About Fascia

The best thing about renovating an old house is finding a surprise amidst the sawdust. We didn't expect to find any hidden treasures in this house, because it's always been so unadorned. So I was thrilled when GC pointed out bead-board soffits, wood fascia and a simple frieze beneath the aluminum eaves. 

Pause: Do you know what those words mean? I have trouble keeping them straight. They're all greek to me...and French and Latin, too. Fascia comes from the Latin word meaning doorframe or wall. In architecture, fascia describes the band that's used to conceal the ends of rafters and/or hold the rain gutters. In my house, the facsia is a simple strip of decorative wood trim--like something you might use to make a picture frame--that connects the friezeboard with the soffit. Wikipedia points out that fascia rhymes with the Japanese word geisha. (And on a tangential note: my sis-in-law Janie points out that the appliance brand Miele rhymes with the Irish name Sheila.)

The frieze is the horizonal piece that runs beneath the gutter, according to architectural reference books. At least---I think I have this correct. In the photo above, the frieze is the band of white-painted wood above the bricks. The frieze on the Parthenon, meanwhile, is a meter-high band of sculpted marble that features Athenians parading in front of their Gods.

The soffit is the underside of the any construction element. For example: if you sought shelter beneath the eave of a building during a rainstorm and whilst there, looked straight up, you'd see the soffit.

The eave is the combination of fascia, soffit and frieze. If you were standing under the eave of my house right now, you'd be looking at a hideously ugly strip of aluminum gunk circa 1960. It's redundant and probably a double negative to say the aluminum eaves are hideously ugly, but it's true. They're hideously ugly. See?

What we've seen of the wood beadboard beneath this aluminum is in good condition---the paint is not. So there are costs involved in restoring the eaves to their original, simple, wooden selves. There are costs involved in removing the aluminum gunky stuff. There are costs involved in everything! We'll have to mull this over for a while.

In the meantime, Here are a couple pictures of recent developments at The Fixer Upper House. The framing is going really well! I took these photos a few days ago--the guys are already onto the 2nd floor today; they've even begun framing the new gambrel roof. In this pic, the dogs are grazing the crumbs of Subway sandwiches.

This window is in the old exterior wall. This is to become the eating area of the kitchen. We're going to leave the brick wall exposed but will probably have to paint it because the ceiling will be 9 feet, but the bricks only go up 7 feet. We thought of plastering over the wall---it's in the area where the kitchen table will be, but I want to keep the bricks exposed. I like the look of it, even if it's painted. We're looking for clever ideas for those top two feet of this wall. Miguel suggested a shelf for knickknacks but I am anti-knickknack at this time in my life, when clutter grows like stalagmites in fast-motion.

Comments

[la la]

You could make the space above the brick a shelf for sports equiptment, homework, winter boots, or a sort of a place to put extra food like cans of soup or boxes of pasta.