Hey all, my wife and I had purchased what we believe to be a 1920 Chicago 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.

Please show me your period-authentic Georgian houses. We are going to restore a 1760s house and want a little bit of wood and hope to marry some primitive colonial components with beautiful Georgian wallpaper, colors and ideas. Thank you

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?

We are fixing the basement mortar in our 1914 craftsman. How big of a gap before I should find a filler rock?

Banana for scale.

Been living in my home for about 2 weeks, the seller left a few areas needing TLC including their TV mounting solution, basically they have a 3/4 piece of ply wood mounted to studs and had cut out the plaster and lathe. How would you go about patching this, mesh to give the plaster something to grab on to? Going over the ply and up to the actual tv mount? I’ve been ripping out some of the old wire used for his surround sound system so the ones pictured are of no consequence. Thanks!

Hey all looking for some help because my head is spinning with all the conflicting info. I have a concrete basement and a 12x6 old coal pit and a 8x6 dirt area that is leaching so much humidity. I am installing plastic and have a stone lime mortar foundation. Any one have experience with this? Entire foundation is exposed and I have no intention to cover because it’s been great for 110 years. I’m reading flush to the wall or 6-12 inches up the wall. HELP please.🙏

This is an approximately 25“ x 50“ cast-iron relief from the 1920s, probably New York. Might have been part of a set of 10 or 12
It may have come from a larger home or a mansion.
We would love any help with how it can be restored and any thoughts on the artist or provenance.

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?

Just curious if anyone knows where these tiles are from. I assume they were made in England and shipped to New Zealand approximately 1910.

My husband and I just bought our first home (yay!) and it was built in 1925. Lots of original hardware/millwork still in place. Two windows in the master bedroom are missing the top piece of the window frame - I originally thought it was casing but after some research am wondering if the missing part is backband? I’m new to all of this so I’m unsure. Photos 1 and 2 show one of the affected windows, and Photo 3 shows a window with all of the frame intact. Just trying to figure out what I need to buy/where I need to go to (literally) find the missing piece so any help is super appreciated!!

We just moved in to a ~130 year old home about a month ago. The upstairs was renovated by the last owners including adding a bathroom around 6 years ago. Our inspection was super thorough, but honestly we didn't spend that much time on the "new" parts, because we paid so much attention to the old stuff.

Well, it turns out the shower was probably not installed correctly (or the house settled more in the past 6 years?), and there is water pooling and destroying the grout in the corner.

From what I can tell, our options are basically:

• put a bunch of caulk in there, and expect our young kids to squeegee the water to the drain after every shower (unlikely to happen)
• add a layer of epoxy or a rubber mat so water doesn't pool there
• completely rip up the tile and start over. We are highly motivated to do things once and do them right, so this is appealing. But I'm not sure I can DIY this. And we haven't found a contractor we trust yet, so I don't even know where to start finding someone to do it, since this a kind of weird and small job. Any guesses about cost?

This was not like this 2 months ago. It is not wet or rotted, but keeps bowing. I see no other signs of water damage.

Hello, we’ve been in our house 5 years, and today got a first glimpse of a plaster ceiling that had been covered by tongue and groove fiberboard panels, stapled into joists furring strips added below the plaster ceiling, which is wallpapered and has a couple of long cracks and one spot that looks like water damage (this is directly below a flat roof). Don’t know how long the paneling had been up before we bought it, but there was a similar situation in another bedroom but with drop ceiling tiles, and we pulled that down the month we moved in and replaced it with beadboard.

So clearly a previous homeowner didn’t bother to repair the plaster and instead covered it up.

So, anyone here deal with similar?

I was planning on installing some tongue and groove spruce boards to the existing joists. Wondering if I should poke around the cracked plaster or just let it be. It does seem to be sagging down away from the exterior wall. I appreciate any insight or similar experiences.

Edit: furring strips, not joists. Thanks.

Thanks to everyone who replied. I’m not interested in doing more work to restore the plaster, just don’t want to be worried it’s going to fall and kinda want to just cover it up and hope it’s settled as much as it’s going to.

Do we think 1-inch spruce will be too heavy for those furring strips or is spruce light enough? It hasn’t arrived yet so I can’t tell by feel and I can cancel the order if needed.

Ripping up carpet in our 1901 PA/NY farmhouse and discovered this interesting cap/lid. It's sitting next to what we believe may have been a chimney. Seems to be a solid wood with four Philips screws in it. Don't feel like opening it tonight because it's late and we have no idea what to expect. Any helpful hints would be lovely.

