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I live in a 110 year old house. I bought the house because of the features the 110 year old house offered. Hardwood floors, oak built in's, window seat in the dining room, original wavy glass windows and the original back door still with wavy glass intact. Claw foot tub and original sink in the upstairs bath.
Now there has been some remuddling and that happens. The kitchen is an 80's mess and will be gutted, the bathroom downstairs was horrible (leaking 70's mess) and it is now gutted waiting to be redone. I'll have to tear out plaster because of cracks and poor patching jobs done by previous owners but I'd keep it all if I could. Every piece of oak trim will carefully be put back in here when we do the walls.
I don't know how many houses I looked at that were old but had been remoddled to a point they were a mess and really the things that make an old house charming had been removed. Trim was painted that should have been left alone, trim just flat removed, cheap wall coverings over plaster, ugly floor coverings, original fixtures removed and replaced, original windows replaced with crap vinyl. I passed on a lot of houses because I want the authentic, not reproduction.
I live in a 110 year old house. I bought the house because of the features the 110 year old house offered. Hardwood floors, oak built in's, window seat in the dining room, original wavy glass windows and the original back door still with wavy glass intact. Claw foot tub and original sink in the upstairs bath.
Now there has been some remuddling and that happens. The kitchen is an 80's mess and will be gutted, the bathroom downstairs was horrible (leaking 70's mess) and it is now gutted waiting to be redone. I'll have to tear out plaster because of cracks and poor patching jobs done by previous owners but I'd keep it all if I could. Every piece of oak trim will carefully be put back in here when we do the walls.
I don't know how many houses I looked at that were old but had been remoddled to a point they were a mess and really the things that make an old house charming had been removed. Trim was painted that should have been left alone, trim just flat removed, cheap wall coverings over plaster, ugly floor coverings, original fixtures removed and replaced, original windows replaced with crap vinyl. I passed on a lot of houses because I want the authentic, not reproduction.
Very common practice. Many old homes ( late 1800s early 1900s ) are large and give a lot for the money...a lot of headaches that is !... People are lured to these places because of the cheap pricing and still have so many rooms. The ones that have not been properly restored, have mostly had poor rebuilds several times over the years. Often the top floors are sealed off due to heat ing problems. Plumbing is unsafe along with messed up electrical. My advice is to stay clear of places like this. The money saved in heating and cooling costs by renting an apartment more than makes up for " owning your own mess" , money pit.
Save your coin , buy a large lot just outside of town , and build your own home. Some of the new Modular designs can be great savings , and you can be into your home in a few months. Stay away from double wides and any house that has a steel frame under it for wheels to attach too. The exception is a Motorhome , but , thats a whole nother story, and one worth considering depending on where you are in life..... I have done all the above, and can speek from experence.
We have a similar sink in our home. Huge double-drain farmhouse sink. When people come to visit most have never seen a sink like this. I found info including 1940s ads:
We bought one on E-bay for about $200 plus $150 for shipping. They are neat but not super practical. The sink is shallow and tends to splash under full water volume. The drain is too small to allow a food grinder. The wall mounted faucet is hard to find and there are limited options avialable for wall mounted sink faucets. Ours is a single sink and not real practical for washing dishes. the double drainboard is neat, but it is usually covered by plants, glassware, nick nacks, etc. Fortunately, we have a double stainless commercial dish sink hidden away with the dishwasher in a small secret room in the kitchen where it cannot be seen.
We bought one on E-bay for about $200 plus $150 for shipping. They are neat but not super practical. The sink is shallow and tends to splash under full water volume. The drain is too small to allow a food grinder. The wall mounted faucet is hard to find and there are limited options avialable for wall mounted sink faucets. Ours is a single sink and not real practical for washing dishes. the double drainboard is neat, but it is usually covered by plants, glassware, nick nacks, etc. Fortunately, we have a double stainless commercial dish sink hidden away with the dishwasher in a small secret room in the kitchen where it cannot be seen.
Wall mounted faucets are very expensive and few companies make them. Kohler is about the only one I have found. I am looking now for two of them for my vessel sinks in the Master Bath. Sinks are cheap , about 100 bucks , but the faucsts run 400-500 each, ouch !
