it all to h*ll till she would have to leave them laying down on the shelves.
Regardless of looks those things weren't always built the best either.
Peach full,easy feelin'.
Rez, I'd agree most are pretty minimum standard homes, but there must be ways to improve their appearance, give 'em a little style.
Entry portico, dual colour scheme, shrubbery, pergola over garage entry...
Welcome to the Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime. where ... Excellence is its own reward!
Pergola at garage............yeah I like that.
I'm living in one right now. The split isn't visible from the street though. But it still is an ugly house imo. The design was utilitarian, period. Very little regard for the looks.
I haven't started on that part yet so I haven't posted pics. I could though. today there was an article in the paper about a design company that changed hands. I might give them a call. I need ideas.
P, I'm thinking something with a craftsman influence, the way the roofs are all low pitched.
One of the thing I don't like about this house is the low pitched roofs. We live in an area where Last winter there was 4' of snow on the ground. It makes no sense at all to have low pitched roofs. I think they were trying to save on materials and get away from traditional high pitched gable end roofs.
Our house has a gable roof in the back that runs the length of the house. looking at it from the street it has two low hips on either end with a lo pitched shed roof in the middle. I get ice dams at the valleys between the hips and the shed roof. The fascias and eves look terrible in these areas because of all the years of leaks due to the ice dams.
Since the hips are low with brick walls underneath them with bad windows in them placed badly the house has no real strength to it. I think gable ends would make the house look bigger and give it more life. I'm not sure how to pull it off. I wouldn't want two gable ends the same size on both sides of the house. That would look like an IHOP.
I think the something with the craftsman look would have a bunch of different roof lines with eyebrows and such in it.
I'll take some pictures tomorrow.
This isn't a split that you can see from the front but it has three floors if you count the improved basement. It was built in the late fifties. The split is stacked over the back of the house. The front/middle floor/main floor of the house is under the shed roof and the kitchen and dinning room are under the left hip.
Here are some pictures I took. We are very happy with the location and the house overall but I think I can improve it.
The entry is sideways to the street but I'm not to concerned about it. I have started to landscape the front and there will be a new walkway to the front door.
The timbers on end sticking up in the middle go of coarse. there will be two more small trees there bracketing the new walkway.
The driveway stays. What else do you do with two cars?
As you can see there are two hips with a shed roof in the middle.
The brick wall on the left has a small dinning room behind it and a small kitchen behind that with a partial wall separating the two. We are thinking of taking out at least most of the wall ( there's only a roof on it) so the kitchen will become part of the dinning room with an island in-between.
My wife has always wanted a front porch so we are going to put in a pair of doors in the front brick wall going out to a small patio. That would make the kitchen dinning room open up to a nice patio.
One thing I haven't figured out is how to shade the patio partially. With the hip coming down low in front it doesn't seem to want anything coming out from it.
I'm thinking of changing the hip on that side the a gable end facing the street. I could open up the ceiling with maybe a skylight in the left side. With a gable end I could see something coming off of it to shade the patio. We don't need a solid roof. There is lots of sunshine here most of the year so something with partial shade that looks like it belongs there.
This kitchen/dinning room/patio will be the nicest part of the house.
Bump!
Don't forget putting a roof in front of the dining room is going to darken it up alot, even with a pair of french doors.
You are right. I plan on putting a few windows in that wall but am not sure how yet. It could get expensive. The bricks in that wall are bearing. I'm thinking that just tear out the bricks down to bottom of the windows and then frame back up with steel and wood. Then cut the bricks and apply them as a veneer. My other thought was to incorporate some synthetic stucco into the design.
"I could open up the ceiling with maybe a skylight in the left side." I went back and re-read my post just to make sure. Some people don't like skylights. I do.
"We don't need a solid roof. There is lots of sunshine here most of the year so something with partial shade that looks like it belongs there." This room is going to be flooded with sunlight. People here in No Co really like the sunshine and so do I. One reason we moved here.
Some times people think of a patio roof as being, well, a roof. I'm not sure yet but I'm thinking a pergola of some sort with a table umbrella under that. Light would come through the pergola. How much and how I build the pergola are still up in the air.
