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Federal Home Layout

Bob visits a Federal-style house undergoing reconstruction, as well as adding an addition, in Charleston, S.C., with contractor Richard Marks.
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Federal Home Layout

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" -Now, Richard this is the back side of the Federal House and I believe what was here was not Federal period but close, right?"

" -Right. It was a very early edition."

" -And that was destroyed in hurricane Hugo."

" -That's right. So we've reconstructed the back edition adding a new porch which we thought would be a very nice element and all of the siding in the windows will match the original house."

" -But, on this side, you really get a sense of the size of this size, because the whole level that's added grade here which is the old dependence here, the old, what would you call it, the service areas."

" -Right. Yeah. The support areas of the main house."

" -And what's happening here?"

" -Here were rebuilding a pier for this porch and we are using old Charleston bricks and were doing a hand tooling for the pointing of the joints."

" -That's very nice. Let's take a closer look upstairs."

" -Now, would there be a flat roof on this porch?"

" -Ah no, will have a hip roof and they'll be four Doric columns on the back. Four Doric columns and a hip roof and."

" -And assumed that a railing around it."

" -Right."

" -Sounds like a very classical design."

" -It will be. Yeah, very classical."

" -What are the dimensions?"

" -That's about 34 feet by 8 feet wide."

" -That's a lovely place to spend the summer afternoons, huh?"

" -And a nice view."

" -Yeah, let's take a look inside?"

" -This is the addition, Bob, it's a 15 feet deep and 50 feet wide."

" -750 square feet plus another 750 on the second level."

" -On both levels."

" -What's going on in here?"

" -Well, this will be the library and we're building a window jamb to replicate the original windows."

" -So, you're building them on site?"

" -Right."

" -That's ambitious."

" -Well, it's really the best way for us to do it. We'll have the sashes made by a local millwork firm but we'll make the jambs here on site and install them so we can get started on the siding. "

" -And all you really had to do is put a little bead on the corners of this."

" -Right. We run a bead on our shaper and that we've taper this 4 x 8 treated sill."

" -Right and so this is gonna be the designated kitchen or?"

" -Library."

" -The library."

" -This would be the kitchen."

" -Oh nice."

" -And this was the whole fire place. It was on the back addition."

" -That's interesting because all this houses had kitchens that were separate buildings on another part of the lot."

" -That's correct."

" -In Charleston, it was too hot to have the kitchen in the main house, so they would have kitchens in the separate building."

" -Uh uh."

" -Which also allow for fire protection so, here we've got to modernized the house by putting a kitchen inside our edition."

" -Of course."

" -But Richard, if the house was one room deep originally how come we got a fireplaces here on the back side?"

" -This was part of the previous edition."

" -Well, that's right now. From the previous edition that we are talking about dates to almost 1830 or 40's."

" -Right."

" -So that's explains why the ancient fire box is here. Are they gonna be reused or?"

" -We would definitely reuse the firebox. We'll replicate a period mantel for this. We'll have to raise up the height of this arch, that's Jack arch."

" -Uh uh."

" -And um, it will fit nicely in the new kitchen."

" -Okay."

" -But then, up at about the 10-foot level, there is another fire place opening. What happens with that?"

" -Uh. We'll have to cover that over because it doesn't fit with the floor levels that we've established."

" -I just love the archeology involved in all of this. Look over here, above the doorway, what is that? How do you explain that?"

" -Well, that's, that's very original because we've got a shutter that was part of the first period house. You can see it's a raised panel shutter. "

" -It was a beautiful shutter. "

" -Very very beautiful."

" -And look at the hinge."

" -In the raw hinges, and so that gives us the design to go by to make the shutter. "

" -So, what happened was when they added on here, they simply cut the shutters out of their way in order to put in the door."

" -That's correct."

" -And the left over is hidden in the wall."

" -That's correct."

" -That's very rare to find that, we're fortunate."

" -You get a lot of clues as to the restoration."

" -That's correct."

" -Shall we take a look upstairs?"

" -Let's go."

" -Okay. So, this is the new space and how is it split up? What's this room?"

" -This will be the dressing room for the master bedroom."

" -Very nice. Great proportion. Closets down at that end?"

" -Closets on that end and then the windows on that side."

" -And then a bathroom here."

" -The master bathroom."

" -About 10 x 10."

" -Uh uh."

" -And this room?"

" -Ah, this will be a study. It's part of the master's suite and also goes back to that upstairs room."

" -Yeah. I see that the doorway over there, so that all of the second floor interconnects."

" -Right."

" -And what's this? Another little closet?"

" -No. We've saved this space for the mechanical systems."

" -Well, that's smart."

" -Restorations, we've got to find a place to put the mechanical, so that the addition really gives us that space. We can hide it and it doesn't have to affect the old part of the house."

" -That's clever because it's always a real challenge figuring out how to fit duct work in an old antique frame that's, you know, heavily timbered. So, here you're not trying to do that at all. You're placing it all on this side."

" -Uh uh."

" -And so, you will have a platform up there for the"

" -Right. We'll suspend the heating and air conditioning unit up here."

" -And run the main trunk lines or back side of the original house."

" -Yes."

" -And try and hide the duct work going into the old [unk]."

" -Now here on the second floor, you can feed the second floor and the attic, but what about the first floor?"

" -First floor will be feed from the basement level."

" -So, you'll have a separate unit down there."

" -That's right. Two systems."

" -Very good. Well look at these old boards."

" -Yeah, that was covering up the old, original window on the back side of the house."

" -Yeah. And then from that trunk, you've got ducting up there."

" -That's great."

" -Yeah, and this really does give us a good space in between the joints to hide the duct work."

" -Uh uh."

" -And the whole 10-inch joints here."

" -Ah, these are about 3 x 9."

" -3 x 9. Okay. And so you have a direct run out towards the"

" -Well, the windows are really your greater source of heat loss or heat gain. So that we've got a condition in front of the windows from the ceiling and that allows the cool air to come down."

" -So, you're dropping the cool air from the ceiling?"

" -That's right, because in the south it's more important to have air conditioning coming from the ceiling."

" -Sure. That makes a lot of sense."

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