Wall mounted faucets are very expensive and few companies make them. Kohler is about the only one I have found. I am looking now for two of them for my vessel sinks in the Master Bath. Sinks are cheap , about 100 bucks , but the faucsts run 400-500 each, ouch !
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Home Depot sells a cheapo one for about $20. You are lucky if it lasts more than a year before it starts leaking. They do not always stock them, so when they had them we would buy two or three to last for a while.
We eventually got a nice one online for about $200. I cannot remember the brand. Classic something was the name of the seller.
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Home Depot sells a cheapo one for about $20. You are lucky if it lasts more than a year before it starts leaking. They do not always stock them, so when they had them we would buy two or three to last for a while.
We eventually got a nice one online for about $200. I cannot remember the brand. Classic something was the name of the seller.
Thanks for the update. I will get serious this winter as the project comes together. I always start on Ebay anyway......
i didn't read all the posts, but my comments on restoration vs rehab amount to, "don't throw the baby out with the bathwater":
- plaster is the best wall material. it the old days even the walls represented craftsmanship. save it if possible. it isn't as bad to work with as people act. tearing out perfectly good plaster and hanging drywall is like throwing out a '71 benz with a flat tire to get a new kia. learn how to work with the plaster.
- please don't replace the woodwork. so many times i see people rip out irreplaceable 6 inch trim and molding and replace it with 3 inch pre-painted MDF stuff from home depot. this is the #1 thing NOT TO DO in my opinion.
- keep the doors. this seems simple, but sometimes a door won't latch and someone will go buy a new cheap panel board prehung door and leaving a beautiful old-growth heart pine door by the curb.
- consider keeping the windows. window companies like to act like old windows are "trash" when in reality they are very good. they can be refurbished to open and close nicely at a minimal cost. then you can get either interior or exterior storms and have a window with nearly identical weatherization properties to a new double-pane window. my 100 year old house has original windows and half the windows have modern storms with combination screen / storms (no changing out the storms twice a year). the other half have no storms, nothing. personally, i would not buy a historic home with vinyl windows, even if they are brand new. i would consider one with quality wood windows. but i prefer original windows with high-end storms. high-end storms for a whole house will cost $5-$8k
there are options for rewiring and adding conveniences. learn the house. for example, maybe there are pocket doors that can easily be removed, giving you access to a nice gap to run plumbing and wires up to the second floor.
there aren't hard and fast rules, but take your time and respect the house and think twice before taking out anything that can't be replaced, whether it is a fireplace surround, plaster, or old hardwood floors.
My house was built in 1930 and I definitely would not change it to any other style, including mid-century modern. We have a giant front porch with elephantine columns, wide baseboards and molding, tons of millwork, pocket doors, french doors, etc. If I were ever to add anything, let's say a back porch, I would want it in the same architecture of the original home.
That said, I like mid-century modern furniture and accessories. But we are sticking only to decor. We have several vintage lamps with drum shades, a cow skin rug for the parlor and I have an original sputnik chandelier that I plan to restore. I have a fiberglass Eames-style chair but haven't figured where to put it. We might get some lucite chairs but they would be repros.
I think the style of our house lends it open to lots of possibilities regarding interior design. And I think alot of the mid-century stuff works well in early 20th-century houses.
When we bought our house the first thing we did was rip out the carpet. But instead of going with the original color/stain (sort of a golden oak) we went with a much much darker finish. Is that original to the house? doubtful, but at least we made an effort to save the original floors. We have discussed putting in an attic bedroom, which would change the roof line assuming we put in dormers. We would try to stay as close to the style and spirit of the house but would that not permanently alter the style of the house? Not trying to argue, just pondering.
It seems with any house renovation it all boils down to "can the style of a house be more fluid or is it something set in stone when built?" I tend to believe it is a fine line between beauty and functionality. What is the point in keeping a home entirely original if it is impractical or worse unsafe and no one will live there? I've always sort of thought of houses as living things (yeah I know I'm weird) dependent on people, without someone living there a house dies. On the other hand, when people buy an older house (which is a somewhat limited resource if you think about it) and completely gut it and sell off/throw out everything that makes that house unique in the name of utility and modernization is a crying shame that turns my stomach.
