I love old houses, and thoughtfully designed and built new houses. So you can imagine my disappointment at witnessing the destruction of a fine old local yellow brick farmhouse so that a rather uninspired and oddly formed new house could take its place.

The builder of the new house has the audacity to call it a "farmhouse" on his website - well it certainly is on a farm, but it's no farmhouse in the traditional, memory inspiring "Christmas on the farm" way. Not by a country mile.

The loss of thoughtful buildings is not restricted to the urban landscape, if anything it's more widespread in the countryside around our cities. Bank barns and proper farm houses are lost to the enlargement and "big business-fying" of agriculture, as more and more farmland comes under the tillage of bigger and bigger operations. In this case it appears the desire for a new house blinded the owners to the beauty and enduring style of what they had. Perhaps they never appreciated it to begin with?

​Sadly, these houses that have stood the test of time, are replaced with buildings that I dare say won't weather the years as well, and certainly don't catch the eye in the same way, nor invite us to enjoy a summer evening on the front porch. A serviceable brick exterior and slate roof is replaced with fake stone and asphalt shingles. Proper form and proportion disappear and fake dormers and illogical exterior details abound on the new. There are better ways to replace an old house if necessary.

Put aside the aesthetic and loss of history and think about the true cost of replacing a grand old house with a mediocre one. Perhaps it was cheaper to build new than fix the old (doubtful) but at what cost environmentally?

​It is obviously being unceremoniously used as landfill at the back of the farm, little being recycled. The embodied energy that went into building this old house was low in comparison to the new house, and a lovely and character filled older home is gone and replaced with something  ho-hum at best. A drive in the country to admire the landscape is now not as rewarding when I take this route, and I suspect other old house lovers feel the same way.

A rather important element in the construction of a new house is the very first step - design. In the not too distant past home design followed set rules of form and proportion, and the result was homes that made sense to the eye and were pleasing in form. The plans may have come from an architect, an experienced builder or even a catalogue or pattern book. Certainly there were designers who thought outside the box so to speak, but they did so in logical and thoughtful ways. More recently we have the "I can design my own house" mentality - and we certainly are not richer for it!

The result is homes like this - designed by builders where the bottom line is key and a draftsperson is paid minimally to design something "unique". With five different exterior wall finishes, a column holding up nothing but a stuccoed beam, and a walk out roof deck above the double car garage. How bizarre. 

Another in the same development, oddly jutting forms, a collection of mismatched window styles and sizes, and this use of cheaper vinyl siding on side walls has to stop - we can see it from the front and it just screams "I was built on a budget". 

And right around the corner, as if to emphasize that this development can indeed have "oh so many" poorly designed houses, sits this garage with an entry way tacked on the side. I could not determine why the roofline above the garage is so high, no windows indicating living space above it - and that is another design rule - if it doesn't make visual sense to the casual observer, it cannot appeal. This one certainly does not!

We are drawn to houses such as these for very basic reasons - they make sense - the porch is for sitting on, the front door is prominent and logically used to enter and be greeted, the large window is a sitting room, the upper gable windows are bedrooms, etc. The detailing is pleasing and shows that these homes were built by craftsmen who were proud of their work and took care with the construction. We have so many examples of how to do it right, that our insistence on doing it poorly by reinventing the home and "improving" it is a real head shaker.

Rory McDonnell is a General Contractor, Licensed Carpenter and Architectural Designer with Build, a construction firm in Stratford, Ontario, specializing in new custom home builds and renovations.

I think we can all agree that the before photo shows a great old building in Philipsburg, Ontario with well thought out and executed detailing. The trim board above the windows connects them visually and the red faux brick siding lends old time character to the simple barn shape.

​The second photo shows a "ruining" in progress. The bland grey board and batten as an improvement is truly puzzling. I have admired this building for many years and so it is sad to see such an interesting example of the carpenter's craft being spoiled.

Rory McDonnell is a General Contractor, Licensed Carpenter and Architectural Designer with Build, a construction firm in Stratford, Ontario, specializing in new custom homes and renovations.

