What a week! It started with one of my dogs spraining his back and suddenly becoming 70 pounds of immobile (and very sad/confused) pit bull. His condition was so bad that my partner-in-crime had to postpone his flight for 2 days because the poor dog needed to be carried up and down steps so that he could do his bathroom business. That ended up being rather futile because the steroids that the vet eventually gave him after the anti-inflammatory pills weren't really working caused explosive... mess and stomach issues for the poor dog to the point where we had to lock him up in the kitchen to contain the chaos. P-I-C left for Italy on Wednesday and I promptly came down with a nasty cold that rendered me useless to just about everyone and everything in the house. There went my whole grand plan of house projects!
I couldn't sleep last night so I dug up the architectural plans for the house that we have. There's quite a few of them, and plenty of copies for some reason. I know we have the blueprints as well but I didn't find them. These plans are on huge sheets of paper and have been rolled but then squished under another box. Scanning them just exaggerated all the creases, so I fussed in photoshop a bit to make it look like they're supposed to be kind of ratty. Is anyone crafty enough to know a trick to smoothing out paper? I was thinking of putting a towel over one, and ironing over the towel to see if the paper smoothed out. Some of these are neat in their own way and I would love to frame them.
The original plans for the house (not shown) are dated 1959 and are really far-off from the finished product, which is funny. Also the original owner of the house is listed as the designer of it. He was an engineer by trade, and really knew what he wanted in house. A local architecture company drew up the blueprints and plans.
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| This is the aerial spec of the property, from 1971 when the carport and upper (off-kitchen) deck were constructed. |
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| oh hello. can I have that door please? if it was the original, i don't know. it's not what is on there now. it could just be an artist rendering of what would go there. the windows drawn are not accurate to what we have either. |
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| a bunch of corrections, the roof does not point back down. thank goodness. i think what we have is considered a shed roof even though there are two of them angled like that and they're askew from each other. to date, the windows are horizontal and there is a door next to the garage door, it's the main way we come into the house as it's now protected by a carport. |
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| a neat cross section showing the foundation, stairs, and other things that would be important to a builder or contractor. |
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| yep that's pretty much what our pool house looks like .. its precious and square. the pool was added in 1965 and the poolhouse still retains a pretty sweet set of cabinets and its original clock that plugs into an outlet. |
There is another sheet that shows what outdoor materials were either used or planned on using. It clearly depicts Asbestos Siding, which I'm going to assume we don't have. My Grandfather worked at Johns-Manville for 30 years (in the actual plant that made asbestos) and had his whole house tiled in J-M asbestos tile, as well as J-M siding, roofing and insulation. He lived to be 86 without a hint of asbestosis. I don't fear asbestos but I have a feeling that our cheery yellow siding is 70's - era.
I hope anyone reading this enjoyed the scans. I just made a pot of tea and will be crawling back to bed now.
5 comments:
You can iron most paper using a towel as a pressing cloth. But do not iron the blue prints! Blueline paper is photosensitive and the blueprint itself is created with heat. If you iron it the whole page will turn blue. In fact exposure to light will fade them completely over time. It's good that you've scanned them, but you might want to invest in full size color copies or laser prints.
These are so cool! You are so lucky to have them it's neat to get a glimpse into the process of how your house was built.
Thank you so much for the tips! The blueprints will not be put up in frames, should I maybe store them in a black artists' type portfolio for longevity?
How wonderful to have all the original plans to your house. It's amazing that they've remained intact all this time. Was it a family home, or have there been several owners?
Thx Dana! We purchased it from the original owner's son, who grew up in the house and was just handling the sale for his parents. He is also the one, I surmise, who carved "LED ZEP" into the tree in the backyard. :)
Yes, a portfolio is a great idea. I love the LED ZEP story, that's hilarious.
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