A Field Guide to American Houses

What Hacker News says

1. martythemaniakJun 2023
   Great blog, I did learn quite a bit from it and also the book she recommends - A Field Guide to American Houses by Virginia McAlester.

   We usually refer to any newish suburban house as a McMansion, but that's wrong. Cookie-cutter maybe, but not McMansion. The defining feature of McMansions is "more is more" mindset, a very large house with a thoughtless mishmash of styles, features, textures, colours, and shapes. Most suburban houses are not large enough nor eclectic enough to be called a proper McMansion. My random suburban house for example, has a needlessly large number of rooflines, but is generally coherent and shapely.

   Show morethread
2. mattpallissardJun 2023
   The author frequently references "the field guide to American houses". I highly recommend it. It's a great coffee table book.
   thread
3. sarcherJul 2020
   As someone who works in residential construction, this is one of the better looks at what a 'good' process looks like from the homeowner side of the equation. The only places where my advice would differ:

   - They finished the floors instead of having a subcontractor do it. Everyone's comfort for various home improvements tasks differs, but this is one that I typically see farmed out. The people who do it everyday are very fast and competent - as a first timer it's hard to avoid making mistakes. I also advise people to avoid floor stains. One advantage to a real wood floor is it's easy to repair and refinish in the future, but this gets a lot harder when you start needing to stain match. Floor stain also kind of violates the tenants of 'honest materials' that the author discusses.

   - To build on their point about veneer plaster walls, cost really comes down to subcontractor comfort with that detail. It's only 'slightly more expensive' if you have a contractor that does it all the time. If you live in an area with a lot of plaster homes, you'll have more luck finding someone who can do this work affordably. For example, I once had an architect specify a particular plaster finish ('venetian plaster') where we could not find someone comfortable doing the work within a two hour drive.

   - They discuss the slow drying of the floor finish they used as a negative (true). A good place to use slow-drying finishing techniques is the exterior, as you can leave it alone for a lot longer as compared to a floor you want to walk on immediately. For example, pine tar exterior finishing materials take weeks to dry, but you don't NEED to touch the siding during that period.

   - In the second part they show a north and south elevation of the finished home. The north elevation really doesn't reflect the historic character they succeeded so hard to emulate and/or build from in other aspects of their home. Comparing these two elevations is very instructive.

   I hope their next published section addresses energy efficiency and adjacent topics (like window selection). It's a huge part of building a modern home that doesn't always get the attention it should. I did appreciate the time spent discussing air flow in part 2.

   Building on their reading list, if you like older/vernacular homes start with:

   "House" by Tracy Kidder

   "A Field Guide to American Houses" by Virginia Savage McAlester

   "American Shelter" by Lester Walker

   "The American House" by Mary Mix Foley

   And maybe move on to:

   "A Concise History of American Architecture" by Leland Roth

   "American Vernacular: Buildings and Interiors, 1870-1960" by Herbert Gottfried

   "Norwegian Wood: The Thoughtful Architecture of Wenche Selmer" by Elisabeth Tostrup

   "Big House, Little House, Back House, Barn" by Thomas Hubka

   And then maybe:

   "The Well-Built House" by Jim Locke

   "The colonial House Then and Now" by Francis Underwood

   "Little House on a Small Planet" by Shay Salomon

   Show morethread
4. sarcherJul 2018
   I work in residential construction. Beginner friendly, 'find out if you find this interesting' kind of books:

   "This Old House: Restoring, Rehabilitating, and Renovating an Older House" by Bob Vila.

   An older book, only the carpentry is relevant today, but a nice picture-driven exploration of sensitive home renovation.

   "A Place of My Own: the Architecture of Daydreams" by Michael Pollan

   I didn't get a lot out of this because it was a pretty simple project that was being described, but it's a good look at the challenges of design, and a good primer if you're looking to do your own small project. Plus, Michael Pollan is an enjoyable writer.

   "House" by Tracy Kidder

   Follows the construction of a home in MA with a lot of builder perspective. Explores the common issues associated with running a small carpentry company frame to finish. There is also "The Apple Corps Guide to the Well-Built House" by Jim Locke which is written by a member of the firm profiled in "House" - haven't read it yet.

   "Last Harvest: How a Cornfield Became New Daleville" by Witold Rybczynski

   Follows the evolution of a farm field into a subdivision.

   .

   A little more challenging:

   "The City in History" by Lewis Mumford

   Best described as a "Tome" - a staple in intro level planning classes.

   "building Construction Illustrated" by Francis Ching

   A good illustrated primer on basic residential construction assemblies, will help with visualization of written descriptions and vocabulary.

   "Big House, Little House, Back House, Barn" by Thomas Hubka

   The evolution of farm yard structures, of interest if you've ever wondered about the repeating patterns you see on New England farms.

   "A Field Guide to American Houses" by Virginia Savage McAlester

   This book will tell you what every type of house is. If I remember right, I believe it also has a section on vernacular houses. A similar book that I own but have not read is "A Field Guide to American Architecture" by Carole Rifkind. I also like, and have read, "American Vernacular: Buildings and Interiors, 1870-1960" by Herbert Gottfried

   "How Buildings Learn: What Happens After They're Built" by Stewart Brand

   A great look at what happens after construction is completed, I love this book for it's treatment of a seldom-discussed reality of the construction trades.

   "Builders Guide: Cold Climates" Joseph W Lstiburek

   Lstiburek is opinionated, and usually right. Find more books of this style at: https://buildingscience.com/

   "The Checklist Manifesto" by Atul Gawande

   Changed how I approach documenting and completing tasks - in a business like construction where it's hard to go in reverse, it's been a major component of my success since I first read it in 2011. Simple in concept, hard in practice.

   Show morethread
5. saalweachterApr 2018
   I recently got a copy of "A Field Guide to American Houses", from which I learned the term "vernacular architecture" and that all the house names you hear on TV (Victorian, Cape Cod, Ranch ...) are just one slice of architecture, "polite architecture", and historically not a very big one. The way most of us think of architecture today, an architect designs the building to some (not necessarily well thought out ;-p) philosophy and then you go and build it out of the appropriate materials.

   In vernacular architecture, someone woke up one day and decided to build a house. They built it house-shaped, from whatever materials were cheapest and most available in their region at the time, using whatever techniques were common in said time and place. The patterns of vernacular houses in different times and places are fascinating; you're shining a flashlight through the region of a peoples' brains where the archetype "house" is stored and seeing what it looks like.

   Show morethread
6. DeclanomousJan 2017
   I have the Field Guide to American Houses. I'll take a look through it tonight and let you know, but given the era it's probably Georgian. It's not Federal, or Dutch/French/Spanish colonial. It might be what is considered a "folk" house, but those are generally what might be considered a shack.
   thread