A 1918 Craftsman, Back in Blue

About This Project

This Craftsman has been part of its Bellingham block since 1918, and the owner wanted it to stay recognizable — same blue, same shingled gables, same bones — just built to last another century. Her review put the goal perfectly: "greater peace of mind as the owner of an older home."

Old-house rules shaped everything. The project was permitted through the City of Bellingham — we pulled the permit, paid the fee, and the finished work passed the city's inspection. And because any pre-1978 home falls under federal and Washington State lead-safety law, the work ran under our Lead-Safe certification (WA Cert #R24-0173) with containment and cleanup by the book.

Four Inches, Like 1918

A century-old Craftsman never wore today's wide 7-inch boards, so this re-side used HardiePlank at a 4-inch reveal — the narrowest we install, and the closest match to the proportions the house was born with. The two front gables kept their shake character in straight-edge HardieShingle over new band-board transitions, and the Craftsman brackets stayed right where they've always been.

Around the base, the deteriorating old skirting came off and new Hardie panel skirting went on with proper crawlspace vents — and an honest caveat we put in writing: on a 1918 foundation, "perfectly level" is a goal, not a guarantee. The same honesty applied to a later rear addition that was never tied into the original structure. We re-sided it and reset its windows to sit right with the new wall depth, and we were upfront that this one section couldn't carry the same workmanship warranty as the rest of the house. Old homes deserve straight talk, and owners deserve to know exactly what they're getting.

Painting an Old House Honestly

Here's something most homeowners don't hear until it matters: lead-safety rules mean the old painted surfaces on a pre-1978 home can't be sanded. On the areas we repainted rather than replaced — like the roof fascia — the prep is careful scraping and washing, and we told the owner plainly that unsanded surfaces carry some long-term risk of paint bubbling. The new Hardie, of course, has no such asterisk: it went up primed and took its Sherwin-Williams finish perfectly, Loyal Blue (SW 6510) over every wall with the trim in Arctic White — the same color James Hardie bakes onto its pre-finished trim, matched in paint.

Then the detached garage got its turn — pressure washed, prepped, and painted to match the house, with two rear corners so far gone they couldn't hold paint replaced outright at no charge. A property reads best when every building on it agrees.

The Finished Look

From the sidewalk, it's the same beloved blue Craftsman — porch, gables, Japanese maple and all — but sharper than it's looked in decades, with fiber cement where the tired boards used to be. Amy's review closes it better than we could: Michael "helping me feel confident about completely re-siding my 1918 home," Marco and the crew "friendly, hardworking, and very efficient" — and the finished work? "The finished work looks amazing."