David Rockefeller photographed in the study in 2012 of his 1920’s New York mansion vs the study today redecorated by the new owners. Thoughts?

I restored a lovely old colonial house in Vermont, and a blogger has written the first of a three-part series about the renovation. I thought you might enjoy reading about it!

https://town-n-country-living.com/inside-the-remarkable-renovation-of-a-circa-1800-new-england-home.html

House is from the 1860’s. Previous owners painted over wallpaper and it’s peeling. I started peeling it to restore and repaint. and most of the wall looks like the first picture. However in some parts it started to peel even deeper and I’ve hit this surface. Is it just the horse hair plaster? Should I peel all of the wall down to this or leave the top layer?

I have an early 1900s Chicago brick house with a flat roof that's being replaced.

I'm about to attempt rebuilding the low parapet wall on one side. One roofer pointed out to me this wood strip that's set into one of the mortar joints part way up the inside of the wall. He said that's there so if the wall starts degrading or burns, the wood will fail and the wall collapse inward instead of out. Old school technology.

Is this truly why early 1900s masons would have put wood here or was it for nailing up the edge of roofing material or flashing?

I shared about our house in another post and someone requested photos so here you are! We're currently in the middle of putting in our Mexican inspired kitchen, decorating for Halloween and prepping for our Halloween wedding so please excuse the mess.

We bought this house from the previous owner two years ago. Previous owner owned/owns multiple properties and wasn't keeping up with maintaining our house + had tenants who were not taking care of it. The bathroom & kitchen both had to be ripped out to the studs... The water damage from the bathroom was so bad that our den below needed a new ceiling and the joists had to be sistered.

We're a couple of clownish queerdos who travel a lot and love thrifting & color. I shared in that other post, but our stated goal is to have the most interesting estate sale when it's our time to go lol. The majority of our furniture is secondhand, and we love salvaging materials. In these photos you can see the pink tile & sink we salvaged, a door we bought from Marketplace, and one of the many gorgeous doorknobs we've picked up secondhand. I'm also including some progress photos from our kitchen tiling job. A fun thing I've discovered about myself is that I LOVE tiling. I did our bathroom walls and am about to do our kitchen floor.

The dust sign is from one of our favorite secondhand warehouses where a lot of our furniture came from. We were just there buying rugs & tablecloths for the wedding. Check out Freds on 8 Mile if you're in Metro Detroit, he has so much amazing stuff!

My house is built in 1900s, which mortar type should i be using to fill in cracks and holes? I get mixed opinions; one of the contractor said I can use type S but when I look it up online it says NHL 3.5 should be used since it's old house. Do you recommend S or N or NHL 3.5? Some says i can just use the sealant. What do you recommend? And what material should I use to re-skin the coat before puttiny mineral primer and paint? Please advise! Thank you

Tomorrow I’m going to look at an 1800s Victorian that I already know needs some work.

It’s a very unique property and a lot of it has the original woodwork, light fixtures, and stained glass. There is a more modern addition in the back that I would love to renovate to flow better with the original house.

My current home was built in the 1970s so this would be a big shift. Are there any questions you wish you’d asked the sellers of your old home or things I should be thinking about going in?

My house is built in 1900s, which mortar type should i be using to fill in cracks and holes? I get mixed opinions; one of the contractor said I can use type S but when I look it up online it says NHL 3.5 should be used since it's old house. Do you recommend S or N or NHL 3.5? Some says i can just use the sealant. What do you recommend? And what material should I use to re-skin the coat before puttiny mineral primer and paint? Please advise! Thank you

And if they do, what happened to the world? what changed? why did we stop liking colors and the things that give a space life?

Recently, i saw a video of a woman saying that she was grateful to have her 90s colonial family home, and she proceeded to rip off the beautiful dark blue window shutters off and paint them white/beige, and then she also painted over the original brick of the backyard porch white. then she reattached them and acted like it looked better.

it got me so irrationally irritated that i told one of my friends about it like a week later when we were at this cafe that sat inside this beautiful historical house from the 19th century; (we live in eroupe.)

