Faux Foe
A.V. Walters
So kitch, they’re okay
We all have our pet peeves. My brother, for example, cannot endure the sounds of others eating. He has to play music. It just drives him crazy. My sister can’t stand the low hum of a truck idling. She once got up in the middle of the night, walked down the block and confronted a young man working on his truck. (Really, it was late…) When he laughed at her, she sealed his fate. After all, she owns the local general store, and she would no longer let him do business there. (Too bad for him. And, a smoker, too.)
My quirk is not so volatile. I’m annoyed by faux anachronism. It started young. As a kid, I would become peeved at the sight of a Landau top on a car. You may remember them, synthetic leather (don’t get me started), roof bonnets, designed to look like a convertible. Why on earth would one put a perishable surface on the enameled, steel roof of a car?! I gathered that the object was to imitate the upper class Sunday touring buggy of years gone by. (And in so doing, to create a vehicle that would age poorly and look trashy. Go figure.)
That was just the start. I’m a history buff. I like antiques and old architecture. I love the feel of old machines and their workings. I still sew with a 1906 era, treadle sewing machine. I don’t mind eclectic, as long as it’s authentic. I don’t mind reproduction, so long as it’s true to the original and as well made. And, I like things to be period appropriate. I remember that when old style stoves were popular one high-end manufacturer made a heavy reproduction nostalgia model—but it sported modern electric burner coils. For this, appearance over form or function, consumers could fork over thousands of dollars.
I could only have been nine or ten when a family in our neighborhood “updated” their 50s tract home with, of all things, plantation-style columns. I marched right to my mother to demand that she stop them. It just looked sooooo dumb! How could they! Just the sight of this tacked-on grandiosity embarrassed me. She laughed. Not that she disagreed with my aesthetic perspective but she was surprised, even alarmed, by my vehemence. It only got worse. As their remodel continued, they added fake shutters to their windows! (And, the shutters were mis-sized; were they to actually close them, they wouldn’t even meet in the middle—much less, protect the windows. Augh!)
The list of things that would trigger my peevishness grew—vinyl siding, faux brick or rock embellishments, wagon wheel yard art, lawn jockeys, you name it. (Oddly, I exempt plastic, pink, flamingoes, because they’re so off the chart as to be funny.)
We’re starting the building process and it’s bringing out the snob in me. Gladly, Rick and I are mostly on the same page. It’s about windows. Modern technology has given us beautiful windows, inviting light and air into our homes, without sacrificing energy efficiency. Historically, window glass was a major expense, and small panes made window glass transportable without too much breakage. And, they didn’t have the technology to produce large panes of quality glass. So our visual history of homes includes many-paned windows. Even though they interfere with the view, and the old single panes guaranteed a winter chill, the look does have a cottage feel. Even I admit that. But, believe me, the solution is not fake dividers. You can actually pay extra for grids to ruin your view! It irks me, just to see grids in windows. Rick just shakes his head. He is, after all, married to an aesthetic nut. Good thing he doesn’t like things artificial.
tworockchronicles 
I’ve got about 30 many-paned windows in my shed. They come from an old house that was knocked down last year. Each window has 8 panes and the glass is beautiful (green as well as clear embossed). My problem is that the idiots who put the walls in my bedroom made the holes to big for the windows. I now have 5 HUGE windows in my bedroom, but I’ll never pass inspection because the glass has to be cyclone rated (and the glass in the windows at the moment is old and thin). if I could get the many-paned windows in I would pass inspection because the glass is thick enough for cyclone rating. Now I’m just rambling on, but it’s something I look at every day and wonder how I can fix it….
I don’t like the pink flamingos. I have wagon wheels in my yard, but they’re real ones. The worst ‘faux house’ I ever saw was one we rented several years ago. It was a beautiful old cottage in a heritage listed area. When we moved out they knocked the whole thing down and just left the front facade (held up with stilts like one of those wild west movie sets). They were allowed to ‘upgrade’ the house without changing it’s view from the street. They built a massive ugly modern house behind the ‘cottage’ facade. It was hideous.
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Oh, if only those old windows could fit! Here there are many gorgeous old beveled glass doors on craigslist–but we can’t use them because they won’t meet the new energy efficiency requirements (we don’t have cyclone ratings in Michigan, but some states do.)
I have been known to plant pink flamingoes onto the lawns of unsuspecting good friends. In college, I used to put them on the front yards of ugly mansions (like the one hiding behind the facade of your old cottage.) Maybe it was the result of too much beer, but I thought it was just poor tastes finding like minded homes.
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If I recall correctly, large panes were much more expensive too. One way to tell who had money in the 19th Century (or at least who spent it) is to look at the size of the window panes on their homes.
I’m with you on the fake muntins. Now it’s less expensive (I think) to put in larger panes, but we use fake dividers to make them seem smaller. I don’t like it, but I admit we have them on the large window in our house.
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It’s no crime to have them. (Though, in my books, it might be a crime to install them.)
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