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, but the title search says 1911. Throw in the second owner's information that suggests 1936 and I've got myself something of a mystery. I know, I know--check the town records, check the deed vault down at the County, check ancestry sites... In good time, my fellow enthusiasts; In good time. Since I need my day job to support the taxes and mortgage and my night job is actually working on the house and refurbishing/reselling antiques to do improvements, finding time is challenging.

A few notes about the house: It's a Dutch-Colonial Revival style. The lot is 50x100 with an extremely tranquil rear yard. The exterior originality really abounds--it's got the Model-T era garage (though the carriage doors were replaced with plywood), concrete ribbon driveway, sloping rock garden near the curb, open front porch, and mature plantings. Inside, it still has the original three over one wooden windows, chestnut paneled staircase and trim with back-banding and latticed corners, long-leaf pine flooring, plaster walls, and nice little cast iron steam radiators. At just under 1,100 square feet, it's small, but perfect for me. Three bedrooms are great, but one full bath and a matchbox kitchen would be a challenge for a mature family. But I'm single, so space isn't an issue! I intend to leave everything basically "as-is" other than peeling back bad renovations, tending to some of the systems, painting, and polishing up the original features.

A few notes about me: I'm 29, work work in a public school (which means summers are DEVOTED to restoration), and was the chairman of a local historic commission for five years. I'm handy enough to do carpentry, woodworking, refinishing, tiling, drywalling, minor electrical and plumbing, painting, etc. I try not to get too involved with real plumbing and/or electrical. My theory is, there's reputable pros out there, find them and use them when necessary. I've bought and sold antiques since I was 13 and have always been pretty entrepreneurial. Recently, my main focus is antique lighting. I work with contractors to do architectural salvage when a demo is imminent with the hope that the materials will be saved and reused for restoration. I've been helping my big brother (THD member Ober51) with his house in Oradell, NJ, just five minutes down the road. My level of excitement is 10/10. Currently, I see this place as an AMAZING old starter home, but maintain the hope of getting into something much older, needing much more work (though time will tell if that's still the case in a few years!).

Up first, my contractor is coming tomorrow to install a Timberline GAF Sienna Series, aged oak shingle with round corrugated white gutters. He's pulling the aluminum flashing off the rake boards and the aluminum venting material to (hopefully) expose the soffits and trim. Inside, I'm peeling back two layers of linoleum off the bathroom floor and scrubbing back the black emulsion to reveal (what I hope to be) salvageable wood floors.

So far, so good. I'm not yet feeling like I bit off more than I can chew, but it's still very early.

Wish me luck and be ready to give good advice!

Oh, I love it! I'll be the first to welcome you here, although I'm pretty new-ish myself!

I often feel like I have bitten off more than I can chew, although that's generally my own fault (like deciding to restore windows and strip the paint off ALL the trim and repaint it, regardless of whether or not it needs it!). But if you have a vision of what it will look like when you're finished, it's all worth it.

I'll just tell you now, they're all going to want pictures of the inside, and lots of them.

what a sweet little place, and you're only 29! congrats!

my friend in Massachusetts has a very similar style house with three over one windows...walk in and the stairs are on the left, the living room on the right, straight through is the kitchen and dining room on the right...upstairs-2 front bedrooms, one back bedroom and the bath at the top of the stairs on the right...is yours similar?

welcome to our friendly helpful neighborhood......
....jade

Formal congratulations to the little brother! He is being modest when he says he likes antiques - but that's a story for another day.

Welcome in! I always was fond of a nice Dutch gamberal roofed house.

Cheers!
Chaz

Welcome! Congrats on taking the plunge on such a lovely home! I always love a Dutch Gambrel.

I am also fairly new around here (I've only been here a month), but there are lots nice fine folks on here so you are sure to find community. I completely understand about biting off more than one can chew... You will certainly have moment of what was I thinking to buy this place?... Followed up with moments of pure joy for owning an old character filled house.

Cute! And I love the front porch.

Welcome!

I may have driven by your new old house a few times when I lived in that corner of the world a ways back (Englewood and Dumont were the closest, but I moved around a lot when I lived in NNJ).

If that lino is worth noting for its age, feel free to post pics before you toss it all. There's a few threads running about about period lino.

We recently found in our own home that despite tax card info, we do indeed have original wood floor in every room of our '35 bungalow. It's currently buried in one bath, the kitchen, the dining and a hall attached to the dining. We're still not sure if we'll take the floor back to wood or not in all those rooms/areas, since the lino/VC (still not sure) is kinda neat that we found under the thrown-down-for-the-sale flooring in all of those rooms. We've not pursued further since, because we're doing that "don't take on too much" dance, and the first room we found it in (kitchen), revealed damage. We'll be doing an asbestos test soonish though to help make the decision.

I hope you come to feel at home here. I still feel like a newbie here myself, only having arrived at the District late summer last year when we were on our new-old home search. It's still become my old home away from old home in that time, though.

I'll share sage advice given to us: take care of immediate needs, but let your house tell you some things too. We've already come to some realizations about our home that in retrospect of a whopping two months or less seem so obvious once realized. It'll be interesting to see what else she teaches us in our first year with her. (That's when I get to really get cracking on the To Do list.)

@awomanwith a hammer: Thanks! I'm doing my best to resist getting into multiple projects at once, but boy is it hard! I intended to change the locks last week, didn't and then yesterday my key wouldn't work anymore I guess the cylinder is shot. Sounds like a $150 call to the locksmith.

@neighmond, heartwood, and mjt: I, too, love the Gambrel! The oldest, most historic homes in the Bergen County area are red sandstone with Gambrel rooves, so there's certainly a strong influence on the revivial-style homes built 150-200 years later. My layout is *almost* the same as you describe--the only difference is the bathroom is on the left at the top of the stairs (more photos to come). The front porch is easily one of my FAVORITE features!

@Lily left the valley: It's very near the center of Westwood, less than a mile from the train. Though it's on a side street, it sits high up, so you might have caught a glimpse once or twice The previous owners (lived there since the '50s) said the linoleum was there since the '70s--12x12 plain peel and stick. Under that was dark brown speckled from, I would guess, the 1940s. It was not in good shape and covered in glue and tar. I'm taking all the necessary precautions to protect against asbestos, don't worry! I'm taking it down to the original wood, but I'm concerned the black tar may have penetrated beyond the surface. Either way, I'll make it work--lemons just mean lemonade!

More exterior pics coming--and interior, too, once the locksmith lets me in!

Congratulations and welcome!

That's a very nice example of a working-man's Dutch Colonial of the early 20th Century. It could possibly be a kit (dozens of retailers sold kit houses in that era), but it's more than likely either a plan book house or was inspired by a plan book. You are very fortunate to still have the original three-over-one windows.

You'll need to do a little more research to find a date. Looking at the pictures, I would estimate sometime in the 1920s, but there are always outliers. If you are fortunate enough to have any original plumbing fixtures in the house, many of them have a casting date stamped underneath. Also, the way you described the garage makes it sound no newer than Model A Ford era (1931 was the last of these). The average person's car started getting bigger with the 1932 models.

Good luck on your journey!