I'm also thinking of putting a window in the end of the gable end wall. Above the pergola.
Popawheelie, that brick is really bearing? It looks to be single wythe. I've never known a single wythe to be bearing.
Yes, it is bearing. I've fully investigated the walls by cutting out a brick and cutting drywall from the inside. It's on of the problems with this house.
The brick is 6" deep x 12" long x 2 1/2" tall.
Inside of the brick there is x material as nailers and to form a chase for electric.
Then there is a 5/8" ? fiber board for insulation. It's black on the surface.
Then the drywall. That's it. I know it doesn't compute but that's what it is. Builders have thought up a lot of ways to build houses. Maybe bricks were real cheap. And so was gas and electric.
If we ever have an earthquake here this house will be in trouble. There are cracks all through the brick walls and someone filled/repaired them with clear silicone.
I've been thinking that as I go through rooms to remodel them I can insulate on the inside with a foil faced foam and nailers. I've also been thinking about synthetic stucco on the outside. I haven't investigated it yet but from what I've seen it is done over a foam board. I don't want to set up two layers of impermeable insulation on either side of the brick though. Maybe the synthetic stucco could have a small stand-off from the brick for ventilation.
From a strictly design appearance point the brick on the outside is to red and strong. Maybe some strategically place syn stucco could break it up and add a nice detail. I have to talk to a good designer about it. Maybe I can stain the brick?
There's a lot of brick used in no Co so I don't want to eliminate it. Just tone it down a bit.
At the time that this was active I remember my area having a plan book, for remodeling subburban homes but could not find it at the time.Here it is.But they sell it.http://www.marc.org/firstsuburbs/planbook.htmAt the bottom there are links to other remodeling plan books.The split level link is bad, but other sources for it have been posted on line..
.
A-holes. Hey every group has to have one. And I have been elected to be the one. I should make that my tagline.
Thanks for posting.
The design pictured with the columns is a little trickier, but in a columnless model maybe some sort of portico to dress up the entry?
Ptp, yeah I also think the main change needs to be with the entry. Any design pro's or archy's following this?
heres my dads house a bi level with a a frame front , It gives you a closet when you walk in
sorry i dont have real good pics but i thought it was very cleaver, You can see the back its normal yet the front looks like a mountain home
Bobby, thats a nice improvement, definately A-frame ski lodge influence.
Oh yeah love those walk into the closet when you enter.
Here is my before & after pics of my split entry.
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“The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing.” —Albert Einstein
Very nice
Hey. This is a coicidence. I just started a bath remodel on a very similar looking split level home. A few years back the homeowners had a entry way addition put on. It was very well designed and completely changes the look of the house from the inside and outside. I'll be back there tomorrow and I'll snap a few pictures. I'm new to this board (this is my first post). Will this thread still be around tomorrow evening?
Sounds perfect, look forward to seeing the pics. Welcome aboard, I'm fairly new here also, lots of good folks here.
Rich
Day off, click on your name and fill out your profile if you like.
Here are a couple of exterior pics of the split level that I am doing a bath remodel on. The entry addition was very tastefully done. Even though this is the nicest looking home on the street, it still blends well into the neighborhood.
Sorry for the large file size - I couldn't figure out how to reduce the images. I have more pics if you're interested.
Steve
Looks nice....except the wood column not being centered on the masonry pilaster really draws my eye.
Edited 3/13/2008 3:34 am ET by MikeK
Amen. I noticed the same thing right away and it bothered me. But on the flip side, it would look funny to reduce the size of the pilaster or to move the column. Maybe a double side by side column would work. All in all, a nice addition though.
Here are the same pics that I posted above, but I figured out how to reduce their size so that the whole image should fit on your screen.
Nice Improvement on that one, I guess things are not as bleak as I thought.
rirefalo
The easiest way to achange the appearance would be to go for the English Tudor look.
Half timbered upper stone bottom.
Just in case you aren't sure what half timbered means,, you put a vertical board from overhang to eve. Space it the width of board (six inch wide board means a six inch space) and then another board and space and board and space etc. all the way across.. normally those boards are a darker color and stucco is put in between.
