All Blog Posts (288)

Here's are a few shots of an American Foursquare in Kansas City, Missouri. I've posted photos of dozens more restored historic homes in the Pendleton Heights Neighborhood Virtual Tour. …

Foaming of the roof:

Attic half that was previously finished:

The unfinished side of the attic:…

We are trying to get a picture of the original mantle. It was supposedly very ornate and matched the 1/4 sawn oak trim and corinthian columns in our stairway. It is missing, and there are two areas of thought. It was either stolen or the old man who owned the home and may have had some dementia, let it go some how.

In any case it was not there when we bought the house:…

The house has and intricate inlay in the foyer as seen below:

The dinning room is maple:…

The pictures below show the walls and ceiling repairs post electrical install. Interesting note. We looked inot repairing the plaster ceiling where it was cracked and weak. These plastic washers with sheetrock screws are used to pull the plaster up tight to the lath.

 …

Rewiring the whole house. We could not help but to cut into the plaster walls and ceilings. Our contractor promised that he had a guy who would be able to patch it and make it look great. We are holding our breath. Below are sample pictures of how the wiring was run. At lease we did not have to damage the floors.

 …

I am a little late in updating. The major work has occured during the month of November 2011.

The original roof was shake shingles and was replaced sometime with asphalt. We replaced the old shingleswith Owens Corning Duration Premium, which provides that same shake-like look. This was finished between snow storms this week.

The main chimney was rebuilt so that a new gas boiler could be installed. A liner will be put in as well. The chimney was only rebuilt back up to the level…

I have never had a kitchen that I designed to fit my own cooking style until now. While so many people are taking down walls to create an open design, I was very happy with my kitchen partitioned off from the rest of the first floor.

I love to cook, but if I am sitting at my dining table, I don't want…

The first time I walked through the first floor of my house, it struck me that the house was built in 1924, yet the first floor had a beautiful flow to it, and an open floorplan. The kitchen is separated from the rest of the rooms by a swinging door and a half-stairwell that leads to the basement and the backyard. This was fine with me - I'm not crazy about the contemporary floorplans that slam the kitchen right in the middle of the 'living space'. I don't really want my dirty dishes, and…

The reason I bought this house to begin with was two-fold. I fell in love with the woodwork and leaded glass windows, but the house also has a 700 square foot, boarded up storefront that I eventually want to restore and divide it into two spaces - a first floor bathroom and laundry, and a large music room and performance space. I won't be working on the storefront for a while, so I turned the third bedroom on the second floor of the house into an office/music room so that I have a place to…

Continued from 12/9/2011

     In addition, aluminum and vinyl siding is often applied to buildings in need of maintenance and repair, thereby concealing problems which are an early warning sign of deterioration. Cosmetic treatment to hide difficulties such as peeling paint, stains or other indications of deterioration is not a sound preservation practice. In addition, artificial siding makes it impossible to monitor the condition of the building because it is hidden from…

2. Applying vinyl or other synthetic materials.

      Structures are historic because the materials and craftsmanship reflected in their construction are tangible and irreplaceable evidence of our cultural heritage. Substitute materials subtract from the basic integrity, historically and architecturally, of buildings. Historic materials should be retained wherever possible.  Since wood has always been present in abundance in America, there is a richness and diversity of wood sidings…

Have you entered our Holiday Photo Contest yet? The photo to the left was submitted by Martha--like it on Facebook or challenge her by…

When I first looked at this house, the previous owners made some, errrr... interesting choices, but probably the most memorable was the gawdawful royal blue paint on the walls in one of the bedrooms. It was so awful, the room actually felt as if it were vibrating. To make matters worse, there were these long, Frankenstein-looking plaster repairs on every wall.…

In the intro to my last blog, I let it be known IN WRITING (!!) that I would be moved into my house by Labor Day. Not that anyone is going to hold my feet to the fire for it, but it gave me a tangible goal that was well within reach. So how did I do? I actually slept in my house for the first time on August 27, 2011 - the Saturday before Labor Day.YES!…

1. Repointing bricks with modern mortar. Masonry is one of the most durable historic building materials, however it is also very susceptible to damage as a result of improper maintenance or repair. Mortar is used to bond together masonry units. The interaction between mortar and brick or stone is complex and often misunderstood. Historic mortar (lime based) was generally soft and readily allowed water or vapor to pass. Modern mortar (Portland cement) is very hard and slow to transmit water…

  You know that to preserve your home you must take responsibility for it's care. Some of you are handy and willing to tackle this "homework". Some of you are not as well versed in swinging a hammer and the such, in that case calling for reinforcements - a friend of a friend of a friend who repaired something in a house before. I am not knocking either approach, what my concern is - have you done your due…

So over the last few days I have removed all of the cabinet doors bagging and tagging all hardware along with a location tag on each door. 

steps taken so far in door prep

1. removed hinges, and any other hardware, tagging each with location
2. used a commercial strength degreaser to clean doors.  I was amazed at how dirty the doors were upon close inspection.
3. set the doors aside so they cold dry and the degreaser would continue to…

As mentioned in an earlier posting, my wife and I have opted to create a master plan for old home and one of the focuses was to look at what to do with our 1980's kitchen redo by a pervious owner.  We are doing most of the work ourselves i have found this article as a great primer for the project http://www.thisoldhouse.com/toh/article/0,,202424,00.html

here is the inspiration for our current…

One of the biggest challenges of the green remodeling movement is to come up with technologies and cost-effective solutions that will allow existing houses to be retrofitted into top-performing energy efficient buildings, while diminishing the disruption to the existing structure, and preserving historic and architectural features.

iFoam injection foam insulation is a relatively new insulation product that  provides air sealing and insulation capabilities, like conventional spray…