This post may be a bit on the math nerd side, but sometimes in construction a math nerd is the one who makes the difference between a building falling down and one that lasts a hundred years. Old houses are notoriously void of right angles. They have shifted and settled over the years and nothing [...] Read on →
Sometimes it’s nail holes and sometimes it’s rotten wood, but your projects will often require you to patch wood. In this post I’ll help you determine the best materials (and there are tons available!) to use when the time comes to patch wood projects. The type of material you should use will depend on what [...] Read on →
I was driving through the suburbs yesterday on the way to a friend’s place when I noticed something that has never really stood out to me before. House after house, street after street I noticed a pattern. The houses in this area were standard 1990s – 2000s stucco behemoths typical in Florida. Aside from being [...] Read on →
The law of supply and demand is a basic economic principle of a free market that goes like this: As demand for an item goes up the price goes up. This attracts new suppliers who increase the supply bringing the price back to normal. The laws of supply and demand are constantly in motion in our economy [...] Read on →
In 2001 I had just returned to New York City from a year in Tokyo performing for Walt Disney. It was a fantastic experience living in a such a different culture and country, but I was happy to be back home in America. The lease had run out on my old apartment and I was [...] Read on →
In the name of progress we have made some pretty dumb “improvements” to the things we use to build a house over the centuries. Some have killed people like asbestos and others are just so atrociously ugly they deserve to die a slow death in a landfill. And the winners of the dumbest building materials [...] Read on →
Installing trim properly requires an eye for detail and a few specific tools and techniques. The best historic trim and moldings were installed in a seamless way called “coping” that hides joints while still allowing for the house to move and settle with the decades. A coped joint is a big part of the installation [...] Read on →
I have a lot of friends and clients whose homes fall into something I like to call the Historical Cusp. They don’t live in a house of any particular historical significance, and it’s not quite old enough to have been built by hand with non-standardized materials. But it still maintains some of the characteristics I [...] Read on →
Lately, I have been drooling over the idea of building myself a Tiny House. It may seem like a stretch for a guy who talks constantly about old houses to want to build a new one, but a Tiny House has plenty in common with a historic home. I’ve been talking with Alex Pino at [...] Read on →
Learning how to repair wood rot is a part of life when it comes to life in an old house. But what if you could prevent it? Working in a wet climate, like Florida, I have assembled a very specific routine to prevent wood rot on anything I build that will be outdoors. The expense [...] Read on →
Linoleum and vinyl. Vinyl and linoleum. If you’re like most people you might think they are the same thing. But in reality they could not be more different. They two very different products from two very different times. Each one has its advantages but only one of them rightfully belongs in a historic home. Do [...] Read on →
So many folks go a little crazy with the seemingly endless list of repairs they inherit with their first old house. It can be overwhelming. There is too much to do and too little money and time that they freeze up and don’t do anything! Well, don’t become one of those people. There is a [...] Read on →
The Mushroom Effect is an interesting phenomenon in home improvement that is particularly prominent in old houses. This is not an actual problem with fungus growing in the walls of an old home. No! It is much more serious than that. It happens when a small, and rather innocuous home improvement project, quickly mushrooms into [...] Read on →
Your historic home’s proportions were carefully thought out. They were planned by a designer or architect to work together and complement the overall style of the house. An out of scale addition like an oversized dormer or an undersized porch will only serve to confuse the look of your house. If you’re planning a renovation [...] Read on →