I should know by now that driving through most subdivisions fills me with a sense of incredulity at how the designers of these buildings can't seem to get much of anything right. Don't get me wrong I am not asking for High Victorian splendour, I am equally impressed when a tract builder can get simple proportion and some common sense detailing right - I just wish it could happen more often. Just for fun, here are some incredibly badly executed details that are all from one "development":
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I have beaten this drum before, but it bears another go around (as it seems to be everywhere) - a column that bears somewhere that makes no visual sense, well, makes no visual sense. Perhaps the bottom of this column is inside the garage… ah yes the splendour of the garage - so important that we overwhelm the front of our homes with a box for our car. Your front door is the welcoming point of your home and the last place to settle for daft details like this.

A bit more effort would go a long way with this house. While colour can be relatively subjective, I think we can all agree that the pure white of the trim here is too stark and the grey of the "stone" (undoubtedly concrete that thinks it is stone) is rather bland. Where it really goes off the rails is the white flashing at the bottom of the upper storey wall above the porch and the dormer above the garage.

​With a bit of forethought and for no extra cost the flashing should be grey like the masonry and roofing - and it disappears from sight instead of standing out like a sore thumb. You can also see it peeking out below the blue upper gable siding. These are small but important details that tract builders often leave to chance and they ruin an otherwise reasonable design. The porch column bases should be slightly wider - they have a "cone head" effect with the columns above, and the single vertical post above the porch steps is far too skinny and lacks imagination.

Fake stone on the front, brick on the side - pick one and roll with it. The height is bizarre - slightly higher than the sills of both the front and side windows looks like a ridiculous mistake. The front roof columns are too skinny and straight, undoubtedly made from pressure treated lumber by the framing crew. Lastly this trend of stone / brick on the bottom and siding above has got to stop. The difference in depth that causes the eavestrough downspouts to jog out gives us more unnecessary visual clutter. 

Most of what I said about the last house applies to this one as well - but this one adds a small sliver of "stone" between the garage doors - lets imagine this house with one wide garage door  (which is actually less costly than two smaller doors, and I know you tract builders are held hostage to every nickel) and the result is better - we lose the look of "we're having a hard time fitting everything in".

We need to start valuing proper design - even if we build 50 houses all the same in a development. With a little planning and some common sense these homes can look so much better. 

Rory McDonnell is a General Contractor, Licensed Carpenter and Architectural Designer with Build, a construction firm in Stratford, Ontario, specializing in new custom homes and renovations.

There was a time when outbuildings were designed and built with as much forethought as the house they sat next to. More recently it seems very hard to find outbuildings that have the same sensible scale and detailing of those from the past. 

Take this simple but pleasing garage as an example of how to do things properly, its scale doesn't overwhelm the house (which btw is one of my favourite Stratford homes), its ornamentation and design is logical to the era of the house, and its lovely to look at. 

This garage is quite the opposite. Although the scale is reasonable, the details are sadly, poorly conceived. The "half brick half siding" look is not rooted in tradition (its a common tract builder detail) and this garage would look much better in just the board and batten siding (or even simple clapboards). The half wall of brick connecting the garage to the house is simply bizarre. A properly designed wooden or iron fence with gate would look much better, and be more appropriate and sympathetic to the house.

Ironically, right around the corner from the garage noted above is this simple barn or carriage house. Would that the neighbours had taken their cues from this structure, the neighbourhood would be the better for it. Simple details, properly executed and maintained always look better than the "let's throw everything at it even though we don't know what we're doing" approach.

And lastly here is an example of how not to design an outbuilding. We will keep an eye on this as it "progresses". The original form of a gambrel barn is ruined by the addition of a shed roof added to the side - it could have been much better if the shed roof had been pushed back from the front of the barn - it would have read as less of a tumour on the side. 

Contrast this to the barn noted above it, which has an addition on the side, but the rooflines are kept separated by the upper side fascia line. Even a simple break such as that appears to the eye to be logical. It's an addition that doesn't ruin the original form. This barn never had a chance!

Rory McDonnell is a General Contractor, Licensed Carpenter and Architectural Designer with Build, a construction firm in Stratford, Ontario, specializing in new custom homes and renovations.

