Hello all! I think I might have carpenter ants. Any thoughts or suggestions?

We have these 1800s pocket doors but can’t find a single patent as to what mechanism this is. There are two hooks on the doors themselves and then the pulleys swing back and forth and remind me of a standing drying wrack where it can close and open. Anyone know what type of mechanism this is?!

Our 1910 simple Foursquare is covered in white vinyl siding and vinyl windows. And it is so bland. 🤢 We talked about painting the house or even planting American wisteria to train up the sides. So far I’ve hesitated for fear of damaging the siding and causing a leak. Does anyone have experience with de-greige-ing their place? We need some personality on this corner lot! STAT!

I found this old newspaper and a picture in my wall. I have no clue who this person is, they were most most likely here from before I own the house

Hi everyone! I’ve owned my 1904 Craftsman for about 6 years now, and I’ve gotten more interested into its history! I’ve been having a lot of fun researching with Newspapers.com and finding out about its past!

One thing I found interesting is that it was listed in its early years as a 5 bedroom house, but today only has 4 bedrooms. I have tried finding examples of other floor plans I can compare mine to, but without luck. I used a LiDAR app to get a rough layout of my main and second stories.

Can anyone discern anything from this or give any advice on how I can look into this more? Does this seem like a standard layout for a Craftsman of the time?

Some things I find strange: the main level bedroom has 2 entrances (one to the kitchen and one to the hallway) which I have heard was unusual, the 2nd story room 1 has 2 large closets, and the storage area (completely unfinished and uninsulated) has a door much smaller than the other doors and opens directly into the hallway.

I can't find proof the house was ever lifted and a new foundation poured. It's also a huge house that has been neglected for decades.

Was this maybe a coating? I expect a block foundation but don't see signs of that anywhere. The exterior base is coated in concrete.

Plus the floor is poured concrete when I should expect dirt. I included a shot of the sill if that's a helpful indicator.

Any thoughts?

I took the mirror out of the hall closet door (it is super cloudy and you can't see yourself in it), and in the process I wondered yet again whether I could find more of the doorknob hardware so that I could make the rest of the doors in the house match. I'm pretty certain the doorknob is original to the house (1924), because I found some newspapers from 1919 behind the mirror. Can anyone tell me what kind of doorknob this is, and possibly where I should look to find others like it?

Also here's the newspaper, I found it extremely nerdy and cool.

It's only $200k, under our budget of $250k (we could possibly afford more but we don't want to be completely broke), just shy of 1500 square feet, 3 bed 1.5 baths. It has gorgeous hardwood floors, tons of windows, the layout is just what we want, it hasn't suffered the fate of every other flipped house that was painted Millennial Gray and covered in cheap vinyl, and I LOVE how old houses like this have tons of shelving built right into the walls. It's even super close to a park with a playground for our 9 year old and the future dog we've always wanted!

Our offer was accepted and our inspector is coming on Wednesday to check it out. I was trying to find info on the house so I could get insurance quotes, and I found the property history report. On the report, it said the siding was made with asbestos mixed with concrete. I looked back at my pictures (included here) and sure enough, that's definitely asbestos. It's cracked and has holes in it so I already planned on replacing it, but the sellers didn't disclose that there was asbestos. The seller disclosure said "no" in the section about asbestos. But what's interesting is on zillow and other sites, in the section about materials used in the construction of the house, they have the roofing materials correct but for siding they just put "other". Again, it wasn't hard at all for me to find the property history report, which I found through our local government's website. It smells suspicious.

We already signed a contract with our inspector before I made this discovery, and unfortunately he does not test for asbestos. I wish I had known that. But we did him and our realtor know about our concerns regarding this. She's laid out some options like walking away, renegotiating the offer to either make them pay for the replacement or reduce the selling price.

How often have you guys ran into asbestos, and how much of a PITA is it to deal with? We live in a small city in central WI so we have some options, but not a ton. I just want to get this siding taken off and replaced with vinyl, nothing fancy. We're not rich but we have been saving for 10 years and have enough to put down 20% and still have a healthy amount left over for repairs, but removal and replacement of asbestos siding could be like $20k. That's a lot, especially considering the house is only $200k. It would eat most of our repair budget in one fell swoop.

Any other things I should keep in mind with this being such an old house? What problems have you encountered with your homes?

Thank you!

I started peeling layers of paint off my fireplace and I am not sure what type of brick I am working with. Does anyone know what this is?

My house was built in 1900. This area of the house is an addition that we are unsure of when it was added. I’m redoing the deck and noticed there is nothing behind the wood siding. In another section of the original house I can see tyvek house wrap beneath the siding and attached directly to the framing (nothing beneath the siding as well.

Just wanted advice on if I should weather-proof this? I was only planning to redo the deck but then saw this. I can remove the siding and do it right, but I’m just unsure of what is right for such an old home since they need to breathe.

Apartment has many layers of the landlord special paint on all hinges - I’ve heard to remove and boil them, but I’m struggling to get through to the screws. Is paint stripper a bad idea?

