Innehållsförteckning för March/April 2019 från Old House Journal

A recent OHJ reader survey turned up the fact that many subscribers are on their fourth—or seventh!—serial restoration. (OHJ launched in 1973 and many people have been with us for a good part of the ride.) Unlike flippers, they live in the houses they restore. I’m on the lookout for that trend as I correspond with readers and produce stories. Michigan homeowners Tom and David sent photos of their Shingle Style makeover and its farmhouse kitchen, mentioning in passing that this sixth project was possibly their last. David sent a photo of the sprawling Queen Anne house they’d meticulously restored and then sold during the move to the lake. Amazing. People who restore old houses tend to have related passions. “Thank you for mentioning Ishpeming,” David wrote to me; “I’m…

1. ELEGANCE IN CHEMISTRY The Professor gives the concept of pour-over coffee a distinctively Victorian spin with this adjustable solid-brass design. Featuring a Hario V60 glass pour over, the device will develop patina. It measures 10 ½" tall x 5 ½" wide, $229.95. Kaufmann Mercantile, (855) 848-3778, kaufmann-mercantile.com 2. SLEEK AND SINGLE Outfit a pantry sink with the Lille single-lever, deck-mounted mixer. In 13 finishes from matte black to satin nickel, it features restrained Art Deco detailing. The height of the swiveling C spout is just under 18" tall. In polished brass, $792. Herbeau, (800) 547-1608, herbeau.com 3. CENTURY-OLD BOWLS Mason Cash mixing bowls were first produced by an English pottery in 1901. Now made in Portugal, they come in seven sizes in the original Cane (yellow ware) color. And…

WRONG WAY THE SAME BLADE FOR EVERYTHING It’s tempting just to stick with the blade that came with the saw—but, if you do, you’re stuck with some cuts that are far less than ideal. If you are cutting 2x4s for framing, it probably doesn’t much matter. But for projects like furniture, door trim, or crown moulding, you must use the proper, sharp blade to get the best finish. For your safety, never use a damaged blade. RIGHT WAY CHOOSE THE RIGHT, SHARP BLADE Choose your blade according to the task at hand. Blades come in varying sizes and are designed for use in miter saws, table saws, and circular saws. But they work best when used for the cuts intended. Practice with some scrap wood in order to get comfortable…

“Eyeballs and teeth, like a grimace emoji!”—Stephen Smith WIGGED-OUT WINDOWS These two houses are in the same neighborhood in a New England town. Not that they were ever exactly the same: In the more intact example, the main block is a symmetrical “full house” with a center entry. The other appears to be a three-quarter house, its entry door flanked by a single window on one side and two on the other. At this point, though, it’s hard to tell what happened during remodeling. Two picture-window bays replaced original windows downstairs; the one in the wing calls unfortunate attention to the siding, which is corbeled out underneath. The story behind changes made upstairs is anyone’s guess. Why remove double-hung windows to replace them with small lights that ruin the integrity…

MILBURN, NJ / $699,000 This 1929 Dutch Colonial Revival has the gambrel end facing the street. Note the wide bay window and entry portico with pediment and columns. Inside are hardwood floors, a brick fireplace, and updated marble baths. ELKINS PARK, PA / $675,000 Built 1903, this stone Dutch Colonial has a balustraded porch, grand entry foyer with unpainted woodwork, overmantel fireplaces, two bay windows with interior shutters, and period-sympathetic kitchen and baths. LONG BEACH, CA / $3,195,000 The seat of the former Bixby Ranch, this architect-designed Shingle Style mansion retains its unusual balustraded gambrel roof and leaded-glass windows. Inside: rich original paneling, beamed ceilings, carved built-ins, period lighting. DODGE CITY, KS / $387,400 Built on Boot Hill in 1927, the Dutch Colonial Revival Burr Mansion also has a gambrel…

Compact and elegant, a pedestal sink is an old-fashioned comeback that works well in small or half bathrooms. The lack of a cabinet opens up floor space and visually expands the room. Pedestal sinks arrive in two parts: a sink vessel that must be anchored to the wall, and a base that is attached to the floor. The plumbing is surprisingly tricky, so most homeowners call a plumber. Even so, with these guidelines, you’ll be able to make a decision on purchase and prep the site yourself. Be sure to purchase a faucet set with a suitable projection for the depth of the sink bowl. Traditional styles are still widely available. TYPICAL PROCEDURE STEP 1 Turn off water supply and turn on the faucet to drain the hot and cold…

“The room is cold, there are telltale holes in the floor… where’d the radiator go?” THE FIX Not everyone appreciates the utility (and Steampunk beauty) of vintage cast-iron steam radiators. But even if you hate them, there are better ways to go. Remember that when the radiators were put in, the builder or plumber calculated heat requirements for the house as a whole and specifically for each room. Radiators were sized and placed accordingly. Removing one or more leaves the house with inadequate heat. Unheated rooms will be chilly. To replace the heat source, you’ll need a unit capable of producing between 30 and 60 BTUs per square foot, depending on your home’s zone (energy.gov/eere/buildings/climate-zones). For example, a 150-sq.ft. entry hall in cold Zone 5 would require a heating unit…

