Welcome to the Historic Renovation Blog — dedicated to the preservation of old-world building values and time-honored materials. We hope you enjoy the story.

Why the heck..?

Why the heck would someone do this in the first place? Well, you're right. Restoration is not for everyone, and we're not here to convince you otherwise. You either get it or you don't. But here's our thinking:

Old homes have a soul. They have character, they have imperfections, they have a story to tell. Sitting by my fireplace, I can't help but ponder over the fact that for close to 100 years, people have gathered in this same spot to feel the warmth of the fire - conversing over a glass of wine or whiskey, or sitting quietly in solitude. The marble surround was cut by hand because they didn't have machines or Chinese imports back in the day. The mantle was made with real wood, the chimney with real bricks, and the flue with real terra cotta piping. An old house is just that - REAL.

Old homes were built better. Obviously this generalization is not always true, as many homebuilders/homeowners are building exceptionally high quality homes today, but this is a minority, and a small one at that. Probably 99% of homes built in the last 20 years were built with the "bottom line" as the primary driving force. How much profit can the builder squeeze out of this property. How much less can we get products for?" Sure this product will not last, but it "looks" the same.

Well-kept older homes are becoming harder and harder to find, so from an investment standpoint the demand is rising. They're like antiques in that a finite number of them were built, and so over time there will be fewer and fewer of them as they are lost to developers, natural disasters, etc....

But enough of the philosophical talk - lets get to work and show you some before and afters!

Fascia & Soffit Detail

Originally the home sported half round gutters with hand-mitered drops and downspouts. Underneath the gutters painted decorative moulding consisting of a fascia, soffit and bed/brick moulding.

Somewhere along the way, the entire system was replaced with K-style aluminum gutters and rectangular, ribbed downspouts, and the wood moulding was either removed or sheathed in aluminum flashing (to avoid having to paint?). Unfortunately, aluminum flashing and a historic home just don't mix.

So here we find ourselves planning on going back to the old once again! On the agenda:

1) Removing any/all aluminum cladding/flashing.

2) Repairing any rotted wood underneath the eaves

3) Rebuilding the trim moulding to include new, painted fascia, soffit, frieze board and crown moulding.

4) Rebuilding the cornice returns (some call these bird boxes).

5) Adding new 4" copper downspouts, functional copper collector boxes (also called leader boxes or conductor heads), and 6" copper half round gutters held by simple copper fascia brackets.

Here's a good shot of the old aluminum (left) vs the new wood (right).

The Mighty Oak

Our 1931 colonial/Greek revival home was built with solid, quarter-sawn oak hardwood floors throughout the entire main level and upstairs. For those who may not know, quarter-sawn is the best because of the way the wood is cut from the tree.

Quarter sawn has the growth rings of the tree approximately perpendicular to the board's surface. First, the log is cut into quarters. Then, the quarter is flipped ninety degress back and forth to saw off a plane of wood. This process does not produce any more waste than plain sawing, but it does require some extra time to flip the quarters back and forth. The benefits to this cut of wood are straighter grain that is up to 50% more stable than plain sawn flooring, and a superior looking product featuring less variation, longer lengths, and medullary rays. The boards are also less susceptible to cupping.

Unfortunately, at some point along the way the entire home was carpeted! So, we purchased an entirely carpeted home knowing that everything would need to be removed and restored. Little did we know that the floors underneath were in less than perfect shape. In fact, I would liken the floors to a crack house. See photos below.

Also, for posterity sake the oak stairway was also carpeted, and the little son-of-a-gun who did it must have had a thing with staples. He (or she) felt it was necessary to put over 50 staples per riser to hold that carpet in place. To us, that meant pulling out by hand over 1,000 staples in the treads and risers alone. Gotta love it!

After lots of sanding, we present to you over 2,0000 s.f. of gloriously restored, quarter-sawn oak floors with an "Early American" stain and satin polyurethane finish. If you look closely you can see the ray, banding and "tiger eye" patterns.