Our busy season is in full swing. Stay tuned for new blogs on roof colors, porch roofs, and roof flashing problems. I get a lot of questions about roof colors since there is such a large selection.
Remember you can help save the character of other old homes by referring our website to friends, neighbors and your local historical society. Education is the best way to save history and to keep your neighborhood looking good! Follow us and do it right!
White Replacement Windows and House Colors to Avoid
Do you have white replacement windows? An old house that has replacement windows is considered a damaged house to those of us in the historic preservation field. Maybe the evil previous homeowner committed this crime and you are left to deal with it. Don’t worry though, there are options to save the curb appeal of your house at least a …
Piscataway History in Danger. HPC Fails Preservation.
Save Piscataway history! Homeowners and Historic Commissions Must Understand they are Stewards for Historic houses. Piscataway history is in danger by developers. Therefore significantly important historic buildings, part of historic Raritan Landing, are in the Road Up Raritan Historic District. To protect Piscataway history, the historic buildings are overseen by the Piscataway Historic Preservation Commission (HPC). The John Onderdonk House …
This is a photo from Hooks & Lattice, a business that sells shutters, window casing and window crowns. Evidently they are extremely ignorant. Have you ever seen a window header that extends over the shutters and shutters that are longer than the windows?
Paint color renderings for a 1905 house in Indiana.
I stumbled across this beautiful house. It looks small but has 5 bedrooms. Painting it period colors would really highlight the ornamentation but so many people – well almost everyone that I work on has the colors all in the wrong places and it really makes the house look worse. I would prefer to see an all white house. The green shutters are nice. Eggshell or ivory whites have a nice depth to them unlike the vinyl whites. The shutters on the porch are closed. Notice the pipe hand rail on the steps. It seems like the majority of old homes originally had nothing on the steps or just a pipe hand rail. It’s surprising to see that even for high steps.
Every old house owner must subscribe to The Old House Journal.
If you live in a town where your local government or code enforcement does not understand historic preservation, I suggest buying a gift subscription for them.
By browsing this magazine an interest and respect for old houses may develop.
There is a big difference between the appearance of wood windows and vinyl windows. See the difference of how they look in this house and their effect on curb appeal.
Do you have Wallpaper to resemble Stone or Stone to resemble Wallpaper? It doesn’t matter if your stone-work on your house is veneer as long as it looks real. Now you may think it looks real, but your subconscious mind can tell the difference and will interpret this with an uneasy feeling. That is if you take the time to …
Decorative concrete blocks were the rage in house building from about 1890’s to the 1930’s. These decorative concrete blocks came in an assortment of styles and sizes. They could be purchased from a local building supplier but most likely made right on the construction site. A concrete block machine could be ordered from the Sears catalog for $42.50 in 1910. …
