Innehållsförteckning för May 2020 från Old House Journal

1. TWO-TONE & NICKEL The model 1855 all-electric, four-element, smooth-top range in bisque and black is lavished with nickel trim on door frames, front legs, and skirt. Controls are hidden in the upper cabinet. Find a work surface and convection oven, too: $7,795. Elmira Stove Works, (800) 295-8498, elmirastoveworks.com 2. RETRO ICEBOX Ideal for getaway cottages and other petite spaces, the 24" Retro-style refrigerator comes in a dozen colors, and also with motifs from Mickey Mouse to the Union Jack. Very quiet (38 dB), the fridge measures 60 ¼" tall x 30 ¼" deep x 232/3" wide: $1,999 to $2,499. SMEG, (888) 763-4782, smegusa.com 3. PROFESSIONAL RETROFIT No room for a “standard” 36" range? The 30" Professional Series gas range has non-digital (analog) controls, four sealed burners, iron grates, and…

“We own an 1890 Queen Anne Victorian home. After putting in major renovations for 10 years (boiler, electric, central air—and pushbutton light switches), we’ve arrived at the ‘pretty’ interior work. We are thrilled that the woodwork has never been painted! OHJ celebrates [our] labor of love. In a world where magazines and TV shows push open concept, painted woodwork, white kitchens (while calling that ‘maintaining history’), we thank you for standing for the integrity of historic houses [and] those of us who treasure their features.”—THE CASE FAMILY, ELWOOD, INDIANA After a joint Congressional resolution was signed into law, the National Trust for Historic Preservation began celebrating Preservation Week in 1973. The Presidential proclamation read, in part: “As the pace of change accelerates in the world around us, Americans more than…

Lots of good-looking castiron sinks are still available as salvage. But if an unrefurbished sink has seen better days, are there things you can do yourself? Plenty, says Ken Buzzell of Grampa’s Antique Kitchen, who buys and refurbishes cast-iron, stainless steel, and other vintage sinks that he knows he can revive and resell. His tips: • Clean and Wax The glossy finish typical of new porcelain has usually worn off a vintage sink, so it is no longer “sealed” and will stain easily. To remove existing stains, scrub the sink hard with Bar Keepers Friend, or even Comet. For stubborn stains, use vinegar, or phosphoric or tannic acid sparingly and with extreme caution. Then coat basins and porcelain drainboards with Carnauba hard wax, reapplying every two weeks or so. (Buff…

WHAT ABOUT GAPS? Both plank and tongue-and-groove flooring can develop unsightly gaps as the floor ages, caused by compression shrinkage. During periods of high humidity, a floorboard expands and compresses its neighbors. When dry air returns, the boards shrink, but don’t fully decompress, and a gap opens. Since the pattern persists, it’s best to do nothing, especially if gaps close up in humid months. Alternatives: • For gaps that appear only in dry, cold weather, try running a humidifier in the house. • Fill gaps with a flexible paste or fiber filler that can adapt to the shrink/swell pattern of the floor. Try mixing sawdust with a binder such as varnish, shellac, or white glue, or use hemp rope soaked in linseed oil or glue. The sawdust mixture is pressed…

WRONG WAY USING JUST MORTAR Avoid patching the stone with an off-the-shelf mortar, or a concrete patching or anchoring compound. These are rarely compatible with the stone in hardness, color, or texture. (They’re best for concrete repairs.) Without a mediating filler of epoxy or lead, the bond between the iron and the patching material will break down, allowing water to enter the gap and restarting the rusting process. RIGHT WAY CUT OUT AND PATCH STONE A large defect can be cut and the space fitted with a similar stone patch—a process best undertaken by an experienced stonemason. For a DIY repair, try using a masonry fill formulated to match the stone in color and texture. (For an accurate mix, send a sample to such suppliers as LimeWorks.us or Jahn system,…

English-inspired houses are part of the same architectural movement that spawned the English Queen Anne Revival style, American Queen Anne houses, the Shingle Style, and Tudor Revival. All mark a transition between late-Victorian sensibility and the beginning of modern architecture—which includes houses of the Arts & Crafts movement. Earlier American Tudor houses could be academic, with flattened facades and no half-timbering. Arts & Crafts Tudor is more playful and includes such elements as over-scaled brackets and knee braces, decorative half-timbering, and pergolas. Despite steep roofs, these houses tend to be horizontal, whereas the suburban (e.g., “Stockbroker Tudor”) houses that followed often have vertical emphasis. Tudor styles took hold here ca. 1905, concurrent with the American Arts & Crafts movement. Architects working in the Tudor and Arts & Crafts idioms were…