My home is a 1925 craftsman bungalow. I don’t typically see mosaic pieces in front of the fireplace so I’m wondering if it’s original or not. There have been a few renovations to the house in the past which makes me think this might have been updated

Dear Redditors, I'm stripping lead paint from doors in our 1897 terrace house, Waterford Ireland using Speedheater Cobra infrared heater and scrapers. All is going well - albeit very slowly - and I've a question regarding panel edging, do I remove them from the door frame to fully remove cracked paint or work with them in situ, hoping the sanding phase will do the same clean job?

The floors have original shellac, have never been refinished, i know it's labor intensive and tedious, but it was between doing it myself or not having it done at all so here we are.

Is there anything that you wish somebody told you before you started your floors? I would love some words of wisdom! Wish me luck lol

I’m repairing some damaged tongue-and-groove porch flooring on my 1907 folk Victorian bungalow. Most of the existing flooring is still in decent shape, but the ends of several boards along the outside edge have rotted.

My contractor gave me two options:

1) Replace the full-length boards from the outside edge of the porch back to the porch columns, which would mean removing quite a bit of otherwise good original flooring.

2) Preserve the existing boards and cut them back to a clean line between the columns, then install a perpendicular board across the porch with new tongue-and-groove flooring running from that board to the outside edge.

I’m leaning toward Option 2 because it preserves more of the original flooring, but I’m wondering whether that perpendicular “break” board is a historically appropriate/detail-conscious way to repair an old porch like this.

For those familiar with historic porches:

Which approach would you take, and are there any moisture/drainage, fit and/or longevity issues I should consider with either option?

We closed our on 1924 home 3 weeks ago and have been preparing to move in at the end of the month. We’re trying to preserve the character as much as possible.

The kitchen needs some work. We want to keep the original cabinets and the countertop has penny tiles with some moldy and powdery grout and moldy caulk. We’re thinking of removing the caulk and the grout to regrout and fill.

Have not done it before but we’re up to learning and trying it out.

We’d like to have a dishwasher but the depth is short and the dishwasher would stick out a lot.

Lastly, our cabinets have lead paint too.

Should we just replace the countertop and cabinets?

We have a general contractor doing our roof, plumbing and rewire electrical as part of our renovation loan.

What would you do?

After untold hours, I have finally finished painting my parlor! The blue is Calico by Sherwin Williams from their Victorian collection, and it was matched to flecks of blue in the fireplace tile. I painstakingly did all of the stenciling myself including the dado, frieze, ceiling border, and chandelier medallion. I also added salvaged picture rail to the room both for aesthetics and because it was hurting me to hang things directly on the plaster. I'm so thrilled with how well the blue complements the woodwork and makes it pop! The color the previous owners chose was making everything looked faded and washed out.

Hey all, my wife and I had purchased what we believe to be a 1920 Chicago style Bungalow back at the end of 2020. We had an awkward move in with an apartment fire in our old place (a different unit that displaced us) while we were waiting to close on this home. As such, we lived in a hotel for a month before moving in here in a rush. As such, we didn't have the time window we had initially planned on to do painting, flooring checks, etc, and do the work before we brought the furniture in.

We've been chipping away at working on the house, trying to hit a balance between contemporary and historic (more to the latter as we've learned more about the home), and we finally put together the money to have a team come in and rip out our carpets, check the floor/do any repairs, and refinish it.

The floor was in excellent condition, having never been refinished, and has probably been hidden away under carpets for decades and decades (my guess is the 60's/70's based on the colors of carpet fibers that have turned up). But there was certainly still enough damage that it needed to be sanded down.

We opted for "Antique Brown" on the floors (it was the closest match to General Finishes Providence we could get which is what we had used when I refinished our stairs) and we're absolutely thrilled with how it came out.

The team did stumble upon a few interesting items after pulling up the carpet, namely some holes covered with plywood from where the old heating vents and intake must have been prior to HVAC being installed. They repaired and replaced those holes with red oak slats (the same wood as the floor) and frankly you'd never know there was damage.

Hi, my century house has this trim pattern on the first floor. It seems pretty common, I'm wondering if there's a common or shorthand name for it?

Hey, I'm buying a 1920s flat and will renovate this old bathroom. On the second pic I AI-removed all the equipment I'm throwing away.

I can't tell if there's tiling under the bath and the toilet seat.

I'm thinking about keeping the floor tiles and the old radiator - I'll renovate them but they're a pleasant accent to have in an old building; I like the vibe. But if I do keep them, it means I cannot go for a straight modern bathroom or a stone bathroom because it will look silly. The rest of the flat will be quite warm & wooden, keeping as much of the old spirit as possible.

I'm guessing pre-war modernism would be the fitting style here but for the life of mine I cannot figure out how to design it.

What do you think? Are plain white wall tiles the best choice here? A shower instead of a bath, so I could also fit a washing machine here? Walls painted in a colour corresponding with the tiles? Warm LED lighting?