What's Your Goal?
Using the Right Terms Can Help You Define What You Want
Spring 2003
by Gail Tischler and Martin Moen, board members


One of the first questions an architect or designer will ask you, the bungalow homeowner, is what do you want to accomplish with your project--whether it's an extensive rehabilitation of the whole house or a limited, mostly-cosmetic improvement of one space. The question has both functional and philosophical aspects to it. In this article we'll deal with the latter.

Jane Powell, author of widely read books on bungalow kitchens and bathrooms, likes to provide people with choices, which she puts on a continuum from "obsessive restoration" to "compromise solutions." Where you fall on that continuum depends on several factors, including what you want in terms of aesthetics, the historical uniqueness of your house, what you can afford, and the limitations of your house's style and structure. So while your spouse may have a passion for those quaint, restored gas stoves from the 1920s, perhaps there's no gas line running into the kitchen, and you're not prepared for the expense of adding it.

It's difficult to discuss this subject without tossing out words like remodel, renovate or redesign. People use these words quite casually but don't stop to think about what they mean. Actually, they mean about the same thing--to make over or make as good as new. We've found it helpful to use more precise language when discussing our options and making choices.

Even though the following definitions from the National Park Service seem a bit bureaucratic, they provide a handy framework. The definitions are taken from The Secretary of the Interior's Standards for the Treatment of Historic Properties with Guidelines for Preserving, Rehabilitating, Restoring and Reconstructing Historic Buildings, published in 1995.

Preservation is defined as the act or process of applying measures necessary to sustain the existing form, integrity and materials of a historic property. Work, including preliminary measures to protect and stabilize the property, generally focuses upon the ongoing maintenance and repair of historic materials and features rather than extensive replacement and new construction. New additions are not within the scope of this treatment; however, the limited and sensitive upgrading of mechanical, electrical, and plumbing systems and other code-required work to make properties functional is appropriate within a preservation project.

Rehabilitation is the act or process of making possible a compatible use for a property through repair, alterations and additions while preserving those portions or features that convey its historical, cultural or architectural values.

Restoration entails accurately depicting the form, features and character of a property by means of the removal of features from other periods in its history and reconstruction of missing features from the restoration period. The limited and sensitive upgrading of mechanical, electrical, and plumbing systems and other code-required work to make properties functional is appropriate within a restoration project.

Reconstruction is, literally, new construction that recreates the form, features and detailing of a non-surviving site, landscape, building, structure, or object for the purpose of replicating its appearance at a specific period of time and in its historic location.

Most of us living in Twin Cities bungalows do not have homes destined for listing on the National Register of Historic Properties, but they are, nonetheless, valuable structures. So what most of us need to consider is where we fit in the "3 Rs": rehabilitation, restoration or reconstruction. Thinking through these concepts, determining your goals before your project begins and sticking to them when the project hits the inevitable snags, will help you end up with a result you can live with for years to come.