Rezoning, disaster?… ‘Was there a fire?’—Krista O’Grady OOPS, LOST MY HEAD! The photos were taken in a tiny borough in southeastern Pennsylvania, where, for the most part, houses have been well maintained. This downtown row of Victorian brick duplex houses (above) is no exception. Look right across the street (left), though, and find a gruesome kind of remodeling: decapitation! A half-house left standing when its neighbors were removed has been sheared below the second floor. Gone entirely is the third floor with its livable dormers, mansard roof, and towers. The long-gone porch was replaced by a boxlike extension, jarring in its non-conforming windows and vertical white siding. It does look like a patch-up after some disaster. The structure is now a tavern, explaining some changes. But still, it makes us…

STATE OF MIND Slow to change, breath-taking, Maine attracts and then shapes artists, including Winslow Homer, Marsden Hartley, Rockwell Kent, the Wyeths, and William Wegman. From this truth comes an intriguing concept for a very satisfying book: to chronicle 26 Maine artists over 200 years by looking at the art and also at the surroundings that produced it—including their homes and studios. The photographer writes: “Because I have often done work as a photographer in historic preservation, going to old houses belonging to artists from the past felt very familiar. I have a system. I go into a house and sit down and wait till the place speaks to me and I hear those voices from the past. I can see what eyes had seen sometimes a hundred years ago,…

In Colonial Revival tradition, the ‘Virginian’ double candle sconce is in solid, polished brass, with two candelabra sockets rated for 60 watts each. Measuring 11" high x 10" wide with a 6”projection, it’s $179.90. houseofantique hardware.com In a tambour design virtually unchanged for a century, the Mason 630-161 mantel clock has a German-made, key-wound, Westminster chime movement. With a cherry finish on hardwood and veneers and a brass bezel, it’s 20 ½" wide x 9" high x 5" deep. Howard Miller, $849, through stores and online retailers. howardmiller.com The Sherwin-Williams website helps identify period palettes. These are labeled as Colonial Revival and Arts & Crafts colors—appropriate for this conservative room: Peristyle Brass, Roycroft Rose, Ruskin Room Green, and Colonial Yellow. Search interior historic colors at sherwin-williams.com…

Sleek, heavy, and highly durable, cast-iron sinks and tubs appeared in the 1880s. (Cast-iron tubs were first marketed as hog scalders and horse troughs, but American homeowners had other ideas.) The vitreous enamel finish made them easy to clean and sanitary, and cast iron’s heat retention was a real benefit when water had to be heated on the stove. Creating a cast-iron sink today is an intensely industrial process that takes place in a mechanized factory setting. It begins with the making a two-part casting mold from the steel sink pattern. The first half of the mold is filled with moist sand and some clay, packed in under pressure. The clay helps bond the sand, to hold the correct shape. The sand mold is lifted and transferred to the other…

1. POCKET FRAME Make a small bath or laundry room more accessible with the 1500SC Pocket Door Frame. It features a soft-close dampener and steel-wrapped split studs, doorstop, and door guides. An easy-to-install kit for a 30" x 80" door costs $189.93. Johnson Hardware, (800) 837-5664, johnsonhardware.com 2. NO TRIPPING Port the full-size NXT cordless wet/dry vacuum with no restrictions on movement or the need for an electrical outlet. Powered by two 18v batteries, this vac has a run time of about one hour. It has a QuikLock filter and accepts high-efficiency dust bags; $99. RIDGID, (800) 474-3443, ridgid.com 3. UNDERWATER REPAIR Repair holes and cracks in the porcelain on sinks and tubs with WaterWeld, which works even under water. The easy-to-use, two-part epoxy plugs and seals leaks, too. After…

The previous owners messed up by using poison for an infestation in the living space. Dead animals, even small mice, produce a very un-pleasant odor for weeks, and if the carnage is concentrated, the smell lingers. You found (one) dead zone and can clean it up, but often the animals die in walls or other inaccessible areas. The drawers are built into the eaves, so mice may have entered near the roof. In any event, you need to clean up, close off entry points, and set removable traps for any lingering occupants. Be careful in cleanup, or hire an exterminator for the whole sequence of jobs. Urine and feces carry diseases. (The CDC reports that mice and rats spread over 35 diseases, from Lyme disease to the plague, either through…

