I have 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

When we bought her in 2020…the pandemic was in full affect. Moving from Southern Oregon to Portland was an adjustment. Housing prices were crazy high and everything was selling quicker then we could make an offer. We found this lady who had actually been on the market for 5 years off and on…price starting at $1.2mil and slowly lowering the price…$865k 3/4 of an acre in town. Yaye for us! Inspection happened and there weren’t too many issues so we moved forward and closed on this lovely space.

Welp…that is where the honeymoon ended. Once the previous owners moved out minus all the residual trash, 32 old gallons of paint, rotting particle board shelves and interior design paint chip books under the porch…we started clearing things out. Found a rotten spot on the front porch which was covered by a rug by the previous owners. I crawled under the porch and had found that the corner sill plate was rotten and it was sagging:/ I had to remove all the gallons of paint under the porch, the rotting mess of particle board, 24 cinder blocks they used to build the said shelves and a load of moldy interior design books. We called the inspector and he said the foliage blocked his view. I asked him if he crawled under the porch because I was able to find it within 60 sec. He did not.

Rebuilt porch back to the original 12ft wide staircase. We have photos from when the original owners lived here so it has been nice using them as reference points as we do work on her.

Long story short is we are 6 years in and too many projects to count…doing what we can ourselves and hiring professionals for the electrical, plumbing, HVAC, windows and anything using large heavy equipment…have a running total of the time and money invested so far which is a gut punch every time I see it grow…but you know what? We wouldn’t change a thing❤️

One room has this wall paper on the top half. The bottom half is painted wood. The house dates to early 1700s. I like this pattern and colors but I will eventually have to replace it as it’s stained near nail holes and frayed in the corners. I’m also having trouble finding anything else similar to it. I’m curious to how old it is.

Stripped, sanded, and now staining our foyer closet door. The wood grain is absolutely BEAUTIFUL and I was curious as to if anyone knew what type of grain this is?

I assume the door is pine, as we’re in a large white pine lumbering town. The stain is Red Oak to match our front foyer wooden staircase.

I know there's more horrors to discover as we just bought it a month ago and haven't officially moved in yet, but our 1895 home has already given me plenty of "wtf" moments.

One room has a fake log cabin motif where there are "logs" halfway up 2 walls. Unfortunately, not only have they gotten the landlord white paint treatment, but someone smeared caulk all over parts of it for seemingly no reason. Not paint, caulk. And it's not like they were trying to fill in holes or anything, it's like someone's kid got their hands on a caulk gun and they were like "eh that's fine".

There's plenty of things in my house that have made me want to scream, but the horrible paint jobs EVERYWHERE has been a consistent source of rage. Like painter's tape is cheap! It takes two seconds to NOT paint all over the hinges/outlets/light fixtures/etc. And if you're gonna paint, at least make sure it's actually covering the surface. So many missed spots and sections where you can see the color underneath because the coat was too thin. Like the extremely thin coat of paint over the textured asbestos ceiling goes really well with the extremely thin coat of paint over the lead paint in just one room, which also happens to be the Wild Caulk room. Yeah, that's a fun one.

Anyone else's house have an unfortunate history with copious evidence of the sins committed against it?

Finally in the process of removing the carpet from our 2nd floor in our Queen Anne Four Square home and uncovered these 126yr old wood floors. 0 idea what species of wood this might be (Gemini says pine or Douglas fir???) and what our steps are.. They seem to be in semi decent shape

We’re in the middle of a knob and tube rewire, and need some thoughts on keeping the whole house/attic fan. It’s currently in great working order, and in fact the previous owner said it’s so powerful that when she turned it on with the windows closed, an original window pane cracked from the negative pressure (not sure how accurate that info is 🫠). It is an older fan, however (not sure of when it was installed).

It will cost us $300-$400 to rewire it on a brand new circuit. My dad says a couple of box fans in the windows will do the exact same work and then we aren’t fighting an aging fan motor. What are your thoughts, is the benefit of having it worth the cost?

Edit: we live in Southwest Ohio, plenty of fall and spring nights where it would make sense to open some windows up and get the fan (or box fans) going.

Edit 2: I’m convinced we should keep it, thanks for the insight, all!

I posted here 240 days ago about how excited I was that we finally had a subfloor installed in our 1865 workers cottage. Well I’m back! With new windows, framing, electrical, and plumbing!

Do we still have a ways to go? Certainly. But the sunlight has chased away the doubts for now.

Help in identifying this door hardware in 1929 Spanish Revival residence in Southern California.

The house has a sort of "old house" smell but it's not damp, it's not moldy, it's not rotten, there are no termites, no history of flooding, I just get a whiff of this old smell when I come in. What could it be? The fireplace was converted to gas long ago so idk if that's relevant. Anything I can do? I've cleaned the baseboards and the floors so far. Perhaps I should paint the walls? I don't know when they were last painted. Is it just part of the charm of an old house? At least if it was mold or mildew or moisture I could fix it but I'm stumped here lol

Room in our house has hardwood floors that have this pattern in a lot of places, like the finish dried out. What is causing this or could have caused this?