My last little rant is that the vinyl window industry is the biggest sham and crock in the home improvement industry. You loose way way more heat through your roof/attic than you ever do through your windows. For the love of home, if you have original windows, pay someone to come out and repair them and put storm windows on. Old windows with storms are just about as energy efficient as those new windows that are inappropriate on 99% of old homes and is the quickest way to destroy the look of an older home.
*steps down from the soap box*
When we bought our house the first thing we did was rip out the carpet. But instead of going with the original color/stain (sort of a golden oak) we went with a much much darker finish. Is that original to the house? doubtful, but at least we made an effort to save the original floors. We have discussed putting in an attic bedroom, which would change the roof line assuming we put in dormers. We would try to stay as close to the style and spirit of the house but would that not permanently alter the style of the house? Not trying to argue, just pondering.
I share this same general philosophy. I don't match styles exactly, but I save what I can and find using original materials extremely gratifying.
For example, below is my medicine cabinet. It had 15 layers of paint and was in bad shape. I redid it and stained it and painted it in a way that would have never been done in 1915. historically appropriate would have been a fresh, white paint job. but, 100 years later, the original cabinet is still there, now in the best condition it has been since it was new. it would have been far easier to rip it out and put in a prefab one from the big orange. and that is why contractors and flippers rip and replace. nobody trying to flip a house and make a profit is going to take the time to strip the silver off of an old foggy beveled glass mirror, keep the newly clean glass, and have a new mirror cut to mount behind the original mirror glass like i did for this project. (by the way, don't pick on the wall color, it came with the house and i need to paint!)
i didn't read all the posts, but my comments on restoration vs rehab amount to, "don't throw the baby out with the bathwater":
- plaster is the best wall material. it the old days even the walls represented craftsmanship. save it if possible. it isn't as bad to work with as people act. tearing out perfectly good plaster and hanging drywall is like throwing out a '71 benz with a flat tire to get a new kia. learn how to work with the plaster.
- please don't replace the woodwork. so many times i see people rip out irreplaceable 6 inch trim and molding and replace it with 3 inch pre-painted MDF stuff from home depot. this is the #1 thing NOT TO DO in my opinion.
- keep the doors. this seems simple, but sometimes a door won't latch and someone will go buy a new cheap panel board prehung door and leaving a beautiful old-growth heart pine door by the curb.
- consider keeping the windows. window companies like to act like old windows are "trash" when in reality they are very good. they can be refurbished to open and close nicely at a minimal cost. then you can get either interior or exterior storms and have a window with nearly identical weatherization properties to a new double-pane window. my 100 year old house has original windows and half the windows have modern storms with combination screen / storms (no changing out the storms twice a year). the other half have no storms, nothing. personally, i would not buy a historic home with vinyl windows, even if they are brand new. i would consider one with quality wood windows. but i prefer original windows with high-end storms. high-end storms for a whole house will cost $5-$8k
there are options for rewiring and adding conveniences. learn the house. for example, maybe there are pocket doors that can easily be removed, giving you access to a nice gap to run plumbing and wires up to the second floor.
there aren't hard and fast rules, but take your time and respect the house and think twice before taking out anything that can't be replaced, whether it is a fireplace surround, plaster, or old hardwood floors.
Restoration can be more expensive than building new . No doubt about it. I agree using cheap materials , to save money , is the wrong way to go. In this day of DIY , many things are done cheap and easy , just to sell more products and to give people a false feeling that " its New" , a big mistake .
All this said , many older homes , especially the more architectural designed and expensive ones , were built with materials that were inferior than what is available today. It takes a lot of knowledge, research , and dedication , to restore an important old home , like it was when new , and still retain the look, with better insulation , and functional design.
I am a avid supporter of Historical reconstruction, when it comes to homes , or old cars, which I have restored many over the years. Doing it right the first time is always better than having to do it over again , because you made mistakes and to save money.... DIY can be the worst thing you can do, if , thats all you are trying to acomplish , save money .
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