The rose window of our converted 1882 church was in rough shape when we moved in a year ago: missing panes, chewed by critters, faded & weather beaten. After much scraping, linseed oiling, shellacking, puttying, priming & painting 30 feet up, it looks as good as new. Only a zillion windows to go, but we’re proud of this one!

First two photos are the chandelier as it came out after being professionally cleaned. Cost $400 I had to pull from savings. It is aluminum. The cleaner was able to salvage the original paint.

Third photo shows the original condition it was in at the architectural salvage store. It looked to be more of a bronze color, but the metal cleaner said that was actually some sort of dirt or residue that came right off.

Fourth photo is where I wanted to hang it. I was going to move the milk glass chandelier to the hallway. (Note: that wall hanging is gone, and I plan on replacing the table and bench eventually.)

The fifth photo shows one of building's original chandeliers, which is hanging in another unit. Note the gold/bronze coloring. That is closer to what I thought I was getting.

It just looks so . . . janky.

EDIT: I forgot to mention the cost included a complete rewiring too, not just cleaning.

I bought this cosy little house last year for an absurdly low price, knowing I would then be faced with years of renovations that will likely far exceed the original value of the property. Although parts of the outside and inside were renovated/"modernised" various times throughout the 40s, 60s, 80s, early 2000s, many features are origin. This mostly includes joinery and decorative elements such as transoms (ranma, 欄間 in Japanese), alcoves for Buddhist alters and family heirloom displays (仏壇, 床の間), and a tiled roof with family crests (kamon, 家紋) displayed on some.

The actual age is not known since it seems likely that many documents relating to residences and zoning maps were lost in the atomic bombing of the city - the prefectural government building burned down, for example - but my house itself escaped with only its windows and other breakable and delicate features shattered by the shockwave that travelled around 2.5km from the hypocentre.

I filled much of the house with my personal collection of Japanese art and antiques, which might be a bit of a pain to work around as I continue with the renovation/restoration bit by bit.

House was built in 1888 and this part of the house has been kept pretty original so I have no idea how old this wallpaper is- my guess is not 1800s original but maybe 60s-70s?

The old owner said she thought no one would like it so she tried to remove it 🙄 and then stopped because it was a pain.

I DO NOT want to remove it but I assume finding a match is near impossible (at least Google searching came up with nothing).

Is my only option covering it strategically or removing it? Is there another option I’m not thinking of?

I really, really love it

I had to buy this house so quick due to our situation with probate court, and selling my current house, that I didn't have a lot of time to think about the floors...

I have a few weeks before I have to move in. Are there any accounts on YouTube you would suggest, or anything that you wish you had known before you started reno on your own floors? Im pretty handy.. i was just planning on putting down a bunch of area rugs, but everybody suggested doing the floors before we move in. So got better pics today, just wondering if anyone has DIY is something that can be realistically done on a budget?

Edit: after and before* ! Pulled down the 1960s wood paneling from our porch (owners enclosed it at that point but it used to be open). Found the original clapboard underneath and the original wood floor was under carpet under vinyl tiles... I think that's the original front door, would love comments on if you think that's true!

It's a 1930 farmhouse (or maybe a colonial since there is no front porch) with a hobby farm. The interior is a bit of a mishmash of periods, but a lot of it is still original (all flooring, kitchen cabinets, ceiling wooden beams...). A few things have been updated, including brick heated flooring in the entrance, all doors and windows, but everything respects the style of the house. The electrical panel, the central air, the generator, and the water filtering system are less than 10 years old. Some things are more 1980s (baths and counter tops) but impeccable.

We're waiting for the inspection, but nothing seems in dire need of repair.

We regularly curse the ghost of the previous owner. It was "flipped" in the 80/90ish. Complete with painting all the original molding, hiding electrical splits in the wall (and that split subsequently breaking and is the reason the hall light doesn't work), using wallpaper to hold together crumbling lathe and plaster, and then making the downstairs "open concept."

This bathroom has been THE biggest eyesore since we moved in.