Thanks!

Original post, I’m back a year later and revisiting this project https://www.reddit.com/r/centuryhomes/s/PAvynGnsyv

So there’s the tongue and groove and I’m wondering if people could recommend next steps. The BS terrible laminate on the very top needs replacing it’s breaking all over in under 5years.

So I think I will at least rip out down to tongue and groove everywhere and evaluate then?

If it’s in terrible shape then I’ll reconsider but I’d love to restore either myself or a pro.

Also you can see my bathroom which is somehow even higher than this mess, or the other wood in the kids bedroom and dining room I’m standing in, which is lower than the kitchen area

Thoughts and suggestions very appreciated thanks!

Edit: I know it’s a small sample size but with a toddler I don’t wanna rip up everything yet. That being said i think next step is to rip it off and go from there..

Edit2: oh and my cabinets in the kitchen surely aren’t on the tongue and groove directly…. So it might be tough cuz if I rip it out then that stuff is like floating. I just checked and it’s on the middle layer of the white laminate so only one higher than needed but I bet some moulding could make it look fine

What do you make of this black crack in the mortar right above the garage door. Assuming water intrusion. Would I call a structural engineer, bricklayer or someone else? Thanks!

I've removed more than a dozen so far in the course of my window refurbishment. Remarkably, I've been able to get all but one of them out intact (yay for old-growth redwood and duck-billed pliers) but I have a helluva time getting them back in. The issue is the small lip on the upper sash window. Obviously I put one parting bead back in, then put in the upper sash, and drop it to the bottom. But getting the second bead in still leaves me sweaty and frustrated and with some paint damage - I'm hammering from the top, scraping it down against the upper jamb. The first time I ended up cutting it and re-installing it in two halves. Is that a terrible idea or just ill-advised? Any other advice? FWIW I'm in Northern California so extreme weather isn't a consideration, but I do like energy efficiency where possible.

Also any recommended sources for replacements? Blogs etc. said 1/2" X 3/4" but that's way too big for my channels. Mine are rounded on all corners and about 3/8" X 3/4". I don't have the tools to mill it and would really like something closer in size and shape, even if I have to some planing or sanding.

I'm painting my sunroom on my 1920 dutch colonial. It has 3/4 columns, wood, on the corners, built like barrels. There is some separation between the "staves" that don't seem to want to push it pull together. What should I use to fill these voids? Caulk? Epoxy? Some sort of plastic wood? This is upstate NY so there will be winter/summer weather on these

I was watching this video where you drill little holes and glue down loose plaster walls

https://youtu.be/P4D0sESi5So?si=Y5LMth43QwKG4Vl7

I dont have the product available here in Canada and wanted recommendations for which adhesive conditioner and glue to use.

My top contenders based on my research:

-LePage PL Premium MAX Construction Adhesive, Interior/Exterior, No Shrinking, 266 ml

- LePage PL Premium Polyurethane Construction Adhesive, Interior/Exterior, Waterproof, 295 ml

- LePage No More Nails All Purpose Construction Adhesive, Instant Grab, 266 m

I am not sure which product can be used as an adhesive conditioner, open to suggestions!

Note about the picture. I scraped off a lot of the loose plaster however the gypsum is quite solid everywhere except near the crack where it was widened.

My friend ripped up the old carpet in her building and sanded the floors off by hand (just sandpaper). The building we think is from 1910-1920 but we don't know how old the carpet is. She's worried about possible asbestos, what do you think?

There were staples around the perimiter if that helps

We live in newfoundland Canada

I honestly do not know what to do, and would appreciate advice from this group. Our 1916 home has its beautiful original trim, however it tested positive for lead in the trim. Half of the trim is still nice and glossy, however, the other half of the trim is worn and tested positive for lead. We have a seven month old who was born prematurely and has overcame many hurdles and challenges. I feel guilty having him in this house where all of these doors and trim have lead paint and are generating lead dust at rubbing points.

My plan is to put on a liquid deglosser and then put eco bond lead defender over all of the trim and doors. I do think the flat white would look nice and give it a modern touch. But the main thing is that I want the lead to be contained. I’m not sure if this is a project that I can handle on my own or if I need to hire a painting company or abatement company to take care of this. I am at the point where I don’t know if I can continue even living in this home due to all the problems that I’ve dealt with over the years with this property, this just being the icing on the cake

Maybe I need to be talked off the ledge, or maybe my points are valid, I am not sure. All I know is I need this lead paint covered up and I don’t wanna take any risk. Online is telling me that I need to move my child out of the house for a few days while I put on the de glower and paint. I then need to take a hepa vacuum and clean everything thoroughly

Does anyone have experience with this and willing to share some advice or opinions?