r/Oldhouses

My friend lost his house in the altadena fire . I’ve known him since he was 15 years old. He called me and said he needed my help to rebuild . No we’re doing 4 houses in altadena , two of which are modular IT Vista Homes and Two which are traditional wood framed homes .

Feel free to reach us at www.Casanova-pro.com

I’ve always been the type of person that drives past an old abandoned house, factory, school, random building in the middle of nowhere and immediately starts wondering:

“What was this place?”
“Who used to live/work here?”
“What did it actually look like when it was brand new?”

Sometimes I’ll literally end up going down a Google rabbit hole trying to find old photos or history on it and still come up empty.

That curiosity is actually why I started building an app called Origin Search.

The idea is pretty simple: you take a picture of an old building, abandoned house, forgotten structure, etc. and the app tries to:

• Restore what it most likely looked like when it was new
• Identify what the building/place likely was used for
• Give history and background info on it
• Estimate time period / architectural clues

For example, if you pass an old boarded-up Victorian home, an abandoned gas station, warehouse, school, or historic building, it can try to reconstruct how it probably looked in its best years and tell you the story behind it.

Still building it out, but honestly it started because I figured I can’t be the only person weirdly obsessed with old forgotten places 😂

Does anyone else do this when driving around? What’s the coolest abandoned building/place you’ve ever found?

we are digging in the back yard of our 1901 home and found this? is a water line? gas? any ideas?

There is an old crumbling chimney on my property in rural North Carolina. I know very little about it and was wondering if anyone could estimate when it was built based on constructing materials and style?

Aerial photographs confirm that there was an active homestead here in 1955, but that it was not in use by 1971. I plan to metal detect the area as well to see if I can learn anything about when it was built.

Any insights or observations would be greatly appreciated.

Hello! Long time user, new alt account. We have a house in the Midwest built around 1915. There have been many questionable upgrades over the years and we are working on restoring some of its historical charm.

Today we were removing a cheap, builder's grade facade from our fireplace. The faux stone facade was on some cement board mounted into a frame over the fireplace. (Last photo is an in progress photo)

This is what the bricks look like under the facade. I have never seen anything like this and Google hasn't been helpful. What is going on with these bricks? Are they interior, fire-grade bricks? Can I sand them smoother?

We recently moved into a small old house. There is a linen closet which I really appreciate in theory, but in practice some of the plaster has holes in it/ is a bit cracked.

I suppose a medium range project would be to pull out the shelves, take down the plaster, and put up drywall instead. But it's really not high on the list of priorities since we have only lived here for a week.

I'm wondering if there's any downside to covering the plaster with something like contact paper.

I am a little bit skeeved out at the thought of putting fresh towels or linens in this closet as it is, But would be okay with a temporary fix, even if it's a little goofy looking.

Thank you for any suggestions.

There's something about an old home that warms my heart. The character is charming. Northern Maryland

Can anyone held testy what is item could be? Initial thoughts was an old wired doorbell or the original phone box?!

I got this tile from my grandads house that was built somewhere between 1880-1900. I know the tile isn’t that old but I was told by my aunt that it was there before she was born in the 1980s so I was wondering how old it may be

The first two photos show an old beam above the windows that appears to be sagging in the middle. The second photo shows how there is no foundational support in the middle of the porch. I’m thinking I’m going to need to add a new pier in the center of the porch and then run a full length 4x4 at minimum to the beam supporting the roof.

Photos 3, 4, and 5 show the left side of the porch. It appears to have minimal settling based on the interior picture. I’m trying to decide if I should jack it up .25 inches and flip that cinder block or throw in a solid block or if it’s not worth the risk.

Photos 6, 7, and 8 show the right side of the porch with significant settling shown where the siding seems have extra space between them and the single pane window frames coming apart. The soil under the porch is pretty wet, and I’m going to install gutters, but I want to go in the order of foundation, porch wall framing, new roof then gutters. I’m trying to decide if I should just try to stop it from settling further by adding an extra pier or 2, bracing and gutters, or if I should jack it up a bit before I do all of that.

Photos 9 and 10 show a couple extra small braces on small pads that hold up the porch skirting and the bottom of the wall and windows, but not the roof, at least not more than the beam has sagged and pushed the skirting into the dirt a bit.

Photo 11 is where things get tricky and you can see it a little bit with photo 4. It appears as though when the porch is settling that the mid point in the wall where the windows sit on the ledge is pushing out in the middle. I’m almost wondering if they were crazy enough to not use full length 4x4s/etc to hold up the corners and that’s why it appears to be coming apart like that or if the 4x4s (or whatever is supporting each corner) could actually be warped.

Long story short, this is a $95,000 house and the homeowner doesn’t want to spend a ton of money on this porch. I would just rip out all the windows and put a 4x4 and angle bracing on the corners and the center, but then the rain water might get into the porch, get through the floor, and cause more settling and other problems. I’ve seen some people with open air porches that didn’t have skirting or walls, and I could go that route for the homeowner, really I’m looking for an affordable option that would help increase the life of the porch and stop it from separating from the house eventually or collapsing. I could always tear off the porch but then we are looking at siding and other issues.

I would love recommendations and ideas on what I should do here.

Thanks!