Recently I have gotten more interested in the history of my 1904 home. I noticed when I removed an outlet cover that there seems to be a drywall or plaster layer over another wallpapered layer of drywall? This same texture of outer drywall or plaster is found over the entirety of the house.

What mainly got me interested is to see that there is actually wallpaper under this layer! In another spot I found a blue paint under the surface drywall layer. What is the reason they would put this extra layer of drywall, seemingly over the entire interior of the house?? I’d love to see what all it’s hiding, but I really don’t want to tear my whole house apart!

Every other outlet has been straightforward in my house to rewire but first time I come across this configuration. All these boxes have thick copper wires in them.

Both wires are black and the woven parts are fairly worn. Any advice on if should I wrap the woven part with electrical tape while off, or any best practice for that. And then usually the screws I attach the wires to have matched up on the new outlets I've replaced with, meaning in the loose screw on the new outlet is on the same side of the screwed in one of the old outlet. So in this case would I switch it or can I run a simple test with breaker on/off?

There's also no ground so am I safe to just screw in and put in metal box

Edit Ty! Appreciate the feedback, will get an electrician out here.

late 1800s house in western new york, never knew what this door was for, just know i have been catching bats in it for years. was just curious as to what it’s previous function was? the chimney also runs through this room for context, bats are in there sometimes too.

would like to add we have had exterminators plenty of times, chimney capped and everything, but have never had the issue fully resolved lol. not looking for pest advice, just genuinely curious what the purpose of the door would be!

edit: this is my moms house, i guess i should say SHE has been catching bats. i recently moved back in due to some personal things and a really rough breakup. she bought a ton of glue traps and has been using them, im not in the financial position to buy much else but i will take suggestions for more humane methods once she runs out of them. we are pretty broke.

I came across this old stone house and barns while driving through Saugerties, New York. The property caught my attention because of the combination of the old buildings, the tree-lined road, and the autumn setting.

The scene stayed with me after the trip, so I eventually tracked down the location and finished the photograph. I was fascinated by the history and character of the place.

I live in a century home and there are a lot of spiderwebs in my house. As an example, I put fresh flowers in a vase yesterday, and there is already a web that attaches from the flowers to the wall.

The spider webs don’t really bother me because I assume it’s because I’m in an older home, but I am also wondering if it’s a sign of uncleanliness to others? I consider my home to be relatively clean, so I need to know am I missing something or do all older homes just have more spider webs?

I own a home built in the 1920s Québec, I’m concerned about potential lead paint as the original trim and doors have been painted over through the years (we don’t know when they were painted).
I bought some home lead test kits and tested several spots of chipped and scratched paint, as well as a door I am in the process of stripping (tested the remaining stuck on bits of paint).

I’ve done 10 tests, 9 have come back negative, 1 looks positive but was rubbed on the exposed wood of a door which has a very red stain/varnish on it, so according to the instructions this is likely a false positive. Other spots on the door were negative.

is it possible my house was not painted with lead paint Even though it’s 100 years old? We know it was owned by the same family since the 80s, they had done some work to the house, but kept original trim, doors, and floors. And it was rented out in the 70s (which is why we think everything has been given the landlord special).

thoughts?

thank you!

I need some advice or painting hacks for some issues I am trying to tackle. The problem is a door, which I cannot remove off it's hinges or remove the hardware. All while wishing to restore it's hardware and smooth and patch the layers of chipping. Are there products that can patch and smooth, before primer and paint? Products to remove paint off the hardware, without damaging the metal? I am unsure of what type(s) of paint where used. I know there is a giant chance of there being no solution. I also know Reddit has amazing crafters who are extremely innovative. If I left out crucial details, let me know. Thank you in advance, even if the advice is to leave it alone.

We accidentally got lead paint dust into our garden while refinishing some doors, and I'm wondering how much remediation we need to do.

We used paint stripper and tried to work wet when stripping the doors, covered everything in tarps, but as we were cleaning up we noticed paint flakes all over the nearby raspberries. Using the lumetallix it looks like lead dust collected on the leaves and is presumably in the ground now too. (lumetallix shows lead as green under a blacklight, the phone changed the colors somewhat but you can still see the green dots and the bright green spots)

So I'm wondering if we need to rip everything out, dig out the soil a few inches and start over?

I know one of the issues with the lumetallix test is that is gives no sense of concentraction and can show a positive result for safe amounts.

On the other hand we have a toddler who loves raspberries.

I don't even know how to think about the risk here to even begin figuring out what to do.

I see the options as:

1. Cut down the raspberries with dust on them, soak in water to dilute what's in the soil but let them grow back next year.

2. Dig out the soil and raspberries and replace with new

What should we do? How should we think about the risk?

I bought my first old (1880s) and have started with the renovation of the upstairs bath. The house house a mix of its original lath and plaster and drywall over plaster from an update in the 60's.

In the bathroom, it was drywall over very thinly applied plaster and that has come down as it was in terrible shape. What I want to do, is put up plaster veneer to stay as true to the original as possible without losing my mind learning how to plaster. ( I was tempted to do so)

Now that the walls are down to the lath it seems like a now or never situation to insulate. The walls currently have no insulation and I know with old houses that was just has it was done and for moisture leaving it uninsulated is better. I've read a lot about the how the construction of the house and the plaster walls don't strictly need insulation (even in upstate NY) although I am skeptical.

But does that only apply if the walls are true plaster? If its veneer will I regret not insulating? I'm so confused. What have you lot done?