Bow House is producing an Architectural Package worthy of the restorations in Deerfield, Sturbridge, and Williamsburg at production prices. We have worked hard in researching period pieces and we have many items custom made to fit into an architectural whole. We have developed new techniques and discovered old ones to compliment this whole.

The Architectural Package has been developed to make it possible for you to have a high quality reproduction wherever you are. Our materials are historically correct and are of high quality.

Bow House provides those materials which are necessary for the look of the house, all of the exterior, clapboard, window, siding, exterior trim, etc. and much of the interior, interior trim, wide pine flooring, interior doors and hardware, stair parts and other materials.  As it is a "stick built" house, we do not provide the materials we know are in every lumber yard in the country such as framing lumber, plywood, etc. This reduces shipping costs.  We are providing a house which in most parts of the country would be difficult to obtain.

Bowed Roof Rafters
The roof system consists of rafters curved on a forty foot radius made from laminated Southern Yellow Pine. A laminated beam is stronger than a regular beam and a curved beam is stronger than a straight beam. The curvature of the roof gives a rise of eighteen inches over a straight roof thereby creating usable floor space of five feet across the width.

Gable Rake Boards
1 x 5 premium Eastern White Pine cut to follow the roof curve.

Attic Ventilators
The “Beehive” vent is ogive shaped and is Colonial in inspiration.

Exterior Doors
The exterior doors are made handmade from Clear Pine. If you examine old Colonial doors you will notice that the panels are as thick as the stiles and rails. Our doors are 1 ¾ “ thick, whereby the doors commonly found at a local lumberyard are 1” thick.

We hang our front doors on 18” strap hinges and the back of the door is flush with the trim which means the box lock and hand forged latch we supply are properly installed. We also supply a hand forged door knocker with the same pattern as the latch.

The front door has four bulls eye or crown bullions. In keeping with our attention to historic detail, they have a slight greenish-blue tint like antique bulls eyes.

Windows
We have three types of window. Double hung, stationary and casement. All are true divided light with a 5/8” New England bar. The double hungs have a piece of wood called a blind stop which forms a pocket for the exterior blinds for the proper look. Storms and screens also rest in the blind pocket and sit flush with the casing to form a tight seal.

We also have a lovely window called a box or shop window which is large and stationary, with side lights.

Door & Window Blinds
Blinds were an early form of air conditioning. Our blinds are handmade with a characteristically old, wide slat and come complete with operating hardware.

Roofing
There are many different options for roofing materials. Please call for details.

Exterior Trim
All of our Pine exterior trim is designated 5/4 which means it is more than an inch in thickness. Our corner boards are 6/4, more than an inch and a quarter. The trim should stand out well beyond the clapboards to look proper.

Siding
We supply ½” x 6” bevel Red Cedar siding (Grade Aye or better). The front siding is applied in a graduated manner in keeping with old houses.

Masonry Form for Snow Cap
Snow caps are very common in old houses. Ours is an ogive in shape and relates to the bow of the roof and to the beehive ventilator. With this form, the mason can easily produce the right snow cap shape; without this form it is difficult.

Copper Rain Diverter
The diverter sheds rainwater away from doors that are under eaves.

Metal Strapping & Scotch Truss Nails
To tie in the foot of the rafter. These are not visible in the finished house.

Insect Screening
A 6” roll of fiberglass to screen the cornice gap. Proper cornice ventilation is very important.

Propervents
Propervents are airflow baffles created with Styrofoam troughs that depress the roof insulation so that air from the gap in the cornice can flow under the spaced roof boards to ventilate the bottom of the wood shingles, thus extending their usual life.

Skylights
Roof windows/skylights are common on the back roofs of Bow Houses. They serve to bring in a view or introduce overhead light. It all depends upon where they are positioned. We have, on occasion, cut the roof back and installed French doors on the second floor.

Stain Kill
Because the exterior trim is premium grade Pine, we provide the best stain killer we know to cover the knots.

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Interior Trim
Our interior trim - door and window casings and baseboard – is described as single edge bead. Casing material is a good grade of Pine, D select. The baseboards, either 1 x 4 or 1 x 6, are made from a grade of Eastern White Pine called Premium.

Single edge beading is a middle class Colonial treatment. There is a danger in reproducing a Colonial house in that there were differences in style because there were differences in economic class. A poor farmer’s Colonial house was very different from a Salem merchant’s Colonial house, yet they are both “authentic.” The important thing is not to mix the details of one with the other.

