I thought I’d compile a list of entertaining one-liners that I’ve heard relating to preservation. It’s raining here in Vermont and I think everyone could use a smile. Okay, maybe some are more than one-liners.
* Vinyl is final.
* Vinyl? It’s plastic. You covered your house in plastic.
* There is no such thing as maintenance-free; it means you can’t maintain it.
* A friend described the process of getting a bath fitter in his bathroom and ended it with “wham bam thank you ma’am.” Another friend and I looked at each other and decided this: Any action to a building that can be described as “wham bam thank you ma’am” is most likely a bad idea.
The aforementioned bath fitter is one of my biggest pet peeves about home remodeling, whether it is a historic, old, or new house, but especially for historic homes. What are your pet peeves? At the top of my list are:
1. vinyl replacement windows
2. vinyl siding
3. drop ceilings
4. baseboard heaters
5. bath fitters
What would you add to either list?
Preservation in Pink 
70’s “wood ” paneling, The loss of small bedrooms to “master suites”, painting historically varnished or natural wood (in bungalows and Arts and Crafts houses especially) white to “lighten up” the space or “make the room seem bigger”
porch columns replaced with wrought iron scrolls, anything with buck-a-roo revival facade (luckily not seen too much here in New England, but the west is lousy with it), and vertical installed plywood siding sheets that mimic board & batten siding. Whew, I feel better venting about it!
What’s a buck-a-roo revival facade?
I don;t like it when they decrease window sizes the house then just looks liked it got punched in the eye and its swollen shut. Kind of goes along with vinyl since the replacements are normally that.