Comments on: Dear PoP – A Really Good Pop Up

By: DCDude

DCDude — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 21:43:34 +0000

Great to hear the cornice was saved and will be replaced. And to add to the comment on the use of the word \veener\ that refers to a layer of a material placed on top of a support layer in other words an ornamental coating to a building and not a structurally part of the building as the original part of the house is.

By: Peter

Peter — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 00:40:35 +0000

The right side actually goes over the correct amount it is the angle of the picture that and the other houses trim that makes the brick look off. Because the trim of each house interlocks with adjacent homes there is no easy way to correct this. We are working on solutions but they will take at least a year to implement. I will add pictures to my flicker account this weekend to show how the bricks line up. The wall was brought up at full width, the bricks are not a brick veneer but a single layer of bricks tied to a wood structure behind it. The parapet walls (side walls) are block. The original front brick wall is a hand split brick veneer in front of the structural brick front of the house.

The far right red brick that does not continue up never existed because it was covered by the trim that new brick was repair work we had to do to our neighbors house because we removed the trim that mated to their trim.

As for the brick not turning the right corner, yes I regret not doing that and it kills Johnny my contractor that he was not more adamant about me doing that but I simply did not know. The cost would have been minimal.

I regret the new brick on the stairs and the wall but that was done in 94 well before us, we will consider painting but only after the house has been done for a year and we have time to think about it.

Pictures are on Flicker at – http://www.flickr.com/photos/transilience/

A reminder to all the cornice was preserved and will be installed in 2011, it required a lot of repair work. The exterior will not be finished until 2011.

Peter

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 22:44:36 +0000

yeah, look at this picture.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/transilience/3275594632/
you can see the left edge of the popup is extended maybe a foot or so to the left of the bay.
it visually looks like its sitting above the orange-trim house, but it isn’t.
how could one tastefully deal with that?
maybe by making the house look a little narrower by paint the right edge the cream house color?
or do you add some trim to the popups right wall to make it look a little thicker?

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 22:24:26 +0000

i think that the brick doesnt visually line up because the visual front of the house, and the actual parapet walls dont line up on these houses.

basically, a little bit of what looks like one house is actually the next house over.

By: DCDude

DCDude — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 22:14:12 +0000

I’m dissappointed that the architect didn’t look to either house beside it for inspiration, unless the exterior is still a work in progress, then I apologize for the comment. What is missing is the cornice. It looks like a rocket ship otherwise. Put a cornice around the top to make it flow. Another missed opportunity, but there are so many in DC that this fits that new “Vernacular Design” aesthetic that is plagued the city.

By: A happy client of Helen's

A happy client of Helen's — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 21:59:54 +0000

Helen’s great and nice and fair. She’s become a friend. Glad people are using her.

Respect for the effort you are putting in to stay historically complementary. It will pay off when you are done…in home value and in the beauty of the end (but does it ever?) product. Wish more people did it in these great old rowhomes.

By: JohnnyReb

JohnnyReb — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 20:52:09 +0000

Andy (2) – The owners of this house would not have had to “brick on top of someone’s roof.” The only part of the neighbor’s (white) rowhouse that juts over to this house is the decorative wooden cornice – but that stops at the brick facade of Peter and Kyle’s house. It looks odd that the far right vertical edge of this red brick house doesn’t continue all the way up to the new third floor.

I think I just realized that a couple of people on here are referring to the peaked roof on top of the bay (also known as a “witch’s hat”) as a cupola. That is not a cupola.

All in all, it looks pretty good!

By: Kyle

Kyle — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 20:42:07 +0000

@Andy (2) I think our specific instant on hot water heater was designed to be put outside and we did it to preserve as much space in the house as we could.

By: Andy (2)

Andy (2) — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 19:19:31 +0000

Peter – way to go it looks great.
I suppose people would have wanted you to continue the round corner brick up to the top and then transition to right angle brickwork before the cornice.
As far as the right not being even – up there is a roof there – do you expect him to brick ontop of someone’s roof?

My only question is with regards to the on-demand water heater that is placed outside. Having had one in eastern Europe – can you mount them outside? What was the, if I can be nosey, reason for doing that?

I love the white roof – so smart!
Good luck.
A

By: Crin

Crin — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 16:25:41 +0000

Paint the whole thing. Use lime-based paint so you don’t have any moisture problems with the historic masonry. Frager’s on CH carries lime-based paint.

The thing that’s off about the addition is that the width of the projection matches the width of the brick corbelling instead of the wall below. If a 19th century builder was doing the pop-up, they would have designed the width of the addition just a tad narrower so it’s walls would have been in line with the walls of the original part below. That would have kept the weight of the wall in line with the wall below instead of putting weight on the corbelled brick cornice that probably couldn’t support the weight. But you used brick-veneer which is alot lighter, so it’s OK structurally, just doesn’t get this traditional detail right.