The Historic District

This is really a sad house. The son of the PO lives next door and grew up in the house. He has given me photos of what the house looked like when the family moved in post WWII. Over the years all of the double hung windows were replaced by odd awnings and casements, all of the doors and trim were tr...

You just don't know what you'll find! I'm removing 1960s (I think) paneling from a wall. You have to be part archeologist, part analyst. From left to right, original (maybe 1830) siding, the outline of a Doric column pilaster, part of the door frame for the original front door, a 2" x 15" ...

I have AutoCad and Sketchup. I'll use them together for my own projects. I designed my house addition in Sketchup but then did drawings in AutoCad. I'll use Sketchup for odd little things that I want to use in 3D and "ask" what a dimension is or see what it might look like. I hear about ar...

Sketchup is the way to go. It's still free I think. Once you get the hang of creating walls and openings, you can download (also free) furniture, kitchen cabinets, windows, you name it. You can also apply patterns and materials to walls, floors, lawn, etc. You can even dial in sun angles and shadows...

You can try http://vintagewireandsupply.com/

Other than the aesthetics, I believe a properly mortised hinge tends to be much stronger and stay in position, judging by past doors that I have removed screws from hinges and the door stays in place. Also could be more secure. Non-mortised hinges are only hanging from the screws.

I hear lots of praise for "mini-split" heat pumps such as the Mitsubishi units, which gives you efficient heating and cooling. It also gives you a box that hangs on the wall, which is kind of obtrusive. And in -30 weather I assume that the unit will need electric resistant heat to keep up....

Sistering the floor joists is a lot better than replacing from personal experience. The biggest issue is logistics: finding a way to get a long 2x where you need to, knocking out things that get in your way, and jacking them into place until you can nail or screw them. A framing nail gun is very han...

Could be a butyl based caulking, like is used to seal gutters. It never completely sets.

If it's the age you say, it should be terne metal, which needs painting to protect it. It looks like you have paint and other layers of roof coatings on it. It should solder fairly well, but will have to be cleaned to bare metal. The terne coating is basically lead solder anyway. As far as paint, th...