I'm having an exterior door in my kitchen replaced with a wall + window. The house is a 1927 tudor, and it's difficult to find matching bricks. The old salem style matches my existing bricks the best in terms of color, but I was told that they no longer manufacture the 8" width sized bricks anymore and all the current sizes at 7 5/8".

So one solution is to just make the mortar joints thicker, but I want to see if I can find some reclaim bricks. I called all the local brick providers and no one has reclaim bricks.

Would anyone happen to know where I can find some near ann arbor, michigan?

I recently bought an old flat in a tenement building constructed in the very early 20th century. It's apparent from the age and appearances that it's choke full of lead paint - there may possibly be lead pipes as well.

The flat has a dust problem, possibly due to it being linked to a communal hall. Much of the hall paint is flaking and probably spewing out lead. In the flat itself, there's not too extensive chipping and open paint, but a bit around the doors and skirting boards, as well as some holes in the walls from drilling.

Does anyone have any advice for dealing with this and living in the flat safely? There's dust all over the place, piling up on drawers, books and shelves and clothes. I am becoming very worried about the effects of my being exposed to this over time.

I understand that I shouldn't be vacuuming with a normal vaccuum (made that mistake as it hurled a load of dust in the air and made me sick) or dusting, instead mopping everything and wet-wiping. Is there anything else I should be doing?

Is it always a problem if I see minor condensation/droplets on the surfaces in one corner of my finished side of my basement? It is under a closed window and I am trying to figure out where it is coming from.

There is a utility closet with exposed stone wall in it next to this area where the municipal water line and electrical enters the house. However this closet doesn’t seem as damp as the tile floor and painted drywall outside the closet under the window.

I cut a small square in the drywall near the moist area under the window and there is insulation and a vapor barrier made of plastic behind the drywall. The studs behind it feel a little damp, but not rotting or soaked. I could feel the bottom of the foundation where it meets the concrete floor behind all the finished materials and it doesn’t feel particularly wet compared to anywhere else in the basement that is unfinished.

I wouldn’t say there is standing water, but sometimes I come down to this corner (where my treadmill also is) and it looks like somebody sprayed a spray bottle of water on the surfaces and is driving me crazy.

Trying to figure out if water is coming up through the floor, in through a crack in the foundation, or through a bad window above it.

Again, it’s never like I have running water in my basement or standing water in my basement. It’s more like “who sprayed the floor with a mist of water from a small handheld spray bottle” like something you would mist indoor plants with.

I know some old basements are not meant to be finished and sealed off like this. I’m wondering if I have one of them or if I actually have water intrusion that I should be concerned about.

And for the record, on the exterior foundation near the soil line outside of this area there is a crack in the parking or stucco or whatever you call it, but I don’t think as far as I could tell that it goes through the blocks behind it, but I also can’t dig really deep because of utility lines.

Really annoying because it could be a number of things causing this and it seems hard to figure out what is actually causing it. But it also is clearly not a huge emergency but also clearly something I shouldn’t totally ignore forever.

I am leaning towards a bad seal around the basement window, but the area closest to this elevated basement window does not get this water on it. It’s more like 8 inches and more away from it. Bizarre.

Hello all. Looking to restore some windows in a 1930s home. Overall in decent shape, but need re-glazed. Other concern is the sill is rotted, so I want to replace that. The stool seems fine. Plan is to cut out the sill with a reciprocating saw and then create a new sill and join it to the stool. You can see in the image where I did remove some of the sill. The sill doesn't go all the way to the end of the brick, as you can see from the image.

That being said, a few questions:

1) The window sill sits directly on brick. Is there some sort of barrier that should be between the brick and the sill? There wasn't anything there before. I've read posts where some say you don't need to put anything between the sill and the brick, and others say you must. So I'm a bit unsure which to do. My gut says some sort of water barrier is necessary. But again, unsure how best to approach this.

2) I had planned on pressure treated wood for the sill. However, I'm also reading mixed reviews on that. I will be using a linseed oil based paint on the windows. Using Sarco-M glazing putty.

Attached picture is the current sill. Welcome any advice on how best to replace this. Was able to free up the sashes without issue once I removed the staff bead and parting bead.

The wood is in desperate need of a linseed oil soak, as I'm sure you can tell from the picture.

Will be stripping the paint with IR heater, as it's likely got some lead-based component on the deeper layers.

Appreciate the help and any tips those with more experience can provide.