We can upscale the trim of the Bow House, or we can design a house without trim. It depends on each client’s preference.

Another point on trim is that the Colonials didn’t trim out all the rooms in the same way. The parlor, the dining room, and hall would be fancy, but the kitchen, bedrooms, etc were austere.

Floors
12” wide, kiln dried Eastern White Pine (premium grade). Our floor boards are very dry with a minimum of shrinkage.

We round the corners of the boards to make them look old. Any house 200 years old or more, wouldn’t have a square edge left. Moreover, a rounded corner will hold stain or paint better than a square edge.

Interior Doors
We make our own interior doors because the doors of the major manufacturers are in fact 19th century doors. The Salem merchant would have big, thick doors, but the typical Colonial door was skinny, even down to 7/8 of an inch. Our doors are 1 1/16” thick, four panel (which is an earlier form of door then the six panel). The panel is heavily raised on one side and is flat on the back. It is a door of the seventeen hundreds.

We provide “H” or “HL” hinges which are surface mounted. You will notice that Colonials did not use butt hinges, which are today’s common door hinge.

Stair Parts
We provide all of the visible stair parts. The newel post is the same as the newel of the Jabez Wilder house in Hingham, Massachusetts, supposedly built in 1690. The balusters are close replicas of the Jabez Wilder house.

Our stairs are of buttress or boxed stringer type which means the balusters come down into a rail, rather than meeting the treads.

Fireplace Frames
We provide a very basic kit. However simple, it is patterned on the upstairs fireplaces of Longfellow’s Wayside Inn in Sudbury, Massachusetts. Mantles are a nineteenth century addition to older houses. We do make up raised panel fireplace breast and can easily produce entire walls in raised panel if desired. We use the same knife on the paneling as on the doors. This means there is a harmony between the door and the paneling.

Fireplace Crane & Eyes
These are hand welded which means that the parts are hammered together on an anvil and not welded by torch.

Window Pins
Handwrought to make a traditional lock for a window.

Interior Stain
We provide the interior stain in four shades: Honey Pine, Antique Pine, Dark Pine, and Red Pine.

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Restoration Brick
Restoration bricks are water struck and are slightly smaller than regular bricks. We supply a straight color and not a blend.

Bevel Corner Brick
If you look into old houses or books thereof, you will see the many sides of their fireplaces are at an angle with the corner bricks molded to create that angle.

Hearth Brick
A common hearth in Colonial times incorporated a brick about 8” square, sometimes called an “elephant” brick. With the combination of the above bricks we can make a very old looking fireplace especially if the mortar is dirtied up and the mason makes a narrow joint. We can supply all of the bricks that show so your mason can build a truly old looking fireplace. Your mason can easily obtain the out-of-sight bricks locally to complete the chimney.

If you want a fireplace big enough to roast an ox, we can design that for you.

Ballast Brick
Ballast brick for flooring is about an inch thick and goes down on a plywood sub-floor very easily. It has an earthy appearance and emulates brick on packed earth.

14” or wider Pine Boards
A floor with 12” boards looks fine, but if you want to add some wider boards, we have them available.

Feather Edge Boards
Again, if you research old houses you will see a wide application of board walls before plastering was introduced. Many of these boards were shaped with a tongue on one edge and a cabinet lip on the other. The look is of a paneled wall at much less cost.

Chair Rail
The most popular pattern is a 1 x 4 Pine board with a double edge bead.

Nantucket Pegboard
Sometimes called Shaker pegboard. Order to length.

Cut Flooring Nails
We offer two types: an eighteenth century 7 penny straight cut and a latter 7 penny cinched rosehead nail. Samples on request.

Interior Shutters
The interior shutters are a great idea and if they are installed in a tight fitting manner, they will save a considerable amount of energy.

Andanchors
We have had a mold made to produce andirons in the shape of an anchor for those who wish to emphasize the Bow House nautical heritage. They are solid and very heavy.

Hand Forged Hardware
The interior door latches we provide with the kit are drop forged and we supply them unpainted. As an option, we can provide you with hand forged latches by the same blacksmith who makes our standard front door latch.

Copper Lighting Fixtures and Weathervanes
We have a wide range of both fixtures and weathervanes in either bright copper or patinaed to a lovely green.

Bolection Moulding
Bolection moulding or rolled moulding was used for viable framing around a fireplace in middle and upper class Colonial homes. A heavy raised moulding, it was often an inch and a half which stood out beyond wall boards or paneling.

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