Indholdsfortegnelse for March/April 2022 i Old House Journal

1. FLAMING CORAL The Midcentury Metro all-gas range in custom Living Coral has a color-matched skirt and trim. Power output for the four burners ranges from 8,000 to 15,000 BTUs; $5,745. Elmira Stove Works, (800) 295-8498, elmirastoveworks.com 2. GOOD MEASURE Made in Liverpool since the 1920s, the Tala Cook’s measure shows American and English cups and pints; imperial, metric, and fluid measurements—handy for following recipes in old cook-books. The cup is tinplate and stands 5 ½" tall; $22.95. Christopher Kimball’s Milk Street, store.177milkstreet.com 3. MADE IN VERMONT Beautifully proportioned, the single-hole levered kitchen faucet features a hand-aged brass finish. The stem swivels side to side and is 15" tall x 10" deep. The handmade faucet comes with a matching drain. $1,350. Atmosphyre, (802) 949-7247, atmosphyre.com 4. SHAKER GRACE Hanging…

A BOUNDARY, NOT BARRICADE Unlike the "de-fences" of old, domestic fencing often acts as a discreet property marker or just ornament. Functionally, fences protect flowers and keep dogs at bay. For picket fences alone, the history is immensely varied. Design changed with the era and from region to region. In the 18th century, New England fences were architectural statements with classical details and carvings. Victorian fences were as fanciful as the era’s wooden gingerbread. You can find documentation in old builders’ catalogs, or perhaps at a museum house, but most historic fences are long gone. Today, consider the site and your goals: Is the fence meant as a subtle boundary marker, as an ornament, or to block an unfortunate view? FENCES OF WOOD Today’s suburban wood fences generally fall into…

An elephant-trunk toilet with raised ornamentation. Quirky old single-tap faucets marked Hot and Cold. A tower drain tub filler with crazed or cracked porcelain buttons. If you have any such fixtures or fittings in your bathroom, count yourself lucky. As with most old things, however, these nearly irreplaceable antiques may be somewhat the worse for wear after a century of use. That doesn’t mean it’s time to rip them out and replace them. THE PRO TIP Supply lines should be of the finest material you can afford—preferably copper— as they provide water for drinking, cooking, and bathing. PVC is fine for drain lines, which carry away used water (although they make more noise when the toilet is flushed). While lead use has been restricted since the 1920s, lead still turns…

I didn’t pay much attention, at first, to the stray ant on my kitchen counter. It must have come in through an open window. Soon I noticed several more, and worrisome trails leading to cupboards. When I opened the microwave oven and found it full of ants feasting on breakfast crumbs, I knew it was time to take action. Ants are everywhere: they’ve been around since the Cretaceous Period, 130 million years ago, and it is estimated there are over 10,000 kinds of ants on the planet, with over 700 types in the U.S. alone. Pavement ants are the most common (those tiny, dark brown or black ants that nest beneath cracks in the cement). Others, too, are common pests: fire ants, sugar ants, odiferous ants, and (old-house shudder) carpenter ants.…

The Cost RETAIL COST OF A CHAIR £I6,000 ($2I,000) Without knowing quite what they would do with them, brothers Ben and Harry Tucker bought several Boeing 737 cowlings early last year. (A cowling is the removable cover of a jet engine.) They’d started a company called Plane Industries, which gave new life to salvaged airplane parts: fuselages made into clocks, doors repurposed as coffee tables. One hot summer afternoon they caught their father resting inside one of the engine covers. Remembering Eero Aarnio’s Ball Chair design of 1963, they had their concept. the story of the cowling chair This is not a DIY project, so we’re summarizing Plane Industries’ process: A raw cowling salvaged from a local airfield is trimmed down, the excess honeycomb cut off until just the exterior…

Sometimes the overpainting on an old ceiling is so thick, it has obliterated the details, is failing over large sections, or is covering rust that needs to be removed. In such cases, you might want to consider stripping the paint. This is a terrible job: the surface is overhead, making work dangerous and fatiguing, and the embossed surface is hard to scrape. Assume you won't get all the paint off; it’s okay, no one inspects the ceiling too closely. Start by mechanically removing whatever paint you can: with a putty knife, scrapers, wire brushes, and steel wool. Stubborn spots that remain should be attacked with a chemical stripping agent. (A heat gun is not a good choice, as the metal ceiling absorbs heat, keeping the paint from melting.) Buy a semi-paste…

