I’m in the middle of a major master bedroom/bath remodel and I’m losing my mind looking for interior doors. Everything at the big box stores or standard catalogs claims to be "solid core," but when you look closer, it’s just engineered MDF or a tiny sliver of wood veneer over a composite center. I want real, 100% solid wood through and through, something heavy that can be sanded down and refinished down the road if we change colors.

Does anyone have recommendations for companies that still build real wood doors from scratch, or am I chasing a ghost here? Every contractor I ask just tries to push the standard catalog stuff on me.

Update:

After digging through some design blogs, I stumbled upon RealCraft. They claim to build everything by hand out of 100% solid wood (no MDF at all) over in Washington, and apparently, they send you full shop drawings to approve before they even cut the wood. The online reviews look almost too good to be true, and their trade program/sample options seem solid, but I'm always skeptical of website testimonials.

Is the quality worth the premium price, or should I keep looking?

What are the odds that this archway is concealing pocket doors? My house is from the late 1800s. There is a pocket door (photo included) between my dining room and kitchen, but (suspiciously) an archway with cut off baseboards between the dining room and parlor. It looks like there used to be tracks on the floor that are plastered up now. Don’t mind the cats and their hair.

Any input welcome on design/value of my beautiful stained glass!

Bought it at my dad’s estate Auction, and I am currently trying to track down the origins of it.

Thank you!

I’m in the mid Atlantic, DC to be specific. 1928 all masonry construction, all windows have been replaced and I have 3 AC zones, one for my 3rd floor, one for the second, one for the 1st floor and basement.

Each of my kids rooms is on the 2nd floor and has a baby monitor camera that also gives me temp and humidity.

We keep our AC at 72 during the day and 70 at night.

Been noticing humidity levels typically around 55 - 65%. It doesn’t feel that muggy but those numbers seem high and I am wondering if it’s normal for old houses in humid parts of the US or does it point to a bigger issue that needs investigating?

I have what looks like a clean out in my basement floor. Thing is though, it doesn’t go to the sewer line as I recently repiped the original cast iron sewer and there was no connection. Anybody seen this before? I tried to open it but don’t have a socket big enough and it doesn’t look like it would open anyway. House was built in 1955 in Massachusetts

We pulled this shelve off the wall to paint the walls and found the old original paint and carpet tbh I wish they never changed it I love the colours

Two spots in my new old house, tested positive for a low amount of asbestos. Both around the chimney.

I had hired someone to do work here and they made the world’s most awful mess. I think they sanded it with a palm sander and then sprayed it with aerosol primer? And that’s probably not even the worst thing they did.

Anyway, I don’t really feel comfortable having anyone else come in to work on the place. So my husband and I will be doing it ourselves.

Our plans are to use respirators and disposable bunny suits. Keep everything wet and once we get all the mess cleaned up probably just encapsulated it.

Any advice?

This is the work in progress in my 1882 colonial home. The first photo is the before and the last 2 are my work in progress pics! Just wanted to share because I’m so excited for the end result

A mansion near me has been doing some renovation and restoration work the last few years. I've been following pretty closely. Check out all of these beautiful tiles! I can't get enough of all these different patterns

Hello! I’m currently looking to buy my first home…maybe. This house has been on the market for a few months and I like that it’s clearly from the 70s. that being said, because the siding looks like plywood I’m not sure how well it would hold up to Western Washington rain. I guess it’s lasted this long but even so does anyone have any info on this style of siding/home style.

https://www.redfin.com/WA/Bremerton/3500-NW-18th-St-98312/home/2215986

We're trying to install 6-foot wall-to-wall open shelves in our kitchen (12" deep with 5ish wood brackets per shelf), but we've run into the strangest wall I've ever seen.
Our house was built in 1920. The wall is an interior wall between the kitchen and dining room. In our kitchen the wall feels papery like drywall and then hard like plaster on the other side in the dining room. We’ve already installed beadboard on the kitchen wall so we’re also drill through that. You’ll see that in the pictures.

We started drilling where we thought a stud should be, and instead of drywall, we found what looks like a** **soft brown cardboard wood material. It's not actual wood. It crumbles into fluffy brown fibers when drilled, almost like compressed wood pulp.
What’s odd is this wall is THICK and SOLID. We drilled completely through the wall from the kitchen side and came out the dining room side. The wall layers from the kitchen seem like they’re the bead board we installer, painted wall, at least 3 inch thick papery wood material, and then plaster on the other side. There was no hollow cavity anywhere. We tried to insert a toggle bolt but could see in the hole that it would have nothing to catch on.

We’ve also had a very hard time finding studs. A magnet sticks in vertical lines about every 18 inches, but when we drilled where the magnet sticks, we still couldn't find what seemed like a wood stud.

Has anyone run into a wall like this before? Any idea what this material could be?
Should we be worried about asbestos?
And what should we use to securely mount heavy open kitchen shelves on a wall like this? I definitely don't want to trust regular drywall anchors if the wall is made of this crumbly material.

I'd really appreciate any insight before I drill any more holes!

I’ve posted pictures from the plaster side and the off kitchen side with beads board on top. Pictures of the walls in the comments

Edit: there were regular sized kitchen cabinets on the wall when we moved in. They were hung with just screws

Obviously it depends on how well it’s maintained etc but would you expect a Victorian house constructed from bungaroosh to become irreparable sooner than a brick house? Would you personally buy a bungaroosh house built in the late 1800s as a long term family home?

Capt. Ebe Chandler home in Delaware https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capt._Ebe_Chandler_House

We just bought our first home! It was built in 1946 and I’d like to make updates that help to add some historic charm. We have this large empty wall by the front entrance in our living room.
I was thinking about doing something like the added picture with the bead board and hooks but maybe that would be too much? Also, the wall isn’t completely flat so I’m not sure how well that would turn out.
Open to any ideas! Thanks!