THE 1915 HOME in the Irvington neighborhood was a showcase for local builder H.E. Stinson. He located it at the last stop on the trolley line. For the exterior, Stinson picked up modern motifs of the Prairie School style. Inside was a different story: While casings have simple Arts & Crafts construction, cornices are heavily three-dimensional, and fireplace mantels feature dentil mouldings and columns. A century later, Nikki Neuburger and David Schriber were feeling cramped in a small Irvington home, where the couple and David’s two children shared an inconvenient single bathroom upstairs. “I had plans to host 40 family members over the holidays,” Nikki recalls, and that sent the family house hunting. “Houses in Irvington are pleasingly old and sought-after,” David explains. “We were happily surprised to find one…

AN EDUCATOR who grew up in old houses, Matthew Domas is partial to stained glass. When he encountered the front door of this house in Memphis, he was smitten. Having married in 2003, he and Elizabeth were looking for a home where they could raise children. Elizabeth, a coowner of a nursing business, grew up near New Orleans. Although its simplicity reminded her of her home city’s architecture, she wasn’t convinced that the neglected house could be brought back. “It was in terrible shape,” she says. “Matthew had to convince me.” The house was built in 1903—a 3,800-square-foot, 2½-storey foursquare in the city’s Central Gardens neighborhood. Matthew and Elizabeth, who bought it in 2005, installed new wiring, a new roof, new gutters, and new landscaping. Elizabeth designed a kitchen that…

The 1885 house had a triple waterfront lot… but it was a wreck, needing a functional furnace, a partial rebuild for the chimney, a new roof, paint, and repairs to porch columns and ceiling. Someone had suggested that David, then a volunteer for the local historical society, go look at the “interesting” house right behind one featured on our annual Historic Home Tour Fundraiser. We are serial restorers, and of course we wanted the house, which had gone to foreclosure. It took a year of negotiation with the bank/seller. By 2009, all the critical work on this house was done and David’s dad moved in. In 2014, we sold our previous Victorian house and a few big projects resumed here: professional refinishing of the wood floors, interior painting, and putting…

The room has an eclectic mix of styles, with “Mission” Arts & Crafts furniture, Classical Revival lighting, and Moorish or Exotic design in the tabouret and stencil. Note plain rug and simple curtains, potted palms. The flattened Tudor arch repeats in the panels of the high wainscot, in the unusual leaded glass of the buffet, and at the top of a swinging door to a butler’s pantry or kitchen. Reminiscent of Craftsman and especially Prairie School ornament, the Geometric-series ‘Celeste’ #5010 stencil from Trimbelle River Studio is a simple pendant design. Stencil image is 10.5" x 18", $48.50. Paint-stik® colors and brush sizes are suggested but not included. trimbelleriver.com The 1915 dining room’s vernacular table and chairs are reflected in today’s Mission line from Stickley. Shown: oak ‘Slatted Side Chair’…

Whether the material they’re selling is soapstone or stainless steel, quartz or laminate, online storefronts focus on the glossy “after” images. Rarely do they tell you how the countertop of your dreams is mined or manufactured, shaped, and precision cut. A major wave of technological innovation has swept the countertop fabrication industry, so much so that CNC (computer-numeric control) is beginning to filter down to the hobbyist level. You yourself probably won’t be using CNC to outfit your kitchen with countertops, however. Countertop production is still challenging, highly skilled work, requiring sophisticated and powerful machinery. In addition, most materials still require hand finishing, if only for sealing and polishing. While manmade materials like solid surfacing and engineered stone are doing a remarkable job of mimicking the look of natural materials,…

Art tile is in fact art, and the cost can be steep if a project calls for many square feet of tile. There are ways, however, to combine affordable production tile with handcrafted tile for a custom look. The big manufacturers make wall, floor, and decorative tile in sizes and styles that simulate historical tile. With some imagination, even big tile projects like floors and bathrooms can be affordable. Create a border for an otherwise plain tile floor. In the bathroom, create the look of a wainscot, fill, and border frieze by using two different sizes of production tile along with some liners. But be forewarned: mixing production tile with handcrafted decos gets tricky, because the tiles’ actual sizes (whatever the dimensions given), depths, and edge characteristics will be different.…

“Realtors don’t show people this neighborhood—you have to find it,” says Barbara Viser. She’s is talking about the 83-block section of midtown Memphis called Central Gardens. Originally part of the estate of Solomon Rozelle, who settled in Shelby County in 1815 on 1600 acres of then-wilderness, Central Gardens is one of the country’s best old-house neighborhoods. It’s truly a showcase of varied, late-19th- and early-20th-century domestic architecture. The area was developed between 1850 and 1930, and by 1900 it was called “the newest, most prestigious neighborhood” in Memphis. Central Gardens is made up of several subdivisions, which include Merriman Park, Harbert Place, and Bonnie Crest, as well as several large estates that were subdivided. “The boom years were between 1900 and 1929,” Viser says. “That’s when most of the area…