My wife and I were just at a local meeting of some folks reviewing our neighborhood for historical status, as we are apparently a block away from the area they were most seriously considering. There wasn’t anything on TV tonight, which is why we went. Anyway, after hearing all of their snooty criteria for historic status and knowing we didn’t qualify (we have a little exterior vinyl), I looked on the internet for a plaque to put near my front door that says,” Not selected for the state or national registry of historic homes,” similar to what you might see on genuinely historic homes, only different. Couldn’t find one — only links to people who take this stuff seriously. I won’t pay for bronze, but a plastic replica, to match my siding, would be attractive to me. Anybody seen one of these?.
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Make one. Get out the ol' router and a piece of poplar or mahogany, make it real pretty and put it in your front yard for all those snoots to see. That aught to bring some gasps and "oh my"s and "why, I never..."s.
On the bright side, would you really want them dictating what color you're 'allowed' to paint your exterior, or whether you're allowed to install a porch swing?
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Good ideas!
I don't live in a historic home, but routinely work in several ----it ain't all it's cracked up to be...... for the most part, just another layer of bureaucracy.
JimNever underestimate the value of a sharp pencil or good light.
I have found that I can buy full sheets of clear sticky paper for your inkjet printer and print whatever you want on the sheets.
Do this and stick the sheet to your home-made plaque. Cover with a few coats of poly (spray it, don't brush it).
http://www.officedepot.com/catalog/catalogSku.do?id=409401&configurableItemType=UNDEFINED
I think you should make the plaque, and hang it from the flamingo's beak :)
It's a great idea and if you can't find it in a catalog, maybe you could get one made at a trophy engravers? Get a piece of lucite and have them engrave the words in it. Or you could use stick on vinyl letters.
I know what you want - when we did a major library building project a few years ago, the major benefactor provided a sign indicating who was to be recognized for providing a lot of the money -
a light, cheesy plastic POS that looks just like cast brass when mounted on the wall -
unfortunately, I have no idea where they got it made - if no one comes up with anything here, I'll investigate for you -
Ran across one of these once on a house in New Orleans, pre-Katrina. Kind of neat poke at the historic renovation crowd.
http://www.lsccreations.com/e-commerce-solutions-catalog.8.html
now ya done it...
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You don't want to pay for bronze, plastic would do. Maybe this is why you are not included in the historic area. We had one (in bronze) that said " On this date in 1745 absolutley nothing happened" Go for bronze, why add some more plastic to your house.
Around here, a historic house is a historic house based on when it was built. That doesn't change because some self-appointed expert thinks it has too much vinyl on it. Rather than explicitly taking a poke at these "experts", I'd take the high road. Put up your own sign. Around here it's typical to have a white wood sign about 10X14 the family name of the original owner (or notable descendent who lived there) in small letters and the date in big. So for example if you know an original/early resident (often available on old maps), you might do:
Capt. John Smith
1859 (big numbers)
If it catches on with the neighbors, peoplewill consider your neighborhood to be historic anyway.
Pete
Edited 5/22/2009 10:03 am ET by PeteBradley
My house was built in 1963. : )
You should have bas relief (raised lettering and details) if you want it to look like the real deal. IMO, cheesy printout glued to a plaque is funny but making the plaque look likeauthentic but with your chosen wording is better-- it will have the desired class from a distance and provide humor up close.
Draw your plaque shape on a scrap of formica, or better yet, find a blank plaque or some object shaped like what you want. Lay out your text using stick-on vinyl or plastic lettering, make a dam around it and make a plaster of paris mold. remember to tap tap tap it to get the air bubbles out. When it is cured and completely dry, press some bakeable kid's craft clay into it, unmold it and press in the kid's molding compound of your choice, either bakable or air-dry. I like the lightweight one made by Crayola.
When it's hard, unmold it and paint it annodized bronze and age a little with some verdigris colors (dull aqua in 2 shades should look realistic).
Several places on the internet such as --
http://www.plaquemaker.com/Plates/Outdoor_Signs.html
Those all appear to be the simple engraved kind. If the OP wants his to look like those typically used to denote historic neighborhoods, he'll want bas relief, similat to this style:
Yeah, it was the first one I found with a brief Google. Your example is certainly better, though it likely is only available as "The house of...".
As I stood before the gates I realized that I never want to be as certain about anything as were the people who built this place. --Rabbi Sheila Peltz, on her visit to Auschwitz
There are many places on the web, including IIRC the site i got that photo from, that allow original text up to X number of characters. They just set the type and cast it.I'm not sure if these places, reputable ones anyway, will do one that says "historical..." without official documentation to verify. Historical neighborhoods that use these plaques tend to set up the whole project of a matching style and do a lot of paperwork , submitting an official list of addresses for the company doing the plaques.Making one's own mold is pretty easy and fun.
Edited 5/22/2009 6:14 pm ET by msm-s