Innehållsförteckning för September 2017 från Old House Journal

Of course your house affects your life, in obvious ways. My young parents moved us from a coldwater flat over a garage to a two-family house with a yard—and a swing set!—and life was very different. I’m sure my own children were affected, for better or worse, by growing up in a house that was ramshackle at first (they rode tricycles inside), then under messy, asthma-inducing renovation for eight years, and finally the neighborhood hangout (beach towels for all). I learned all about houseplants because my top-floor Brooklyn floor-through had a south-facing bay with three big windows. In that same 1890s apartment, I decided to wear sweaters in winter because the furnace couldn’t keep up, and I figured out how to open window sash and the old iron roof skylight…

THIS HOUSE fulfilled twin longings for Paula and Harvey Bennett: to live in a Colonial-era house, and to breathe fresh, clean air. Back in 2003, the couple had met with a business associate in Damariscotta, Maine. For twenty years they’d been living in the mid-Atlantic region. But “when we got to Maine, we took a deep breath, looked at each other, and pledged to move here one day,” says Paula. It was only a year later when they moved to the Pine Tree State, where a bracing breeze refreshed their lungs and an 18th-century house stole their hearts. Paula and Harvey live in environmental and historical mindfulness in this two-and-a-half-storey, center-chimney Georgian. With telescoping ells, the house is a textbook example of New England’s attached farmhouses. Rebuilt ca. 1797 to…

DOUBLE GABLE BUNGALOW This landmark 1909 Bungalow is the long-time home of Jim Wigton, who carefully restored it. (Wigton is president of the Monrovia Historic Preservation Group, MoHPG.) It is notable for a dramatic front-gable porch with battered piers of stone, wide eaves, and projecting rafter tails. To the right is a two-storey wing with a stone chimney and eaves similar to those of the porch. TRANSITIONAL STYLE Monrovia boasts some Victorian houses dating from the town’s earliest years, as well as a sampling of turn-of-the-century transitional styles. This 1903 house is an unusual mix of late-Queen Anne traditions with the new bungalow type. The wide eaves with flat consoles are distinctive, but also note that there are no fewer than three patterns of wood shingles in the gable: fishscale,…

HOUR Apply a Wax Finish Luster is restored and protection gained with the use of a wax or finishing paste, which comes clear or matched to the wood color. Wax provides a beautiful finish and minimizes scratches; although it is a thin renewable surface, it doesn’t provide the protection of shellac or varnish. Before waxing, use a clean, barely damp cloth on the piece. Wearing gloves, scoop out a small amount of the paste wax into the center of a clean white cloth. Gather the cloth ends to create a ball, then knead the wax to soften it and work it into the fabric. Rub the ball in a circular motion on one section of the piece. Next, wipe along the grain, leaving an even, thin layer of wax. Allow…

“ “ For the past year, we’ve resorted to holding up the sink stopper with a green plastic clothespin. THE FIX The fault lies not in your gleaming faucet set, but in the workings out of sight. Since you have access to the back and underside of the sink, use a flashlight and look for a vertical metal rod projecting below the back of the basin—the working part of the stopper handle. It should be attached to a horizontal pivot rod with a spring clip. The pivot rod runs through the sink’s drainpipe, where it’s connected by a retaining nut that keeps the joint watertight. The pivot rod connects to the bottom of the stopper inside the drainpipe. Together, the handle and pivot rod move up and down like a…

More than a century ago, this artist’s family from New York began summering in a town later famous for a concert (which actually took place 90 miles away). Even then, Woodstock, New York, was a magnet for the artists, actors, and musicians of the avant-garde. | Now she is the owner of a compact, transitional folk Victorian/Arts & Crafts house on the side of a mountain nearby. She always knew she would return. “There’s no other place like it,” says the bright, energetic Midwesterner. “My mother would say, ‘First there were Bohemians. Then there were the Beatniks. Then in the Sixties it was the hippies.’ So Woodstock has been this way for a long time.” When she began searching for a permanent home 12 years ago, her only desire was…

GO ONLINE TO VOTE! READERS’ PICK PORTLAND, OR / $1,375,000 Low-pitched pyramidal rooflines and wide entry and upper porches mark this 1913 stone and clapboard bungalow as Prairie School-inspired. A living room with a stone hearth opens into the paneled dining room through a wide colonnade. Rooms have restored woodwork and period lighting. LADUE, MO / $899,000 Low slung with deep eaves, an exceptionally wide chimney, and rows of horizontal windows, this architect-designed Mid-century Modern home shows clear Prairie influence. Inside, Prairie themes continue with a delineated, vaulted ceiling over a sunken living room, and a full-width brick fireplace with rectangular pilasters. INDIANAPOLIS, IN / $539,900 This 1920s Prairie-style Foursquare with massive brick porch piers retains its original staircase and passage doors with cut-crystal knobs. In the kitchen, find a…

