Getting a new roof with new fascia and soffit next week and debating removing all the iron oak leaf and acorn decorative railing.
First, would any of these be structural? My gut tells me no except possibly the one on the porch?
Second, would you keep them or get rid of them? I’m definitely removing shutters. Fascia and soffit will be a charcoal color, will have the window trim/bay window painted to match later.
by _khanrad
1 Comment
Look closely at that front porch overhang and the balcony on the right side. Those vertical iron posts are absolutely carrying the load of the roof structure above them. If you pull them out without putting up temporary bracing and installing proper square timber columns, that roof is going to sag or come right down. The horizontal leafy trim running along the soffit is just decorative fluff you can pry off, but those vertical columns are working for a living. Since you are going with charcoal fascia and ditching the shutters, get rid of the fussy iron altogether. Swap them out for some clean beefy wood posts painted to match the new trim to instantly update the entire facade.
While you have the crew out there fixing the bones of the house, you need to fix the bones of your front yard. Right now your landscape has zero structure. You have a heavy brick house sitting behind a straight concrete walkway with a few random lonely shrubs polka dotted around the foundation. First pull out that invasive English ivy creeping up your brick before it destroys your mortar joints. Then widen your planting beds outward and fill them with sweeping connected masses of native shrubs. You need a solid flowing base of greenery to ground that big brick wall and guide the eye right to the front door. Stop planting isolated bushes and start building continuous layers that actually soften the hard angles of the architecture.