YEARS AGO, Rick Ponder bought a Victorian dining table at an estate sale, for $200. He needed chairs, then, to go with the table … and so began his love of 19th-century design: the furniture, silver, ceramics, lighting. With growing collections, Rick and his wife, Mary Lou, searched for an appropriate stage. They’d visited many house museums, including the Campbell House in St. Louis, the Victoria Mansion in Portland, Maine, and the Lockwood–Mathews Mansion in Norwalk, Connecticut. Thus inspired, they looked for houses with 11-or 12-foot ceilings (at least), an original floor plan, and intact architectural elements. THE FRONT PARLOR Glowing stained-glass windows add to the rich atmosphere; this one is framed by period window dressings. The frieze paper was found at auction. TRUE TO PERIOD The Cornelius & Baker…

The backsplash should be fireproof, watertight, and easy to clean (so think twice before using white grout or a very deep relief). Keep it simple, if the room is already busy—or make a range or stovetop the focus with a stunning backdrop.…

STORM WINDOWS—EXPLAINED IN FULL Storm windows (secondary glazing) are a key to making old windows as efficient as anything new on the market. In most cases, we don’t need to replace windows that have already lasted a hundred years with expensive yet inferior units that fail in 10 or 20 years. Storm windows can be complicated, though: exterior or interior? wood or aluminum? fixed or combination? Longtime OHJ contributor Steve Jordan, a veteran restoration contractor, has written a book that lays out all the options and answers. It’s the new companion to Jordan’s acclaimed Window Sash Bible, which explains in depth how to maintain and repair primary wood windows. Storm Windows A Comprehensive Guide to Wood, Combination, Aluminum, and Interior Storm Windows stormwindowsguide.com…

More correctly, they were made of tin-plated steel, and later of steel, stainless steel, zinc, or aluminum. An economical alternative to decorative plaster, they were sold as a fire- and vermin-proof finish. In the 1880s, most installations were commercial, but during their height of popularity, ca. 1895–1915, homeowners used metal to cover damaged plaster or add detail in the kitchen. Hand-operated machinery was used to press the pattern into the metal; W.F. Norman, a Missouri company founded in 1898, still uses their old equipment. More recent manufacturers use hydraulic presses. Get almost any look with neoclassical, Rococo, GothicRevival, and Art Deco patterns. Brick, tile, and stucco textures are good for dadoes in a kitchen, bath, or hall. Complex ceiling installations may include a field pattern, mouldings, enrichment (filler), and a…

Many houses have a mix: supply lines of brass, galvanized (zinccoated) iron, and copper. Vents are traditionally cast iron, drain lines increasingly made of PVC (polyvinyl chloride). Before the advent of copper plumbing in the late 1920s, brass tended to be used for supply lines in the East and galvanized iron was more prevalent elsewhere, says Walter Parker of The Old School Plumber. Over time, the zinc on galvanized pipes erodes, leading to slow drainage and lower water pressure. Pipes become brittle and susceptible to breakage. When Parker worked at the 1914 Pittock Mansion, in Portland, Oregon, he found (and replaced) galvanized pipes with threads so rotten that simply touching a pipe separated it from the rest of the plumbing. Brass does not corrode as aggressively as galvanized iron, but…

Wood develops a patina as it gets old; plumbing develops leaks.—gary feuerstein, p.e., old-house journal, aug./sept. 1983. Venting is essential to healthy plumbing. Drain lines that connect to the sewer or septic tank must seal as waste-water leaves the pipes, or you may experience unpleasant—sometimes dangerous—smells. • The mechanism that does the work here is the lowly trap. The most familiar form is the P-trap, that bend in the pipes beneath the kitchen or bathroom sink. (Other, usually hidden, traps form seals as wastewater leaves the shower, tub, or toilet.) • The bend allows water and waste to flow through, but traps a small amount of water after each use. This forms a seal that keeps vapors from sewer or septic lines from backing up into the house. A trap also…

The well-known entomologist Mark Moffett is known as Dr. Bugs. Here’s what he has to say: “Our Friend, the Ant! Okay, that won’t sound right to most of you. But many of the ants that invade American kitchens in numbers are likely to be “invasives”—aggressive species that came from afar, and worthy of their status as pests. The native ants of American forest and meadow generally do a lot of good. These little social wonders kill pests, aerate the soil, give seeds the opportunity to germinate by burying them in soil, and even pollinate some of our flowers. ‘Go to the ant, thou sluggard, consider her ways and be wise’, advised King Solomon, and I agree.” Moffett’s book Adventures Among Ants describes the roles of ants in wonderful detail, as he…

A classic of industrial design, the Ball Chair (aka Globe or Global chair) was created in 1963 by Finnish designer Eero Aarnio. Quoting the designer: “We had no proper big chair, so I decided to make one. … After some drawing I noticed that the shape of the chair had become so simple that it was merely a ball. I pinned the full-scale drawing on the wall and sat in the chair. … My wife drew the course of my head on the wall. This is how I determined the height of the chair. Since I aimed at a ball shape, the other lines were easy to draw, just remembering that the chair would have to fit through a doorway. “After this I made the first prototype myself using an…