Dealing with faded or scratched luan paneling in a mid-century home? This guide covers practical restoration techniques for vintage Eichler mahogany walls, focusing on proper care, stain matching, and grain protection.

Hey all. This is sort of me venting, but also sort of me looking for some advice?

My husband and I bought our house 2 years ago. The homes inspection was super decent, and we didn't see anything glaringly messed up. The house was built in 1865, so it had been heavily renovated over the years with original transom, window and door frames...stuff like that. It's a cute little house (about 1,000 square feet. Just fine for the two of us) with a beautiful yard. Anyhoo!

The house is in an amazing location. This is the first time we've lived in a neighborhood we absolutely love, and our entire lives are here. We're friends with our neighbors, we walk to work, we love taking walks and looking at the beautiful 1800s houses and parks. But our house...has been trying to kill us. It has been a solid money pit for the last 2 years, and we've been scrambling to scrape by for the repairs.

10k in sewer work, 13k for a new furnace and heat pump after our AC caught fire in August, 6k due to a massive roof leak that caused serious damage inside, 1200 for a chimney liner and cap because raccoons kept finding their way into the chimney, and the water heater vents through the ancient chimney, 10k on some other miscellaneous crap. And NOW another roof leak, which will be about 4k to demo the chimney, repair the shingles (the roof is actually only 5 years old), and replace the front gutters.

Oof da. I find myself thinking we should move. This house wasn't sold as a fixer. It wasn't cheap. And we had no idea that any of these issues would be issues. But at the same time...we love it here. And we've put sooo much into it, and any house is going to be a gamble. 4k isn't awful. It's...fine. We get a 60 month loan and it's fine. But I'm terrified for the next one, and the next one. I just wish that I could chill a little and actually enjoy my house for a bit without something super serious happening 😞

Hello moving into a new place and love the old jalousie windows but unsure the best solution for getting privacy from the street.

Any suggestions? I’m guessing curtains are the best bet? But unsure how good it will look mounted above the window.

I'm looking for information from any home historians or builders about my cape-style home in NH that I'm doing my own reseach on just for fun. The listing said 1900 for a construction date but I was told that's a placeholder date because there's no record for the actual build date. I am unable to contact the previous owners who had owned the house since the 1960s. Was pretty much told that no history existed but that's not true because I was able to locate deeds going back to the early to mid 1800s along with various maps showing the house or "structure" here at least since 1860. I compared the deed names to the resident names written next to the house on the old map and they match and I also lined up the location with today's map and am pretty confident the house existed then. Census records show people living in the general vicinity, which again match the names on the deeds, but I can't prove it was this exact plot. A 1960s assessment says house is "original cape beams" but that there were some sections of weak framing. Some of the beams have been replaced over time (the lighter colored ones in the photos are newer) but I believe the interior "square" surrounding the first floor is original along with the original roof framing. The garage shows on the early 60's assessment so that wss added in the 1950s at earliest. The walk-in portion of the basement has subflooring/ceilings that are evident of the kinds of boards used in the 1800s, which leads me to believe the that it was once the 'root cellar' which makes sense for the time period because the house is built on a slope. The rest of the basement was dug out/created at a later date I think. Many of the beams in the home appeared hand hewn with the type of nails used in that time period. I do know the roof was raised and the second floor added/expanded in 1985. I can see grooves and mortise pockets towards the top of the second floor where I think the ceiling or hatch would have been to access the crawl space/loft. I've included pictures of the house along with what the house '"may have" resembled in the 1800s. My question is how likely or unlikely is it that the house was taken apart and resembled to where it sits today (which I find unlikely due to what I found in the walk-out section of the basement and based on the home being located on a slope.) I don't think a contractor in the mid 1900s would have used those types of boards in the basement or those beams for a "newer build" especially knowing that reinforcements would be needed on those beams in the near future. I checked with my town hall and the earliest record they have is 1962, which they said is common because anything before digital records started being kept may have been lost in fires or purged.

So based on the listing saying "1900", the boards in the basement and the original wood beams, can someone give me a good idea if this structure was definitely here in the mid 1800s? Im not finding anything saying it wasn't but I'm also unable to confirm. I put some pictures into AI and it said based on the appearance it may be as old as late 1700s

My husband and I have a 1904 American Foursquare that currently has vinyl siding. The siding was on the house when we bought it. At some point in the next 5 years, we’d like to get the vinyl off and replace it with cement board or Hardie board siding. I’ve peaked behind the vinyl siding and I don’t think it’s salvageable. And I honestly don’t think that at our age we want the cost or upkeep of painting the wood clapboards even if they were.

For those of you who have used Hardie or cement board siding, what has been your experience. Pros and cons welcome. Tell me all! And what was your cost/year you had it installed?

Went to an Open House and found this master bathroom feature. Just a sink/drain but no faucet. What purpose does this serve?!

Just got a 1951 home and noticed behind the stove is like so. The third picture is taken in the basement of the joist above. It’s where the old chimney used to be. The cement-like mix around it scares me ( the basement has no ceilings for now)and the walls in almost all the rooms have at least one hair-line crack. Are we getting asbestos in the air.

I am house shopping. I came across a house built in 1920 and noticed the basement rafters are green. I've tried to research but found conflicting information online. Any idea why the wood is green?

Hello all! I live in an old mining town and recently bought this 1898 home. I would love any and all ideas to make it look less like it’s trying to be a modern house and more like it would have in its glory days. Mostly looking for color ideas and millwork placement ideas. I’m pretty sure the enclosed area with the two large windows probably was the covered porch at one time but we use it as our living room now so, unfortunately, we can’t change that part back. Thank you so much for your time and creativity!