If the budget allows it some diamond paned windows and you have a Faux English Tudor.
If you have access to a sawmill you can get some slightly bowed and curved boards to achieve a more realistic/rustic look
Real buget money? Add another room 90degrees to the main and do that in tudoor style. If there really is money a Tower at the intersection. Make that the entryway..
Frenchy, seems to me that would be a pretty dificult look to pull off well. Maybe I'm just having trouble visualizing it.
riflalo
go to the advanced search function and type in 94941.7 that's a picture of English Tudor, the stone below and black walnut timbers above..
Edited 3/13/2008 12:29 am ET by frenchy
Your place is great frenchy. yeah I know what a tudor is , just seems that bi-levels are all wrong for that style. Wrong massing IMO.
I haven't seen much that looks really good, but you could start here for some ideas: http://www.splitlevel.net/index.html
Dwell Magazine featured one awhile back (Maybe 6-8 months ago). Pretty nice modern updat on a traditionally "homely" style as you mentioned.
Ted, I just checked out a split level renovation in Vancouver, from Dwell Magazine. Is that the one you were talking about? Very Nice.
Probably is it black on the exterior? I liked it because they really expressed the organization of a bilevel (split level) in the architecture.
Edited 3/12/2008 8:52 pm ET by ted
Ted, yeah that's the one. Very nice.
In 1964, my mom traded in the beat-up '57 Chevy for a brand new Ford Falcon. Nobody realized it in 1964, but the '57 Chevy was about to become an icon in American auto history.
Who's to say that your bi-level home won't become more desirable and valuable if it's been well maintained and in a good neighborhood?
Yeah, some of those 12cent comicbooks bring a pretty penny these days.
Peach full,easy feelin'.
Who's to say that your bi-level home won't become more desirable and valuable if it's been well maintained and in a good neighborhood?
Probably won't deteriorate in value, but it would be a lot more valuable and appealing if updated.
I've seen some bi-levels and raised ranches that, while not beauties, were proportioned well and balanced. This one ain't that, but it's certainly worth at least an update.
Here's another resource that may be useful. http://www.wchra.com/splitvisions.pdf
I ran across it looking for ideas for my split (tri) level.
Jim, good site, they have some good stuff there.
"Here's another resource that may be useful. http://www.wchra.com/splitvisions.pdfI ran across it looking for ideas for my split (tri) level. "Rob Gerloff (the author) is an architect from the Twin Cities area. He worked (maybe still does) at the nationally known residential firm Mullfinger/Susanka (Not So Big House) back in the 90's. He's written a few publication idea books like this one. Pretty simple ideas to update an older home.
I'll have to check out some of his other stuff.
I've wondered if this is a big issue in the Twin Cities area--I've never been there.
There are a lot of split entries around here, and I've always thought it would be an interesting challenge to take on up-date/improving the looks. Seems like a shame to have so much housing stock that so many people now find so intrinsically ugly.
JimB, Seems like a shame to have so much housing stock that so many people now find so intrinsically ugly.
My thought exactly, just why I was asking for everyones input,well stated.
Rich
short of teardown, what have you seen that actually looks good?
This brings back a memory that makes me chuckle.
The week after I moved out of NYC up to the country, in the spring of '68, I took several long walks out from the town where I had rented a room.
Along the many two lane country roads I often noticed these raised bi-level homes. They were usually built on adjacent lots, two or three in a row, all looking the same except for color and maybe some fake shutters.
One "improvement" that seemed quite popular was a small group of rocks placed in the center of the front yard with flowers growing in and around them. This grouping of rocks and flowers was always attended by a pair of pink flamingoes or an equally colorful gnome.
See how simple it is? But maybe you'd prefer a gnu to a gnome.
Edited 3/13/2008 9:50 am by Hudson Valley Carpenter
HVC, what was I thinking, Pink Flamingos can make anything beautiful. ;)
HVC, what was I thinking, Pink Flamingos can make anything beautiful. ;)
If one of my neighbors ever puts out a flamingo I'll counter with one of those round bottomed grannies bending over. But mine will be a showin' them the full moon.