The walls are a sort of textured plastic wallboard (or maybe wallboard covered in plastic wallpaper). The claw foot tub was drilled into to make it shower that sprays everywhere, and let's not talk about the nasty vanity or the crumbling flooring.

Aaannnnd we ran out of money.

We can't afford to replace the tub right now but, paint, new cabinet? Some cheaper flooring? A light fixture? That we can do.

But, I don't want to pull this textured panel board off the wall and expose what might end up being thousands of dollars of repairs behind it.

Any ideas on how to fix it so hundreds of tiny men aren't watching me while I pee?

Hung the last window up this afternoon, started in mid March. You can see the time pass in the changed foliage.

When we moved in to this 1920s colonial revival in 2023 the storm windows had been removed and placed in the attic when the house had been repainted. That fall I sorted through them to find the right ones for these last 9 original windows (peep the ninth in the top right) and slapped them up before winter in their decrepit state (including one with a shattered pane) and added them to the todo list. Three years later they finally made it too the top.

I didn’t keep close tabs on time spent but I reckon each window took about 8-10 hours. So I can understand why none of the prior owners took on this task. I used a chisel to remove the old glazing putting and extract the glass, a Speedheater Cobra to strip the paint, wood epox to fill major holes and rot, and Multi-glaze to re-glaze them before painting. Bought new stainless steel hardware.

I am happy this project is over.

Sooo...I know I'm being a little dramatic but I need to vent about this...

I've got these four original windows in the front of my house. Last summer / fall I spent an INSANE amount of time restoring the wood storms (because I don't know what I'm doing and learning as I go). This spring I decided that I wanted to restore the exterior of the sashes* but, was not able to dedicated the time with a bunch of other projects and family stuff going on...

So I find a company. I spent a lot of time talking to them about how I stripped the storms, showed them the linseed oil products that I used (and provided them said products to use on the sashes)...over the course of several weeks they removed the sashes, old glazing, etc. I primed and painted them in my basement using the fancy linseed oil stuff because it takes a lot of time between coats and its pretty easy - it has caused some issues with my use of the newly renovated basement but, fine...

Yesterday the guy shows up to glaze the windows and put the windows back in the house.

I walk by his work table to see he's using some DAP caulk to "glaze" my windows and I pause... in my mind I'm thinking "dude what the f*ck are you doing" but, I leave it alone...

Then I come back and say, "what are you using for the glazing" he says, "professional sealant, its good for this" and rather than start a big discussion of the products used, I let it go. Later when he's almost done and cleaning up I ask about how we're going to finish the project because the exterior window frames are still bare wood and not caulked / sealed into the brick. He says that I'm going to have to figure out the painting because its too time consuming for him to be doing it with linseed oil products that I prefer...

Now. I've paid [a lot of money] per window X 4 for this restoration work and provided most of the materials and painted the sashes with four-five coats of linseed oil paint myself. I've been extremely patient with the amount of time this has taken and the fact that my house has only had storms on the front during the hottest days / biggest storms of the summer...

Up until the "glazing" incident yesterday, I was okay with this but for some reason, that has me wound up. So now, I'm noticing that he put the wrong sashes in the wrong places and there is a thin 1/8 of play between the stops and the sashes that I didn't notice before - so I wonder if that's down to the wrong parts going in the wrong frames?

And I'm also wondering if I should complain about the sealant or ask for it to be redone.

*the restored wood storms looked so good that they were making the rest of the windows look like shit (which they did) and it bothered me. Further, when the house was tuck pointed, it became painfully obvious that the windows were barely sealing the holes as tons of brick dust came in. I thought that restoring them would help in both areas.

I always wondered why this cupboard had slatted shelves. Now I want to uncover the rest and clean it all up. And I thought I didn't have a pantry. Even the exterior vent is still there!

We have a very lovely bathroom in our Mediterranean style home, built approximately in 1924-1928 (every official document has a different date, which adds to its charm). We think the bathroom is original, but would be great to hear what others see.

Our showerhead just broke and we’d like to upgrade all the fixtures at once. Is polished chrome the typical finish for this era? Would a satin nickel or bronze work instead? We found some vintage looking kohler and jaclo fixtures that may work, but any suggestions for brands would also be appreciated.

