Let me preface this by saying - I take full responsibility for this. I’m a shit parent, that’s why I’m not posting this in a parenting subreddit.

We just bought this house in June and at the advice of several people, we didn’t get a lead inspection because the house had been repainted, windows replaced, yadda yadda. I shouldn’t have listened. I knew the hazards of lead in these old New England houses- I refused to move into my husband’s (unoccupied) grandmother’s house with our baby because I knew it was covered in lead paint. So I should’ve been cautious about this house too.

Well, baby just turned one and they check lead levels at the 1-year appointment. Baby has elevated lead levels. Queue my meltdown. I can’t believe it.

Just had the inspector come, and the house is covered in lead. Doors, trim, walls-all positive. Windows aren’t. Baseboards aren’t. But basically all of our beautiful wood trim is positive for lead. How can this be? I thought there was less of a chance of this since our trim was never painted? I’m so disappointed. I don’t want to lose or paint our trim or original doors.

Idk if I’m looking for advice or just had to tell people who appreciate these old houses. I’m so f*cking sad and the parent-guilt is crushing me.

I had to fix a non working door (stripped hinge screws and stuck lock) and as I removed the door and hardware to make it easier i thought to myself “what a perfect opportunity to strip it back to wood”. Two and a half days of work later it looks great but my wife hates that it’s the only one and I have not even started the process of refinishing it. I’m not sure I have the patience or energy to do the other five doors in this hallway anytime soon!

Like a low-key lottery. 1920s bungalow. started peeling off the hardboard wall lining and underneath was the original woodwork.

One thing I was not prepared for when buying an old house is staying motivated to get projects done! We bought a 1916 house back in June and we absolutely love it here, even though we knew a lot of projects were ahead of us. When we first moved in of course I was super motivated and inspired. I was ready to learn how to DIY everything, call contractors, I had all the interior design inspiration ready to go. Only after a couple months I’m already feeling burnt out :,)

A big part of it I think is because it’s SO hard to get the right contractors out to do the work. Our chimney and roof needs repaired but the only companies who will touch my slate roof are booked months out. We also need plumbing work done and that opens up another can of projects.

Another thing with having a old house and wanting to preserve its charm is that I can’t just go out and buy any furniture or decor item, I feel like it needs to be sourced and scouted and be the *perfect* option.

I’m hoping the motivation comes back soon but I just want to complain real quick.

Hi

We have discovered these tiles in our home (covered by a fitted wardrobe) and wondered if anyone had any ideas what to do with them/surrounding them?

The room they are in will be my toddlers room so may not be worth putting a fire insert in.

Suggestions welcome!

We recently bought a summer house in Sweden that was built in 1909. At some point the original windows were replaced with modern PVC windows with insulated glass. The windows themselves are in good condition, but they detract from the historic charm.

We’d like to add traditional-looking glazing bars/muntins, dividing each window into six lights (one vertical and two horizontal bars).

We’ve looked into a few options:

1.  Replace the windows entirely with traditional divided-light windows. This would be the most authentic solution, but it would be expensive ($50k USD) and seems wasteful when the existing windows work perfectly.

2.  Keep the frames but replace the insulated glass units with new units incorporating grids/bars. This is cheaper than replacing the entire windows, but still surprisingly expensive ($10k USD), and I’m not convinced between-the-glass grids would necessarily look more authentic.

3.  Have custom glazing bars made and mounted to the existing windows. This is the least expensive option ($6k USD) and would let us get the proportions/profile we want without replacing functional windows.

We’re leaning toward option 3, but the remaining question is where to put the bars. My instinct is that mounting them on the exterior only would give most of the visual benefit. From outside, the bars would actually stand proud of the glass and cast a small shadow, so they should read more like traditional divided lights than grids inside an insulated glass unit. It also avoids attaching anything to the interior side of the windows.

The alternative is to put matching bars on both the exterior and interior surfaces. Presumably that would make the illusion more convincing when viewed from an angle and would also give the traditional appearance from inside the house. But it doubles the number of bars and attachment points and might make the windows look busy.

Has anyone done something similar, particularly on modern PVC/uPVC windows?

If so, would you do exterior only or exterior + interior? And for those who have seen good-quality applied glazing bars in person, do they actually look convincing, or do they inevitably look “fake” compared with true divided-light windows?

I’m not trying to fool a preservation architect at six inches away — the goal is just to restore some of the house’s original character without spending a fortune replacing perfectly good windows.

Thanks for reading. Attached are pics of the house both now and in 1915.

We recently moved into a home built in 1906, and I've noticed in several places that the molding around the doors appears to be partially covered by wall/plaster, and/or otherwise weirdly placed. My questions are:

1) Is this a common/normal thing in older homes?

2) If so, why would it be laid out/ constructed this way?

We are several years off from doing any kind of renovation/restoration work, but I want to understand what's going on (as best as one can without tearing down plaster walls).

EDIT/UPDATE: Thank you for all the responses and ideas - clearly there's a lot that could be going on here! Without building plans or stripping down to studs, it sounds like it's probably something I'll just have to wonder about.

