Queen Anne Victorian houses are known for their elaborate and ornate architectural features, including towers and turrets. These features not only add to the overall aesthetic appeal of the house but also provide unique living spaces with panoramic views of the surrounding area. However, insulating the top of towers and turrets can present some challenges.
What is a tower and turret?
The way you tell them apart is a tower goes all the way to the basement and a turret starts at the 2nd floor. On our house the tower is much bigger than the turret. Both of them provide unmatched views. We do have an old photo of the 3rd floor of the tower being an open sleeping porch, but someone closed it off to make a room.
I’m hoping that we can open it back up someday. Both our turret and tower have a missing or damaged finial, and even if we had a replacement, I wouldn’t have any idea how to get it up there.
Our tower
We were surprised to discover that there was more space above us than we had realized. In fact, we could see a ceiling fan at the very top, two stories above us.
All the drywall needs to be fixed because something is leaking so bad up there that when it is windy the lowered ceiling tile will lift up. Bad news is that we don’t have a ladder or any way to get up there. We had to close the tower off on the 3rd floor to keep that room warm for one of our kids. I’m hoping during the summer we can open it back up and do repairs if we can find the funds. When we do repair it, I want to keep all the woodwork.
Our turret
This one was not as exciting but in better shape at least as far as insulation goes.
As you can see there is insulation but no drywall. There are a few electric lines that will have to be moved. But since it’s not as high it should be an easier fix once we get to that room. For now, I just put the lowered ceiling back down and left both of them.
Without proper funding we won’t be able to fix them anytime soon. If you would like to help you can always donate here.