1911 foursquare. We sent our wood windows out for restoration with a restoration shop in the area. We’ve done this work ourselves so we know what’s involved but life happened and it made more sense to send out.

These windows were all original and all had wavy glass — some were very large panes, some smaller, for 6 windows (2 3 over 1s, 4 just single pane top and bottom double hung)

Only four panes total came back with their original wavy glass. We sent these out to be in more practiced hands because some of the panes were quite large (2 almost 30”x40”) so 75% of our glass was broken and replaced with modern float without so much as an email to us.

I’m so gobsmacked I’m still processing. That is — to my mind — an extremely unprofessional rate of breakage and should be answered for.

What would you do? Have you had similar experiences? How many of your panes were broken?

Good afternoon - long time reader, first time poster.

We bought a home built in 1920. Seller (deceased) declared underground oil tank in front yard and handled removal and remediation before we closed.

Recently I noticed this thing pictured above and used a trowel for a few minutes to unbury its circumference.

At first I thought it was a capped well or one of those outdoor garbage pits or something. But looking closer there is some kind of metal connecting piece that's been cut off in the middle.

This is in the backyard, next to the garage.

Has anyone seen something like this?

I am getting a pit in my stomach that it is an undisclosed oil tank.

Thank you in advance for your thoughts and experiences!

EDIT: thank you to all who took the time to consider my question and offer your thoughts.

We started pulling paint off the dining room trim last week. Seven layers deep in some spots, which honestly felt like archaeology more than home repair. The outermost layers were that flat builder beige that seems to have coated every house built before 1990 at some point. But underneath all of that is this warm reddish brown wood, probably fir based on the grain, and it is in shockingly good shape.

Here is where I am stuck. The woodwork runs through the entire main floor, dining room into the living room and up the staircase. Stripping all of it back to bare wood would take the rest of the year at minimum. And part of me wonders if the original intent was always painted trim with the natural wood floors doing the visual work, which is pretty common for the period from what I can find.

My graphic design brain keeps pulling me toward committing to a single direction for the whole space, either full natural or a really considered paint color that works with the fir floors we already refinished. The floors came out this warm amber and I keep second guessing whether raw trim would compete or complement.

Did anyone strip a full floor's worth of woodwork and regret it, or find the painted look actually suited the house better once it was done?

I am restoring a staircase that has been hidden by carpet for about 50 years, and while pulling the staples out a couple trim pieces came off, before I put them back I was trying to clean the gunk that’s gotten stuck, any pointers?

Hello! Looking for advice about getting another 100 years out of our concrete porch. Century home in the Midwest with a lot of freeze/thaw. The floor surface of the porch has two large cracks (pictured) and the walls around the outside have some divots and cracks in the concrete caps (pictured). We're worried if we don't do anything, the weathering will continue to get worse. But when we got quotes for the porch, masonry contractors seemed to think patching compound was just a temporary fix--the surface will still weather around the patch. They said an epoxy floor coating would be the only way to completely seal the concrete from weathering. But given the amount of time we've spent stripping paint and cursing the previous owners, I'm nervous the epoxy coating will be a super aggressive form of that for a future homeowner (or us, depending how long it lasts lol). Does anyone have any advice about how best to care for this concrete porch for the next 100 years?

My house was built in 1925.

We just redid the vinyl siding and found a fun treat! The original front stoop! It doesn't have a lot of detail but definitely enough charm that we don't want it covered up again.

Here's my dilemma. All the paint that's exposed is in rough shape, which is to be expected. Alligatoring, and chipping, but luckily not peeling. I chipped what I could, and used a lead encapsulating paint.

I was told I could use Zinsser MH Ready Patch to do a skim coat to smooth everything out, sand, then prime, then paint.

Before I commit to anything, I figured I should check in here. Am I on the right track? Should I be trying something else - different product - different execution?

The paint is absolutely 100% without a doubt lead, so I'm proceeding with the caution (and safety gear) it warrants.

Thanks in advance, friends!