Change Requests
An 1873 Gothic Revival Home in Albany, Oregon
Home What's New? Initial Tour - 2003 Repairs -2005 Repairs -2004 Repairs - 2003 Bath Addition Garage Repair Foundation Repair Change Requests


Charles Royal House, circa 1873
140 SE 5th Avenue, Albany, Oregon

Exterior Change Requests

This page describes various requests we made in November 2003 to modify the exterior appearance of the Althouse Home. We received approval to make these requests, and as of late 2005, we have completed nearly all the work described below.

Exterior Change Request as of November 21, 2003

Five windows on the back side of the house are cheap, single-pane, aluminum windows that look like they were installed sometime between 1960 and 1970. We want to replace them with double-hung wood windows that we salvaged from a home being demolished near Blodgett. Note: we ultimately had custom wood windows built by Ron Johnson in Dallas, Oregon, for the house. We ended up using the windows from Blodgett in the garage repair.

These pictures are part of our building permit application to change the exterior appearance of the home. We believe the replacement windows will more closely match the original appearance of the home. Also, because these windows are at the back and side of the home, they do not change the home's appearance from the street.

A front view of the house from 5th Avenue -- the aluminum windows to be replaced are not visible.
A view of the house from Baker Street -- once again the aluminum windows to be replaced are not visible.
The exterior view of the kitchen from the back yard. You can see how smoke poured out of the window during the July fire. This portion of the kitchen looks like it was added on the house in the 1960s.
A side view showing aluminum windows we want to replace or remove.
A side view showing how the aluminum windows do not fit with the appearance of the original double-hung wood windows.
Left: A 5 by 3-foot aluminum window in the utility room. Right: We want to replace this window with a 68" by 57" double-hung wood window.

After removing paneling from the utility room, it became obvious the aluminum window was a crude addition. Whoever removed the original window and put in this one didn't bother to adjust the framing properly.

Left: An interior view of the 5 by 4-foot aluminum kitchen window. Note the fairly recent framing and fiberglass insulation. Right: We want to replace this aluminum window with two adjacent 40" by 57" double-hung wood windows.
Left: The kitchen also has this 3 by 4-foot aluminum window of similar vintage. Right: We want to replace it with a 40" by 57" double-hung wood window.
Left: A 2 by 3-foot aluminum window in the bathroom. Right: We want to replace it with this 40" by 40" double-hung wood window.
We want to remove this 3 by 2-1/2 foot aluminum window in the hallway between the bathroom and the utility room. We will cover the opening with siding to match the exterior of the house. (Sufficient original exterior siding is stored in the top of the garage.)

Exterior Change Requests as of November 24, 2003


 


Request #1:

Per Ann Giffen's request in the Planning department, I spent some time carefully examining the evidence in the utility room. I now feel more confident that it was the original kitchen/pantry. One fun item is the screened vent high in the wall. It took a while to decide why people would have wanted open air to flow into the room, but I now believe it was to keep food in a cooler.

 
After looking closely at the original studs and lath-and-plaster marks, the evidence is fairly clear that this room originally had a 28 by 70-inch double-hung wood window. The house has at least three sets of windows this size. One of them is 4-over-4, but most are 1-over-1. All the sashes look original to my eye, but I am not an expert.
 
We have three options with respect to the utility/kitchen room window.
  1. Cheapest and simplest is to replace the glass in the existing aluminum window. That preserves the record of changes made to this point. It also allows the room to function well as a utility room because the window is short enough to permit a washer/dryer combination to fit comfortably.
  2. Install a 40" by 57" double-hung wood window -- one of the windows I salvaged from a 1930s vintage home that was torn down in Blodgett. This window was stenciled with "Heckerts Glass and CA / Corvallis, ORE". It will match the windows I am putting in the rear addition to replace the aluminum windows in that part of the house. You can see a picture of what these windows look like on the left.
  3. Have a new custom wood window made to match the most likely original window size: 28 by 70-inches.

In order to more clearly show the implications of choices 2 and 3 above, I have taken exterior photographs of the side of the house and drawn rectangles showing the approximate outlines of each choice. As is often the case in life, how the various choices will look depends on your perspective. If you look only at the front of the house (as in the upper thumbnail), then a tall, narrow window will best match the existing style . If you look at the proposed windows for the addition at the back of the house (as in the middle thumbnail), then a wider and shorter window will match the windows to be installed there.

We are not certain about how to proceed, so we will want to listen and learn more about the implications of these choices. Given what we know today, our order of preference is: Choice #2, then choice #1, with choice #3 as the least preferable.

Request #2:

In addition to the requests above, we are asking to replace the wood slats and plywood in this garage window with glass. I don't believe this window ever contained glass. That portion of the garage -- on the northeast corner -- was bricked in and likely was used for food storage before refrigeration. Thus, this window has louvered wood slats, and it might well have had a screen, but I find no evidence of glass. So if I insert glass, I will have to cut an inset to hold the glass, and I will change the function of this opening.

This shows the garage window from inside the garage ... it has been covered with plywood to prevent burglaries.
Another view of the garage to provide better overall perspective. Obviously, the garage is very run-down and will need much more attention than just repairing a window.

Request #3:

The front porch roof was rotten, so we have begun repairing it. This began with carefully removing existing layers of roofing and sheathing, and recovering the surface with 3/4-inch exterior plywood.

Here is how the porch looks with a fresh layer of plywood on top. Notice the lack of a railing to prevent people from falling off the porch after they exit from the gothic-style door.
In the top of the garage, Todd Tonkin, the prior owner, showed us where he stored the top rail that originally was on the balcony. Using that evidence and marks on the siding, I believe the original balcony railing repeated the upper part of the railing that now exists on the first floor porch. This photograph show what it looks like. The upper part has only vertical uprights, not the diagonal pieces. Note that the spacing between uprights is 7-inches -- more than current building codes would allow. Also, the upper portion is shorter than current building codes would allow. Thus, we are requesting permission to rebuild the second story balcony to match the original design of the house.

Request #4:

We found this piece of molding at the edge of the second-story porch (this photograph is at the front of the house on the extreme right-hand side of the porch. I believe it is the only remaining example of the decorative trim which originally encased the overhangs on the front of the house. We are requesting permission to restore these trim pieces across the front of the porch and above the front windows.

This shows the current condition of the overhang above the front windows. Because of the missing trim pieces, birds can make their way into the wall cavities and make nests. While working on the interior lath-and-plaster to upgrade the wiring and insulation, we removed many bird nests from this wall.

 

The Allen-House.Com and RoyalHouse1873.Com websites are maintained by Dave and Barbara Sullivan who live in the N. H. Allen House at 208 6th Avenue SE, Albany, Oregon. Our home phone is 541-924-5983.