There are some very famous old houses that we have grown up on TV, the news, or are famously haunted and I thought that since it’s halloween it might be fun to take a look at those houses and what made them so special. So, for this very special halloween post we’ll be digging into […]
One of my favorite insulations on the market today is mineral wool otherwise known as Rock Wool. Even though it lags in use compared to the more popular fiberglass insulation that most people are familiar with it is, in my humble opinion one of the best insulations available today. You may be wondering why you […]
Running a business in the world of construction and restoration fields I am often left asking this question. Where have all the tradesmen gone? In years past it wasn’t a problem trying find an able-bodied man or woman interested in working a good paying job doing manual labor, but after the Great Recession of 2008 […]
All houses need some kind of maintenance to keep performing their best, and old houses are no exception. Actually, they typically need more maintenance than newer homes which can be a deterrent for some homeowners, but I think we should look at the situation a little differently. Homes built after WWII were designed with planned […]
Transom windows seem to have a bit of mystery about them. A lot of people don’t understand exactly what a transom window is so I figured that it was high time that this window guy wrote a post explaining the ins and outs of transom windows. A transom window is essentially another window above a […]
After Japan’s defeat in World War II, the American occupation of the country brought a lot of of America’s products to the country as it struggled to rebuild itself. One of those inventions the Japanese first imported was air conditioning to alleviate the sweltering Japanese summers. Though the Japanese loved the technology, the format of […]
Which one should you get? The debate between buying a heat gun or an infrared paint stripper is a question a lot of folks have been asking these days as this new technology has begun getting more attention and, it’s one worth asking if you have a lot of paint to strip particular lead paint […]
Legend has it that in 1832 George Snow of Chicago invented ballon frame construction when he erected a warehouse near the mouth of the Chicago River. This radically new form of building construction got this derogatory nickname from the appearance that the building was as light as a balloon due to the much smaller framing […]
I’m a restoration contractor (state licensed Certified Residential Contractor) here in the state of Florida and I felt it was high time that people across the country could get a sense of what the typical costs are for historic restoration and old house repair. There are other websites like Home Advisor and Angie’s List that […]
If you have a brick or stone home you may have wondered at some point, “What is tuckpointing?”. You’re not alone. In its most basic sense, tuckpointing is the process of adding a decorative mortar joint to a brick or stone structure to change the appearance. Much like adding a texture or pattern to a […]
Alright, this week I had the painful experience of reading an article on The Atlantic that can only be found in America as the fruits of common core math begin sprouting in the minds of today’s journalists and city planners. On the journalistic scale of 1-10 this one came in at a solid -126. That […]
So you’ve got an old house. You love it, you hate. Welcome to the club! Historic homes can be a great joy sometimes, but they are definitely different from new homes and understanding those differences can make life in an old house more enjoyable. LIfe was different 100 years ago and these houses were built […]
