The History of Our Foursquare Part 2

The History of Our Foursquare Part 2:

In my last post I mentioned that our house was moved down Broadway in De Pere to its current location.  Here is the newspaper article.  Thank you to the people at White Pillars here in De Pere for helping me find this. "Ray Hein moved a house from 319 S. Broadway to 615 N. Broadway."  I believe it was S. Broadway by mistake.  I found other documents showing lots and house diagrams that puts our house originally at 319 N. Broadway near where the current Library is located.  If my home had to be moved for a library and future businesses, I'm okay with that. We really enjoy downtown De Pere.

I like the original grey paint color and grey roof shingles. Foursquare homes back then were simple and understated.   I also plan to bring shutters back to the front of our house.    Here it was (below), I believe in the 80's, white with black shutters.  Simple!  This homeowner had great taste.  The metal porch has since been replaced with wood…I know, I know…we need to paint the wood porch railing.

When the time comes I may just go back to either white or classic grey for the siding.  The only problem with white on a busy street is it needs to be power washed to keep it clean.  Tan is a great way to hide dirt.  For now we live with the peeling 8 coats of paint until we make a decision on the exterior.  We should, according to the historic district suggestions, keep the wood exterior and continue to properly scrape, prepare and paint the house.  This process lasts 8-10 years when done correctly and can cost up to $15,000 or more.  

Replacing it with vinyl or a different type of siding would be a more maintenance free option, but is looked down upon when it changes the historic appearance of the home.  We need to find out more about this.  I do see several other homes in the historic district that have vinyl siding, so maybe I need to knock on some doors and find out what their thoughts were when making that decision on their historic homes. Over the years our home's exterior has been painted many colors including grey, white, light salmon, and its current color tan.  I can still see that horrible salmon color under the tan.  From what the painters tell me it wasn't properly prepared, scraped or primed and more coats of paint should have been applied.

When we moved in the storm doors on the house and garage were still dark salmon and yellow. Some of you may remember (before we purchased it) when the entire home was light salmon, dark salmon, and yellow.  Yuck.  Again, I don't try to understand why people do the things they do to old homes.  I think they were trying to match the brick.  The owners before us painted the home tan.  Amen for a neutral color!

Shortly after moving in, I purchased a can of black paint and quickly covered the salmon color on the doors and metal railing. It screamed "Paint me!" every time I went in and out of our house.  Much better.

Now I just have to paint the yellow doors and porch railing this summer.  Not sure what color to use yet.  I was waiting to see if we were going to keep tan or go back to the original grey color for the siding.  Any suggestions for my doors?  Antique Ivory like the trim? or a statement color…I'm a bit hesitant to do a statement color after that yucky salmon.  

Stay tuned for Part 3 where I talk about our original windows.