The Historic District

Well, as it turns out finding a buyer of a well maintained old home is not so hard after all. We went on the market, got 3 offers from the first open house and where under agreement in 4 days flat. In spite of my best efforts we just couldn't find another antique that works for this stage of life so...

Unfortunately EVERYBODY likes white these days. Even my better half... as much as I’d like to I could never get her to agree to strip the woodwork back to stain in that house, she doesn’t like living in dark interiors. Reality is the first two are probably both too big. Even if we could get the pric...

OK, so house hunt update. We have been looking and so far we are not impressed with anything... among "new houses" everything is either: - reasonably priced but tiny/falling apart/ some deal breaker like no yard - Way too expensive, big, looks like they have a professional crew of 5-0 peop...

antiques used to be things 100 years old. Now im seeing MCM stuff thrown in. some think antiques are anything 50 years or older but I like the first interpretation, otherwise my birth certificate would be an antique too Ha! true... the other day at work I heard somebody say their house was "an...

I guess depending on economy of the area If it goes up its great to overextend yourself because the more you own the more it goes up, but if the property prices are dormant then you can't profit from the increase in land value. probably best to take more risks when younger as you get older you can'...

Very old Tudor homes and churches in England would also like a word with you about exposed beams. Certainly, as they where exposed here in first period American houses of the 1600s. In that time period diamond pane leaded casement windows where also the standard. But there are very few houses of th...

what ken said makes sense. Its because the water has weight so to pump water up you have to overcome the weight of the water One pound per square inch (lbs/in2 or psi) is approx- imately equal to 2.31 feet of water height (column of water) no matter how big around or square the column is. One foot ...

One other thought... There was talk of converting steam radiators to hot water. Be VERY careful if you try this. Your typical steam radiator has been open to atmosphere for a century and the constant filling with steam and then air and then steam... plus the small amount of standing water at the bot...

Dont assume that a radiator with two pipes is always hot water... there are also 2 pipe steam systems, where the condensate drains back down to the boiler via a second pipe, which has an oversized drum shaped device on it called a steam trap. These are the radiators you often see with one pipe at t...

If you are interested in burning well, either join up or at least read a lot at hearth.com. The answer is DRY wood. Not just what the guy on craigslist calls seasoned, but truly DRY. That means that if you can buy or borrow a prong type moisture meter, take a log and freshly resplit it then read the...