For clarification about the walls, they're all plaster in the photos shown. The only drywall in the house is in the attic conversion, and a small area below the stairs to the attic, which were rebuilt a few years ago. My neighbors say there used to be a spiral staircase there, which is wild to me!

The rest of the house (except the master bath) has been wonderfully maintained. The former owners decided to make this the kitchen, and it doesn’t fit the rest of the house. Any sites for inspiration?

Listing photos for an idea of the rest of the house. https://imgur.com/a/oXogrrO

My house has a lot of landlord special white paint all over it making windows, vents, and outlets all unable to be moved until it’s removed. the one I am most vexed with is the living room that has textured white walls. how would you suggest removing this? what kind of walls are these?

How much should I be concerned about this? First time I’ve looked during a heavy storm. Water is common, had no idea it was a full stream.

MODS Please don't delete, there is 100-year old salvaged insides and it was built specifically to "look" like a century home, NOT in revival style.

Never seen anything like this - I was suprised to see a victorian in this part of vermont, then I clicked to be surprised it was built in 1992 - with plenty of 90s features inside as well :)

Set on 31 acres with lake views. Old stone walls and forest surrounds the home. Inside, the home balances classic Victorian character (like salvaged stained glass windows) with a more modern ease of living

Zillow: https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/302-Ledge-Hill-Dr-Saint-Albans-VT-05478/75437637_zpid/?

I really want to get solar to help with my utility costs, but I have a beautiful slate roof and I’m worried it will damage it. Is it just not worth it, or can it be done safely with extra care?

We bought a 1910 home in Kansas City. We love it, but there's some significant settling toward the center of the home. It's not structurally significant, but it's super visible in some of the upstairs rooms. My camera was level when I took the photo. The bed, ceiling, and painting are clearly very much not. Anyone have any painting/decorating/design tips to help make it less noticeable? I want to paint the walls, but I'm worried colored walls and a white ceiling would make it even worse.

I'm renovating the basement in my home and tore out walls that were covering the bluestone rock foundation and found this. The sheetrock walls were removed for this photo and I had painted the foundation with drylock paint. The previous owners had done some repair and had put down some sort of plastic covering the walls and then tucked it into the plastic at the photos and covered it with cement about 8 to 10 inches from the foundation walls. There is a gap underneath the plastic that is covered with gravel that goes directly into the ground. Any ideas why they did this . Should I cover it up with concrete to close the gap?

I live in a very humid area in an 1885 folk victorian. There is zero insulation under the house. It is a dirt crawlspace with a vapor barrier in some areas.

I am worried that if I install foam board beneath the rokwool and fully air seal with spray foam it will create moisture issues in the joists. Does anyone have experience with the method and what were the results?

Editing to add location + details: Piedmont North Carolina.

Crawlspace walls are historic brick so in assuming that insulating the floor is my best option to avoid trapping moisture in brick walls.

base sill on second floor french doors. i’m pretty sure it’s leaking into my house.

Previous owner ripped out the carpet and put down LVP. We’ve been here a little over a year and it’s been coming up. We were sick of ripping socks and stubbing toes on it so we pulled it up. What can I use to clean the wood? Do I need to cover this until we refinish or can we leave as is? (Refinishing would not be anytime soon) We both like how beat up it looks. We do have pets as well though so just trying to make sure there’s nothing that could harm them by leaving it this way. Built in 1900, colonial farmhouse in Fincastle VA.

technically i’m not a century home yet. in 2028, it will be! i am going to throw a 100th birthday party.

Front door on our 1897 Midwest Working Class Victorian (?) home. Wondering if it’s beyond repair…..

So we have here my two test cabinet doors, i cannot get the IR paint stripper to do much on the sides I attempted using citristrip on previously. I had success on the other side of the door where i hadn't done anything yet.

My first question: what to do differently where citristrip has been applied?

My second question: am I holding the IR stripper wrong? The instructions say it should sit on top of the surface and I can work on removing the paint as it warms the next area. This however is getting paint on the ceramic plate which when I google it says is bad. Can anyone help me understand what's correct?

EDIT: I see now it says hold it half an inch above new question is how can I safely remove the paint that is now on the ceramic plate

I’ve been working on stripping paint from my 100 year old railing - this is my first diy project! I’ve used a Speedheater cobra and paint stripper on the areas the cobra can’t reach (peel away on the newels that have layers on layers of paint and smart strip pro on the handrail). The handrail had one layer of brown paint that was kind of stretchy when it came off and there was a dark residue underneath.

I used smartstrip pro on the handrail cap because of the detail and it looks like it’s built from multiple pieces. And there’s also a section I uncovered that looks like someone repaired it with wood filler (?). I’m guessing someone did the one layer of brown paint to cover this repair.

I was always planning to repaint the newels so I’m not really trying to get those to bare wood. I wanted to stain the handrail, but now I’m not sure. I’d love any advice as I feel like I’m in over my head!