The Historic District

Good morning, all, It's official: I'm a new old-home owner. I closed in the beginning of April on this little place in Westwood, NJ. Though the term is always relative, "old" in my case means 19...10...20...30...something. There's much research to do. The real estate site estimate is 1923,...

Our upstairs radiators are bears! We have three other brothers and some strong friends, but collectively we couldn't even dream of moving them down the stairs, down a landing, and into the pickup (throw in 5 porch steps for good measure). So rather than bringing them to the media-blasting guy, we de...

Hey all, We finally got to remediating the center-hall floor, just inside the front door. If you remember back a while to the first photos we posted, most of the floors were covered with green shag. These pieces of junk filler must have been used to replace cupped parquet pieces, in order to help th...

It really seems as if they can go either way. Then again, I'm reading what Mick refers to as grapes as more of an upward flower, similar to a lilac. It would really depend on how I wanted to light my space. Some ceilings are very bumpy and uneven by virtue of years of repairs, so upward lighting can...

Can you provide some details about the epoxy coat? I've heard that they don't often last very long, but perhaps that's a myth. Also, since you mention it was quite rough, what was the prep like before coating? Was it a spray on, brush on, roll on? Looking forward to learning more!

WOW! The floors look great--nice work!

SMART! It will be that much more rewarding when you bring that essential character back to the exterior.

Nice work, Mike and Jess! We all look forward to seeing your progress. Can't wait to see the original cedar shingle!