WRONG WAY ACCUMULATING ERROR You’d think it would be easy to create a set of linear measurements for a room, a wall, a window. Yet, time and again, your overall picture will prove to be anything but accurate. More measurements equal more chances for a recording error. Significantly, each time you move your tape or ruler, you re-position it ever so slightly to the left or right of where the last measurement was taken. These fractional discrepancies can add up to a significant disagreement with the overall measurement. RIGHT WAY TAKE RUNNING MEASUREMENTS Have a helper hold one end of the tape measure, if it cannot be fixed in place. At each significant point, carefully record the overall measure indicated on the tape. For moulded or recessed elements that are…

WANT FREE INFORMATION ON OLD HOUSE PRODUCTS AND SERVICES? Simply visit www.oldhouseonline.com/lit to order your free information today! Abatron Inside Back Cover, Page 84 Acorn Manufacturing Pages 56, 82 Airy Kitchens Pages 34, 82 Alameda Shade Shop Page 49 Allied Window Inc. Pages 9, 84 Ball & Ball Pages 31, 84 Belmont College Page 53 Bendheim Pages 20, 82 Bill’s Custom Metal Fabrications Page 84 Bradbury & Bradbury Art Wallpapers Pages 46, 84 Carreaux Du Nord Pages 47, 84 Chelsea Decorative Metal Pages 54, 85 Classic Gutter Systems Pages 47, 85 Clay Squared to Infinity Pages 56, 82 The Color People Page 85 Crown Point Cabinetry Inside Front Cover, Page 82 Donald Durham Company Page 49 Dutch Tile Page 82 Early New England Homes Pages 47, 85 Elmira Stove Works…

Here in the Twin Cities and beyond, thousands of wonderful old bathrooms survive from the 1920s and ’30s. You know the ones: period tile, pedestal sink, Art Deco lighting—also clogged pipes, a tub but no shower, the window in the wrong place. The same problems plagued our main bathroom. Our 1922 house was purchased as a fixer upper. Some years ago, we did a very necessary kitchen renovation, and added a powder room at that time. (My husband, David Heide, is principal in David Heide Design Studio, and I’m the firm’s senior interior designer.) As built, the house had only one bathroom, upstairs. It’s just 9' x 5'4" and had accommodated an entire family. Functional but inelegant and cramped, it had been remodeled in the late 1980s. I reimagined it…

In remodeling the kitchen for a Prairie-style Sears kit home built in 1925, “the objectives were (a) to have the kitchen match the style of the house; (b) to leave walls where they were; (c) to salvage what we could of the room,” says architect Howard Miller, a principal at Seattle’s Studio TJP. The existing kitchen was inefficient. An eating nook occupied the space where the red table and baking station are now; that area was partitioned from the kitchen by a bank of upper and lower cabinets that blocked light. “We left the kitchen sink where it was,” Miller explains. No square footage was added. The window over the breakfast table is new. Flooring is original. Appliances and sink are along the east wall. “One of the owners installed…

First, decide whether you want that needle shower or Fuller lav set reconditioned, or fully restored. At Bathroom Machineries, customers typically opt for full restoration, where the finish on a given piece is stripped down to bare brass, polished, and replated. Other restorers, notably The Old School Plumber and the Plumbing Geek, offer reconditioning, where function is fully restored but the exterior patina remains much the same after corrosion removal and cleanup. When components of a given fixture no longer match, either because of earlier repairs or different exposure conditions, it’s possible to replicate patina. Brian Marrone (the Plumbing Geek), for instance, was asked to refurbish a standing waste assembly where one of two risers was nickel plated while the other was brass. To make them match, the nickel-plated…

The best restoration plumbers are able to repair plumbing in walls and ceilings without damaging the tile. Since most of the plumbing comes up through the floor, it’s less disruptive to get access through the ceiling below, even if the plumbing is embedded in cement, says Walter Parker, The Old School Plumber. He uses similar precision techniques to restack old waste pipes in walls. He figures if a client doesn’t have to spend $10,000 to retile a bathroom, the extra money can be applied to retrofitting vintage fixtures—his specialty.…