Q: An old brass kettle is visible in the kitchen in Catherine Lundie’s December 2019 article. I have a kettle that looks exactly like it. My mother used to tell me that the kettle was very old and came from relatives in Scotland. Do you or the writer have more information? —Cathy Zayka A: How delightful! My teapot (and those exact same candlesticks!) belonged to my grandmother, who was born in Scotland in 1903 and emigrated to Canada in the early 1920s. I don’t know for certain that she brought them with her, but it’s quite a coincidence otherwise. My grandfather came to Canada from Ireland—as a young bachelor, so I doubt the kettle and candlesticks were part of his luggage! —Catherine Lundie I nearly fell off my chair when…

When Cindy Young was negotiating to buy her 1947 cottage in Portland, Oregon, the men selling it told her they were about to gut the kitchen. Cindy saw it as the most redeeming part of the fixer-upper house. She got the sellers to agree to leave the kitchen alone, and instead give her credit toward the Forbo Marmoleum floor she wanted to install. (She also got a new heating system and a fence in the bargain.) Cindy boned up on the history of the period so she could appreciate the times. She culled decorating tips from advertisements in vintage homedécor magazines. “That’s where the idea to use linoleum countertops came from—instead of atomic-age boomerang laminate, which is more 1960,” Cindy explains. The entire house is furnished and decorated to the…

Most older copper sinks tend to mellow to a lovely coppery brown, but newer ones are a different story—sporting rings, unsightly amoeba-like spots, and high- and lowlights that are anything but attractive. To even out the appearance of the sink, try this method, recommended by Dino Rachiele of Rachiele Sinks: 1. Clean the sink thoroughly with a degreasing detergent, such as Dawn. The sink must be completely free of grease or oil. Then clean with a mildly abrasive scouring pad, such as Dobie or Scotch-Brite. 2. Spray or wet the sponge with vinegar. The sponge should be damp, but not wet enough to drip on the copper. Dab the damp sponge over all areas of the sink that need fresh patina. Try to avoid drip marks. Let dry and reapply three…

Resilient floors—tiles or sheets of linoleum, cork, vinyl, rubber, or laminate—have a long history in American homes. Promoted as “miracle” surfaces in the early 20th century, this class of durable, nonabsorbent flooring is easy to clean, forgiving of wear and tear, and soft underfoot, able to bounce back from scuffs and abrasions with ease. For decades, resilient flooring made from polyvinyl chloride (vinyl, for short) dominated the residential market. Vinyl is still with us, but that’s changing as manufacturers introduce a class of materials that are PVC-free. Called bio-flooring, the newer materials are made mostly from natural, sustainable products. Bio-tiles and -floors are intended as a more environmentally friendly alternative to luxury vinyl and plastic composite tile. Cork and linoleum arguably are, of course, the original bio-flooring materials. Cork is…

When we were forced, reluctantly, to install a new hvac return in an alcove under the beloved staircase in our 1908 Foursquare, we had to find a way to disguise the duct. While it would have been easy to cover the niche with new wallboard, we decided to build a storage bench as part of a secret compartment over the return. For the facing material, we used a cache of old beadboard left in the attic by a previous owner. Working with salvaged beadboard was an adventure. Scraps were of different sizes, pieces were split and broken, and most were full of nails. Each piece needed a new and exact measurement before nailing in place. The supply was also limited, so we had to manage the material carefully to achieve…

Every era presents an opportunity to collect the work of favorite designers. For their 1951 Seattle house, Kevin Dodge and Darin Collins have been collecting lighting and sculptural work from three Modern masters: Harry Balmer, Gaetano Sciolari, and Paolo Soleri. Brutalism is a mid-century modernist designation for architecture and design defined by the use of such raw materials as concrete, glass, and metals. Rough surfaces, hard edges, organic forms, and metallic finishes are common. The name comes from the French term “béton brut,” meaning raw concrete. The American welder and sculptor Harry Balmer, whose works were produced by the Flemington Iron Works and Laurel Lamp Company, made Brutalist and Modern lighting and abstract sculptures that have become collectible. His 1960s works are generally of blackened steel. Balmer also produced wood…