Background

A picture of our house with the new second story.

After having our second child, our 1,300 square foot Old Town house was a bit tight!  We looked at moving, but love our house, yard, and neighborhood too much.  So instead we decided to add roughly 650 square feet and make our home exactly how we wanted it so we can live here to raise our kiddos.

Here is a pic of what our finished house would look like!  We tried to respect the historic character of our 106 year old home, and to fit in well with the houses around us.  We saved all of the original facade, and only planned to change the old “hipped roof” into a second story for kids rooms.

Because our house is over 50 years old, our addition triggered the city’s historic review process.  In order to protect the city’s character, this program evaluates any major changes or demo of old homes in the city.  We hired an archivist, posted a large yellow sign in front of our house and mailed letters to everyone within 800 feet to make sure the community had no concerns, and our finalized plans made it through every other faction of city planning.  We had no complaints, only support from our lovely neighbors.

We did everything right, and knew that the city’s own preservation planners recommended the project for approval.  So we went ahead and rented a place to live in while our home was being worked on, and moved out our two kiddos, dog and cat and everything we would need for four months.

On December 12, we were shocked by the Landmark Preservation Commission’s decision to delay approval of our project in order to “gather more information” and “look into the benefits of landmark designation” of our property.  (A move that probably would make our addition impossible to build, and at least delay it for six months at great cost to us.)  No one knew what “more information” they needed.  In fact, they discussed nothing about the historic importance of our little home, instead they talked about how “too many homes on our street were above the ideal height” (the highest homes on our street were built in 1888 and 1903,) and how our addition would “block the views of neighbors across the street” (we have no mountain views on our street).  For more, see the article in the Coloradoan from January 9th

Why should the hipped roof of our 1907 starter home be considered more important than the family that lives there?  We believe that families and homeowners that love and care about their old homes should not be punished when they try to make their homes better.  They should not be threatened with delays, or “non-consensual landmark status,” especially when they are trying to respect the character of their homes and neighborhoods.  Rather, homeowners should be given non-biased information about landmark status, and maintaining historic homes, and then make choices for what is best for them, their finances, and their lifestyles.  The Hip Roof is just this resource.  We monitor the LPC to try to make their decisions more fair, consistent and predictable.  We also provide a non-biased resource about historic preservation, and give homeowners some different options when they are trying to update and maintain their old houses.