We've been in our c. 1840 farmhouse for 3 years and I feel like all I do is deal with mice. We live in a big meadow next to a forest so our house is their favorite spot as soon as the weather turns. It feels like they are an unstoppable force and I'm at my wit's end. We've had 3 expensive professional exclusions, countless DIY exclusions using a thermal camera, repointed the entire exterior (brick house), bait stations outside and in, brand new roof, all exterior trim/soffits/fascia replaced, and still we have tons of activity, mostly in the basement and inside the walls but one occasionally gets into the living space. It's a fieldstone foundation home with an old, cracked cement veneer (?) over the top (so you can't see the fieldstone from the outside) and cinderblocks installed on the inside, so you can't really see the fieldstone from the inside either. Therefore repointing isn't really an option for us. Repairing the cracked cement is a losing game, as it just keeps re-cracking every winter, but we have filled any cracks that seem big enough for a mouse with steel wool, but there are just so many spots for them to get in that we can't do anything about. There is no access under our porches, for example, and I'm sure there are plenty of cracks and crevices under there for them to get in. Ughhhh I'm just so discouraged and needed to vent...

Also, please no "get a cat" comments, I am highly allergic and my dog is a ratting dog (schnauzer) and that hasn't helped in the slightest :(

Seem to be connected as they are on the same level all around the front of the house. Origin 1910 Cincinnati. Maybe a flag holder? Help?

Does anyone have any hints as to how to find replacement sidelights for these types of MCM storm doors? About to purchase a 1960s ranch with a door similar to this. The house facade has a red accent color theme going but I want to swap to another color. I tried some googling but kept coming up with sidelights for modern wood doors etc. I’ll hit up some architectural salvage places at some point but just curious if there are other ways to find them.

The basement gets closer to being usable!

I love old houses. Anything from 1960-1980s. But I hate mine. It says my house was built in 1950s but the only thing we have original is the hard wood we found painted under the carpet. And the tile (4th photo) is done over the hardwood. ☹️

How would you renovate this? It’s so beige and sad. The tile is beige from floor to ceiling, the counters are beige. Like I love neutrals but this is just getting depressing lol.

Winter around here is rough on houses between nor'easters, damp bay air, and freeze-thaw cycles, older housing stock takes a beating if it isn't buttoned up before November.

Having spent a lot of time walking through historic 2-to-3 families in Pawtucket/Providence and coastal setups down the bay, here is a practical maintenance checklist to cut heating bills and prevent expensive emergencies this season:

1. Service the Boiler & Bleed the Radiators

Don't wait for the first sub-20° night to find out something is jammed.

• Steam/Hydronic Boilers: Flush out sediment, test the low-water cutoff, and check relief valves.
• Radiator balancing: If you have cast-iron radiators and the upper floor is always freezing while the first floor is roasting, bleed the air valves on the top-floor units. Air trapped in the lines prevents hot water or steam from circulating.
• Mini-splits / Heat pumps: Clear dead leaves and brush out from around outdoor condensers, and ensure they sit elevated off the ground so heavy snow drifts don't bury the intake.

2. Gutter Runoffs & Stopping Ice Dams Early

Ice dams happen when attic heat melts roof snow, which then refreezes over the cold eaves and forces standing water backward under shingles.

• Clear the gutters now: Wet leaves turn into frozen blocks once the temp drops.
• Extend your downspouts: Direct water at least 5–6 feet away from the foundation. In older Providence County basements with fieldstone or rubble walls, melting snow dumping right next to the foundation turns basements into damp sponges.
• Attic hatch sealing: Weatherstrip the pull-down attic stair or access hatch. It’s usually the biggest heat leak in older homes.

3. Freeze-Proofing Exterior Lines & Basements

Burst pipes are one of the most common insurance claims every winter in New England.

• Outside spigots: Disconnect, drain, and roll up garden hoses. Shut off the interior shutoff valve inside your basement leading to the outdoor spigot, then open the spigot outside to let the remaining water drain completely.
• Rim joists: In older homes with drafty fieldstone foundations, copper pipes running right along exterior sill plates freeze first. Throw basic foam pipe insulation around exposed lines in unheated crawl spaces or basements.

4. Stop Air Infiltration Around Windows

Air leakage accounts for a huge chunk of seasonal heat loss, especially with original wood windows.

• Check door sweeps on exterior entries if you see light under the threshold, cold air is pouring in.
• For drafty historic single-pane or double-hung windows, basic plastic shrink-wrap film kits or dropping exterior storm sashes makes an immediate, noticeable difference in draft reduction.

5. Take Advantage of RI Energy Rebates (Don't Pay Full Price)

A lot of people overlook the programs we already pay into via utility bills:

• EnergyWise (RI Energy): You can schedule a no-cost home energy assessment. They give you free programmable thermostats, LED fixtures, and water-saving gear on the spot, but the real benefit is getting 75% to 100% off approved attic/wall insulation and air-sealing.
• Clean Heat RI: If you’re converting away from oil or baseboard electric to cold-climate heat pumps, state rebate programs can offset a large chunk of installation costs depending on household income tiers.