A Micro House designed for the Lowcountry
So we have discussed in outline the concept of a Micro House – small simple living, with a nod to the “less is more ” movement and making the most of the wonderful Charleston climate. But just how do we develop a design that represents our unique heritage yet blends modernity and heritage at once?
Charleston Micro House – a new urbanism?
Spend an hour searching the term “Micro house ” on Google and you will find material for a week. So we will not cover history or development here but rather why small living spaces, roughly 500/800 square ft. have a place in today’s urban environment and how we are playing our part in this trend […]
Gadsden House historic renovation – A disturbing discovery?
Our Gadsden House historic renovation project has a habit of tempting us with a slow but steady stream of little secrets. It keeps drawing us back to its beginnings and asking “Why? ” I’d think it was haunted if I knew no better. The latest revelation has us all guessing – and wondering of the […]
A Craftsman’s Journey: Saving the Windows of Gadsden House
The windows at Gadsden House are a mess being over 200 years old and pretty neglected for most of that period. The climate in Charleston is not gentle to wood. Repair techniques and the concept of restoring them at all have moved on since they were last given attention some 50 years ago perhaps, so […]
Gadsden House Historic Renovation – Where to add a Fire Escape?
In a previous blog we joked that “a door is not a door when it’s a history lesson. ” In that same vein, we have uncovered another example from our latest historic renovation, the Gadsden House. This is a door on the second floor out to the piazza that was once a window, as were all […]
Gadsden House – NEW” Ceiling Medallions for a Historic Renovation”
When this grand home was built, Christopher Gadsden would have engaged the services of a master plasterer to add luxury to otherwise plain lime plaster ceilings and walls of the Gadsden House. For a Federal Period home, this means crown molding, swags, medals and especially ceiling medallions. Time has been brutal on this old […]
Gadsden House Historic Renovation: The Piazza Mystery
An enduring feature of Charleston houses is the Piazza. A beautiful extension to the home giving elevated living space and all important shade from the summer sun. Less used in these days of air conditioning, they were once the gathering place for family and friends to the point that they almost always had their own […]
Gadsden House Renovation – Keeping To The Timeline
We have a hard and fast end date to the restoration of the Gadsden House and the reason is that we have a wedding booked in early June. We have, as it seems, made a commitment to this bride and as such, in our eyes it is fixed and immutable.And so as it goes, that we […]
Gadsden House Historic Renovation: Crown Molding
In any historic renovation project, once you have removed the years of add-ons and poorly executed updates, you find that the ravages of time have left very little of the historic interior. We find that to be the case in our current historic restoration project, the Gadsden House. Certainly the plasterwork has suffered greatly to […]
Common Pitfalls of Historic Renovation
Here is a truism in most all historic renovation work. It is not difficult to make something look good on the day that work is completed. However, the real test of workmanship is that it looks good the year after and the next 50 after that. If a building has survived 200 years without a fundamental […]
