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All Blog Posts (288)

Anthony Marstall Historic Pendleton Heights Virtual Tour

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. …

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Added by Anthony Marstall on January 28, 2012 at 12:00am — No Comments

Bill Hendrickson Insulation

Foaming of the roof:

Attic half that was previously finished:

 

The unfinished side of the attic:…

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Added by Bill Hendrickson on January 20, 2012 at 5:30am — No Comments

Bill Hendrickson The Fireplace Mantle

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:…

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Added by Bill Hendrickson on January 19, 2012 at 8:00am — 2 Comments

Bill Hendrickson Flooring: Before & After

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

The dinning room is maple:…

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Added by Bill Hendrickson on December 23, 2011 at 2:00am — 2 Comments

Bill Hendrickson Electrical Install After with Plaster wall and Ceiling Repair

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.

 

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Added by Bill Hendrickson on December 20, 2011 at 8:24am — 4 Comments

Bill Hendrickson Electrical Before

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.

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Added by Bill Hendrickson on December 20, 2011 at 7:00am — No Comments

Bill Hendrickson The Roof & Chimney

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…

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Added by Bill Hendrickson on December 20, 2011 at 6:00am — 2 Comments

Karan Andrea An Unintentionally French Country Kitchen

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…

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Added by Karan Andrea on December 18, 2011 at 8:00pm — No Comments

Karan Andrea Open Floorplan: Arts & Crafts Style

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…

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Added by Karan Andrea on December 18, 2011 at 1:21am — 4 Comments

Karan Andrea Finally a Creative Space: My Music Room

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…

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Added by Karan Andrea on December 17, 2011 at 11:19pm — No Comments

Lois Groshong Your House is a Money Pit --10 Common Mistakes People Make While Working on their Historic Building

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…

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Added by Lois Groshong on December 14, 2011 at 12:27pm — No Comments

Lois Groshong 10 Common Mistakes People Make While Working on their Historic Building.

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…

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Added by Lois Groshong on December 9, 2011 at 1:11pm — No Comments

Community Host Holiday Photo Contest: See Some of Our Favorites!

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…

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Added by Community Host on December 8, 2011 at 5:30pm — No Comments

Karan Andrea Now Taking Reservations: A Guest Room without the Blues...

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.…

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Added by Karan Andrea on December 8, 2011 at 2:38pm — No Comments

Karan Andrea Renovation Complete: The Master Bedroom & Back Hall

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!…

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Added by Karan Andrea on December 8, 2011 at 10:58am — No Comments

Lois Groshong 10 Common Mistakes People Make While Working on their Historic Building

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…

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Added by Lois Groshong on December 5, 2011 at 11:45am — No Comments

Lois Groshong Your House is a Money Pit...

  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…

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Added by Lois Groshong on December 1, 2011 at 2:15pm — No Comments

Nick Wylie Cabinet door painting

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…
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Added by Nick Wylie on October 31, 2011 at 11:57am — 1 Comment

Nick Wylie Kitchen remodel begins

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…

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Added by Nick Wylie on October 31, 2011 at 11:49am — No Comments

Cynthia Freeney Green Old Houses: Injection Foam Insulation for Existing Walls

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…

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Added by Cynthia Freeney on October 27, 2011 at 4:06pm — 2 Comments

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