The Historic District

I had quite a few knots in my railing that took paint of different colors that were tough to deal with. Probably the worst one was a forest green (from the 50's maybe?). I ended up soaking a few sections with paint stripper and using wire brushes to clean some of them and then wiped the whole thing ...

Well I had my aunt measure the length of the walls for me and unfortunately I have to locate at least 72' - which is a lot. I might have to be patient and wait for a good deal to come up on eBay or Kijiji. I did send an email to Legacy and they had some beautiful fence but only about 35' of it - and...

I'm kind of hoping it does fade over time, I think they'll blend better after that. We're going to try a bit of brown and my concrete guy is going to bring the sills over to the house for a check before he pours any more. I never thought it would be this tough.. :p

I have an original porch rail and cedar decking as well. The porch boards I painted over (although the paint didn't stick very well) but for the railing I repainted the spindles and sanded the upper and lower rails. After I sanded them I used a redwood colored stain which would be consistent with th...

As part of the repairs to the masonry and facade I'm having three damaged window sills replaced. They have to be custom made because of a fancy little imprint on the front. Apparently matching concrete that is 120+ years old is proving to be quite the challenge. Adding a bit of black didn't work - i...

I had an absolutely terrible time with contractors until I got into the local loop. After purchasing the house I had quite a few repairs to start with (starting with the electrical which was a fire hazard) and had to find a reasonable contractor. I asked the real estate agent for referrals which was...

In my c. 1895 house the kitchen, dining room and living room had single ceiling lights. I also had original lights on the porch outside. I think these were done because they were the "presentation" rooms - there is quite a bit of decorative molding and fancy register covers downstairs. My ...

The curtains are frilly on the top because you have extra volume there (probably 1.5x the width of the window). You could look for cafe style sheers which would work, I don't think I've ever seen one with grommets before. Since you don't like them there isn't much to lose if you want to try a small ...

The square copper lock sets with the dark banding are consistent with the time frame of the house *if* it was built around 1900. That style is known as "copper flash" or "Japanned" and was popular from about 1890-1910 or so. I think the oval ones are a bit earlier and more consis...

Well.. I can't thank you enough for the tip about "Cresting" and I think I've finally found a source. It's an easy drive down to Milford, PA for a pick-up and there seems to be quite a few lovely options: m I'm going to keep up the hunt for a Canadian source - the US exchange rate is terri...