A DEEPER CUT Made in England, the Eclipse coping saw can cut wood or plaster up to 4 5⁄8" deep. Capable of very tight radius cuts, the 6 ½" high-tension steel blade has 10 teeth per inch. $13.99. Highland Woodworking, (800) 241-6748, highlandwoodworking.com DONE AND DUSTED The Universal dust-free router hood fits many fixed-base and plunge routers, vacuuming up waste while you work. The 7"-diameter clear polycarbonate tool comes with a swiveling hose connection with quick-release lock. $29.99. Oneida Air Systems, (800) 732- 4065, oneida-air.com CUTTING IN CIRCLES Cut precise curves and angles in wood, steel, and other materials with the Craftsman 2 in 1 orbital scrolling sabre saw. Equipped with a 6-amp motor, it comes with an on-demand LaserTrac guide. $79.99. Sears, (800) 349-4358, sears.com SLEEK WARMTH The cherry-framed…

1. BUNNIES LEFT & RIGHT Surrounded by fiddlehead ferns, sparkleberries, and morning glories, the Briar Rabbit panel is finished in proprietary glazes. Rabbit tiles are 6" x 8" each, while the sparkleberry panels are 2" x 8". As shown, $831.52. Terra Firma, (803) 643-9399, terrafirmaarttile.com 2. MOUNTAIN TRIPTYCH Tile murals may be part of an architectural installation, or freestanding art. Depicting an alpine scene in muted glaze colors, “Solitude” is a handmade, threetile set. It's 7 ½" high by 18" wide and may be customized. $225. Ravenstone Tiles, (360) 379-6951, ravenstonetiles.com 3. NATURE’S TILE The handmade tile in the Dogwood Leaves and Berries surround is a custom installation from artist Suzanne Crane. The deco tiles are impressed with natural plant specimens while the clay is still wet. Surround about $1,450.…

High ceilings and well-proportioned rooms cry out for ornamental treatment. Before elaborate woodwork became widespread through innovations in millwork in the late 19th century, ornamental plasterwork was part of the decorative package for many high-style homes. Georgian, Federal, Greek Revival and Neo-Grec, Second Empire, and Neoclassical houses were not considered finished without decorative cornices, medallions, mouldings, and enrichments sculpted in plaster. Over time, many of these ornamental treasures have fallen into disrepair or been lost altogether. Re-creating missing plaster ornament can be a challenge, but you have options: today’s possibilities for replacement include real plaster, age-old composition ornament, and more modern resin- and urethane-based enrichments. THE PRO TIP Because plaster is porous, even interior ornament should be primed and painted. It’s usually easier to do this before the finished ornament…

Window drapery in the mid to late 19th century was heavy and layered. A lace or sheer “glass curtain” was hung as a first layer, overlaid with long drapery panels (often puddling on the floor, suggesting that money was no object), and crowned with a valance, swag, or lambrequin, a pelmet or cornice. The treatments were further trimmed with gilded, carved, or glass holdbacks, tasseled tiebacks, crests—and hung from fancy rods with end finials. Proper window treatments often cost more than the room’s furnishings. “The basics are the same today as they were in the early 1900s,” says Nathan Cole of Designer Drapery Hardware. “Creating the look for a specific period is more about selecting the appropriate style and finish for the hardware, all of which works in similar fashion.”…

WRONG WAY DON’T USE SCREWS Avoid the temptation to simply add a screw from the outside of the chair leg into the tenon. Aside from the visible, modern fastener being a serious breach of aesthetics, screwing into end-grain (at the tenon) will cause more wood loss and loosening. Because of the stresses a chair suffers, stuffing an enlarged mortise with toothpicks or shims, then using ordinary wood glue, makes for a short-lived repair. RIGHT WAY GLUE IT UP Address a loose joint early. If the chair is not valuable and the mortise-and-tenon joint has loosened, use an epoxy, for two reasons: clamping won’t be required, and an epoxy adhesive can bridge gaps up to 1/8". If the stretcher won’t pull completely free of the mortise, drill small holes (1/16" to…

D0 . . . appreciate the survival of early 20th-century Dutch Colonials like this one, quaint with details. The unusual porch is intrinsic to its design and appeal. A house bug-eyed at the enclosure —Debra Rabe Parker ASSAULT AND BATTERY These two Dutch Colonial-style houses are within blocks of each other in an old city in Massachusetts. Each has a gambrel roof with a wide front dormer, and both were built with front porches. The sunny yellow house retains its symmetry, its porch and unusual trim. Over the years, the other house was relieved of details, original siding, shutters—and, finally, the porch, which has been enclosed for additional living space. The incongruous pop-out window can hardly replace that amenity. All sense of time and style has been lost, the proportions…