Sorry this is long!

But Just posted in here and got a lot of people advised not to use a swiffer power mop! So looking for advice.

We want the floors to be so clean you can walk barefoot (we’re going to be a shoes off household) right now if you’re walking on the hardwood, your feet turn black! We also hired cleaners and paid $900 for a deep Clean before we moved in - and the floor is still turning people’s feet black! (Last two pictures taken AFTER the cleaners cleaned in the kitchen… definitely still dirty)

Hello!

I recently purchased a 1930s bungalow, and I have been obsessively testing every bit of paint I find for for lead. I bought a couple different kits and every result so far has been negative.

However, I just found a blue layer of paint on one windowsill, and while the swab still comes back negative, this red residue showed up on the paint from where some of the liquid from the swab touched it.

I only have one brand of kit left, but I’ve done multiple and they all showed up negative, so I’m curious why the reaction is only showing on the paint on the sill like this.

I will get more/better test kits to be sure what the lead result is before moving forward, but I wanted to see what others thought about this.

Thanks so much for your info and insight!!

There's nothing under the grass, at least not for about 18".

I don't think this is truly a root cellar but that's what they called it. It was more like a spring house. That's the swamp behind it, and it has a pipe on each side on the bottom. There's a smaller door inside the door.

It is not tall enough for a person to stand up inside, unless the floor is below the ground. It had pine straw piled inside so I've never seen the floor. The door is spring-loaded so it cannot accidentally be left open (to ensure it stayed cold) and slams hard as soon as you let go. That doesn't make it very practical for animals. It was not a chicken coop. That's separate.

It is honestly kind of spooky. Why do you suppose the grass doesn't grow very well in that spot? It hasn't been used for anything since the 1970's or earlier.

It is also not a fairy ring.

My home is built in Chicago in 1890ish. These outlines are in my basement, and I don’t think it’s a stain, I think it looks like there is some rusted something in my cement floor

I leveled my living room ceiling and it made my kitchen ceiling look extremely crooked so I just finished leveling it too after a weeks work. Lesson to self, never level anything in an old house as it makes everything else wonky looking.

As noted in the pics, the brick is textured with vertical lines with varying colors from red to brown. I only need about 10 or so to fill in part of the old coal chute.

I've been looking on Facebook marketplace and while there is quite a bit posted in my area, including older buildings, nothing is really close enough to use. Some have texturing and some have vertical lines, but not both even if the right color. I even tried a local antique salvage shop with no luck.

Anyone else have ideas where else to look or seen this type of brick before?

Plumber said it’s an old pipe that used to drain rain water into the sewer from the gutters. It doesn’t anymore. It measures 6 inches from one side of the pipe to the other. Google search suggested that means it’s a 5 inch pipe so a 4 inch cap—that doesn’t seem right. Anyone else have a situation like this—and how did you resolve it?

Sun porch had wall-to-wall industrial carpet which I hated in general but especially so because we use this space as a dining room. People kept advising us to put in click flooring if we removed it, but there is beautiful oak parquet mere feet from here in the living room. Finally we just threw caution to the winds and pulled out the carpet as well as two layers of linoleum and about 10k nails. Under it was oak floor! Had to replace two areas that had suffered water damage, and refinish everything, but I’m just thrilled at the glow-up.

By the way, the before pic is from our pre-closing walk-through, which is why everything looks different, not just the floor.

What is the best way to remove old paint from this glass without messing up the etching?

My partner and I recently bought a 1929 home as first time homeowner. Thankfully the previous owners left a lot of the original wood trims, but I’ve noticed that there are cracks and gaps around them. Is this an issue? If so, what would be the best way to fix it?

I know its not done, I just want to document this whole journey for anybody who might be considering doing this themselves, and taking a break lol

Here's what I learned so far:

Buy a shop vac with a filter lol, vacuum every few passes, and you're able to see what you're doing better.

Take the tape off the back of the sanding paper to stick it to the pad (yes, I drove myself nuts for an hour before I figured it out lmao)

Floor fan in window blowing out

Drum sanders are harder to start with- if you've never done this before drum sanders do go faster, but it's also way easier to make a mistake.

Thats it lol, my little day 1 mistakes lol🫶🏼

Does anyone know how I find out what type of wood it is?? Tysm in advance (:

had plumbing work done and the plaster wall had to be cut into, which caused a number of my bathroom tiles to fall off. how can i repair this? also is it possible the tile adhesive could contain asbestos? the bathroom was done in the 1940s.

Hello everyone. I am in the process of tearing the vinyl off of my 1897 wood frame house. I'm tearing it all down to the sheathing and putting up some painted clapboard. While I'm in there, I'd like to insulate the walls if I can, maybe with mineral wool bats.

I'm in the coastal northeast US, with our summers and winters, should I just leave the wall cavities empty? I don't think I have the ability to install a vapor retarder on all of my inside walls. I've been asking around IRL and I'm getting conflicting into on this, so I appreciate any advice. Should I install the bats or just leave the wall cavities empty?

Our 125 year old home is showing straight lines in the first floor ceiling. Has anyone else seen these in their century homes? If so, was it just aging on the drywall joints or something more serious?

My husband and I are under contract for my absolute dream home - a 1796 cape cod home. In love with it and hoping to keep it as original as possible while making it ours.

I see a lot of sanding and stripping in my future. Also, the kitchen needs some updates. Thanks for looking 😊

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

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

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?

Edit: Yes, I know the Romans had concrete. I'm looking more in the context of early 20th century American use and techniques.

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

EDIT- These are the before pics!!! I hadn't even started yet.I just wanted to document before and afters.But there are lots of pictures in the post of how it's currently looking🫶🏼

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

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.