There is a distinct lack of sense in most new home developments, and it seems to be getting worse. The plethora of poorly thought and poorly wrought detailing sometimes reaches the absurd. I realize that price is king to the tract builder, but if just a wee bit more thought (and yes dollars) went into these houses, well they would just be more pleasing.

The ancient greeks and egyptians figured out that columns should taper slightly to be more appealing to the eye. Today we have huge "L" shaped "columns" that are arrow straight and covered in yards of stucco. Roll in the six panel front door with its plain rectangular transom on the ground level; but arch top windows on the second floor. Throw in the little bit of stone below and all too similar color brick above and the result is the standard mix of nothing working together. Our eye knows something isn't quite right.

Imagine this house with the following: columns that taper less, the gable over the garage removed, and additional railings on the porch. Substitute a nice brick for the fake stone, use one wide garage door. Better? Sure it is, and it's really not that difficult. 

Rory McDonnell is a General Contractor, Licensed Carpenter and Architectural Designer with Build, a construction firm in Stratford, Ontario, specializing in new custom homes and renovations.

I always watch with interest the changes to buildings around me, and marvel at how some so called design build firms can carry out such misdirected "improvements":

Fake stone has come a long way in the past few years. But it looks faker than fake when you do something like this – put a thin veneer of cultured stone on the face of a wall that cantilevers out from the wall below. Children know that stone is heavy. Stone has to bear on something that can carry its weight – this swath of stone hangs in mid area, defying logic.  Lose the stripe of fake stone and this would instantly look a bit better.

Same house, more mistakes. The contractor replaced this window with one that does not match the angle of the roof. Would most people notice? Perhaps not, but add up all the little mistakes and to anyone's eye the entire package just looks off. Using fake stone and fake shaker shingles to fake traditional materials on a contemporary designed house is erroneous design. 

A better approach would be to take cues from existing mid-century architecture by embracing a linear, graphic aesthetic rather than the average subdivision build overload of texture that doesn't suit the style. Perhaps, a vertical siding in a broader spacing and a structured pattern of brick (a material readily used in that period) would highlight the minimalism of the existing architecture and create a cohesive appearance.

I had always enjoyed driving thru Shakespeare, Ontario, until I glanced over at what used to be one of my favourite storefronts and saw to my dismay that it was being destroyed to make way for, of all things, vinyl windows. The fact that the building houses an antiques business is irony of the worst kind. I took it upon myself to have a look at the 100 plus year old fenestration that was removed and cavalierly propped up against the side of the building, perhaps to be hauled to the dump, or maybe sold as wares in the "antiques" business? There was nothing wrong with the woodwork that some proper and thoughtful restoration and paint could not repair. 

The beauty and style of this building is now lost, and we can be guaranteed that the cheap and tacky vinyl windows (not to mention the upper windows and door) will look dull and chalky in one tenth of the time the original millwork served. Below is the building right next door with its original windows - stylish and graceful - the new frontage cannot hold a candle to it. 

When did this become progress? We should rethink this urge to toss the old and maintanance free-ify buildings that deserve much better treatment than this. Seems a four lane highway is not the only threat to the charm of little Shakespeare when the very merchants that ply their wares on it's main street are not sensible enough to preserve the real antique treasures we can all enjoy - our built heritage. 

Rory McDonnell is a General Contractor, Licensed Carpenter and Architectural Designer with Build, a construction firm in Stratford, Ontario, specializing in new custom homes and renovations.

One for the plumbers out there. Two water lines cut off without being capped, right at face level just ready for the new homeowners to turn that valve and get a blast of hot water. Same house, not four feet away is this drain line with an upside down clean out fitting that has been leaking for some time and the "handyman’s friend", duct tape sealing off an opening. 

Another senseless cover up.

In the photo you can see how the texture of the brick is about to be covered over by a flat and lifeless layer of styrofoam and stucco as the wall to the right already has. Dull, bland, ugly and boring.

Please, all old building owners: when you contemplate leaving those wonderful brick arches exposed please take it one step further and leave all the brick exposed. Stucco is not as attractive, durable or architecturally correct as what you already have!

Rory McDonnell is a General Contractor, Licensed Carpenter and Architectural Designer with Build, a construction firm in Stratford, Ontario, specializing in new custom homes and renovations.