Corroded patches may be worrisome, showing up on your old “tin ceiling” . . . or its embossed detail might be obscured by too many layers of paint. Maybe you just discovered an old one, too pretty to remove, beneath a dropped ceiling—but it’s seen better days. Take heart, as most cleaning and repair tasks are low-tech and do-it-yourself. PREP + DE-RUST A revival that started in the 1990s saw metal ceilings embracing their industrial essence—finished not with paint, but with a clear coating that allowed the steel, aluminum, or brass to shine. Historically, though, tin ceilings were painted so that the ornament might mimic decorative plasterwork. Sealing the surface as well as seams, paint also affords protection against rust. To remove a buildup of excess paint, try going over the…

“It’s almost spooky how the stair balustrade simply disappears into a wall. We didn’t focus on it when we bought the house, but now it bothers us.” In our 1929 Foursquare, the stair rail and spindles mysteriously disappear into the living-room ceiling about halfway up. Someone added a separate handrail along the wall above, but installed it so poorly that the hardware has pulled out of the plaster. A bit of baseboard moulding remains at the top of the stair—but it’s chopped off at the transition point. What should it look like? —Lori and Steve Veverka Share Your Story! What have you, your spouse, pet, contractor, previous owner (you get the picture) screwed up? Email us at lviator@aimmedia.com. THE FIX More than one mystery here! It appears that the stairs…

If your house dates to about 1900 or earlier, a Victorianinspired—or fancier Victorian Revival—bathroom are appropriate options. During the height of the 19th-century Victorian era, plumbing came indoors, first to the upper classes and in urban areas. That’s when a bedroom in an earlier Federal or Greek Revival house might have been converted to a bath. The basin and pitcher familiar from the old days was now a sink bowl set into a plumbed dresser or vanity. The bathrooms of the earliest adopters were, not surprisingly, large and lavishly furnished. Layout and decoration followed the conventions of other rooms: The walls had a wainscot (of wood or tile), fill, and frieze sections, if not wallpaper. Sinks and toilets were set into Elizabethan or Aesthetic cabinets sold by J. L. Mott…

PERIOD LEADED GLASS Simple cabinets from Airy Kitchens’ New England line are period-friendly; for this project, some are painted and some stained, for a less fitted look. The leaded-glass design of upper cabinets was inspired by late-Victorian and Craftsman-era windows seen in local houses. The ca. 1920 row house, in the Fairmount neighborhood of Philadelphia, needed major repairs; it had been gutted by a fire in the 1970s. The subsequent remodeling made no attempt at a period look: “It was a DIY ‘Mediterranean’-style job with tiled countertops and harvest-gold appliances,” says homeowner Lynne Gery; she and her husband, Daniel Womer, bought the house in 1986. “I’d approached a few contractors over the years,” Lynne explains, “but I never met anyone I felt comfortable with. So we procrastinated.” • Lynne found…

SUCCESS! DESIGN David Heide Design Studio dhdstudio.com WINDOWS Marvin marvin.com wall tile Cadet Blue 4” ‘Revival’ Mission Tile West missiontilewest.com FLOOR TILE Subway Mosaics Heritage Tile heritagetile.com TOILET ‘Kathryn’ kohler.com ANTIQUE SCONCES Lightworks lightworkslighting.com CRYSTAL KNOBS ‘Old Town’ series Emtek emtek.com DESIGNING FENCES WOOD, METAL, FARM FENCES Find a comprehensive new source list at oldhouseonline.com/gardens-and-exteriors/fencing-sources/ THEY STILL MAKE METAL CEILINGS Chelsea Decorative Metal Co. thetinman.com Pattern sizes up to 24”; tin-plated steel & copper; unusual finishes such as silver, copper, faux W.F. Norman wfnorman.com Since 1898, mfrs. of Hi-Art® sheet-metal products; 140 ceiling patterns, in zinc, copper, or brass—Victorian & Colonial Revival to Art Deco; custom Related Resources American Tin Ceilings americantinceilings.com Many patterns; colors/metallics Classic Ceilings classicceilings.com National distributor of Shanker products, Calif. showroom M-Boss Inc. mbossinc.com Ceilings, backsplashes in tin, aluminum, stainless steel, brass, copper Metal Ceiling Express metalceilingexpress.com Ceilings…

“Best to ask for references before going in for a facelift.”—Rachel Hamilton D0 Take care of the face; neighbors have to look at it! Keep up with wood porch and siding maintenance. For added space, consider a rear extension or dormer, if you can. BUNKERED IN In and around Pittsburgh, the vertical, cross-gabled house type is often referred to as Cottage Style. Built from the late Victorian era into the 1920s, it’s a simple type, although individual houses might show the influence of such styles as Gothic and Italianate. The clapboarded house above falls somewhere between Greek Revival (cornice returns, columns) and a late, Free Classic Queen Anne (full porch, corbeled chimney, two-storey bay on one side). It’s clear that its owners take pride in their old house. “One of…