One of the most satisfying things about restoring an old house is the night and day transformation when you restore hardware. Years of paint and rust can make you think the hardware isn’t worth saving, but I assure you that saving old hardware is worth it! Most hardware on homes built before the 1930s or […]
Whenever the weather starts to turn cooler folks start thinking about storm windows. If you live in the northern part of the country storm windows are an important addition to any old house. Wood storm windows fit perfectly with double-hung windows and blend in seamlessly with the historic character of your old home. There are […]
Fixing up an old house requires a lot of different tools. Some of them are easy to find at the corner hardware store and some are more specialty items that are a lot harder to find. Just like picking the right wood filler or choosing the right primer can make or break your project the […]
There’s a new kid on the historic block and his name is Mid-Century Modern or Mid-Mod. The youngest of the historic styles of architecture I’ve written about Mid-Century Modern architecture was absolutely on fire during the 1950s and 1960s. Pulling from the space race and all the amazing new conveniences available, America was ready for […]
Historic wood windows are kind of like the rock stars when it comes to preservation and restoration, but the steel windows don’t get the attention they deserve. Everybody talks about wood, most people understand the need to preserve them and you’ll find dozens of workshops around the country where homeowners can learn to restore them […]
Lie, lies abound when it comes to old windows. Window companies proclaim how their replacement windows will do everything from curing cancer to saving the whales (hyperbole intended!). How can you tell if a window salesman is lying? His lips are moving. There isn’t a single part of an old house that is in nearly […]
Let’s face it, your home’s utility bills never seem to go anywhere but up. The electric companies steadily raise rates, even if the cost of fuels like coal, oil, nuclear, solar, or wind go down. It’s like the third thing you can never avoid. Death, taxes, and higher utility bills. There is some good news […]
While most of the windows on historic buildings built before WWII used the simple and effective rope and pulley counterweight system, there are some that utilize different balances systems. A popular option were spiral balances, sometimes called a tube balance, and that’s what we’ll talk about today. These balances are not terribly complicated, but they […]
I recently learned of yet another window project gone awry. The 1920 Lake Ave. fire station in Saratoga Springs, NY is due for a renovation. It needs some structural repairs to its floors, some framing repairs, and also window repairs for its almost 100 year old windows. The architect for the job decided that the best way […]
The front door is perhaps the most prominent feature on your house. If you think of your house as a painting, the landscaping is the background, the siding as the body, then the windows are the details that add interest, but the front door is the subject. It’s the face of the person you are […]
This week’s Ask The Craftsman question comes from Douglas. “What do you recommend to remove stain from an antique mantle?” Douglas, I’m assuming that we are not talking about pet stains here. Stains from pet urine blacken wood in a way that cannot be removed without replacing the wood. Removing a stained finish from wood […]
“The greenest building is the one that is already built.” Architect Carl Elefante who is the Director of Sustainable Design at Qunin Evans Architects in Washington, D.C. said it very succinctly. Eco-nerds talk about sustainability and energy-efficient design as much as us preservation-nerds talk about wood windows and plaster. But isn’t it amazing when two worlds that […]
