I bought this 105 year old house a couple years back and with alot of blood, sweat and tears, she's got new life. I LOVE my house!! It was a hoarders dream before I moved in... so much do that I didn't even know there was a second bathroom!! Crazy how some people live. Anyways, here she is 😁
We only have a few of these left, but they always remind me of the grace and age of our 1911 home.
Bought a house built in 1912 or 1920 (records have both years, I’m not sure which it is).
I had a home inspection. No major issues identified. Sellers said they had previous water issues but that they were resolved. They lied. LIARS. You can’t tell me that the basement filling with water didn’t happen last year, and that mold grew in the less than 2 months I’ve owned it.
Entire exterior wall has a huge foundation crack, it’s leaking water along it, the foundation is crumbling to the touch.
I’m getting a structural engineer to evaluate. 2 side basement walls have had (I think/hope professionally done—) foundation repairs as the walls have a lot of added cement inside.
Any advice appreciated as I sell my soul to pay for repairs after selling my soul to buy the house.
I plan to get the yard regraded & replace gutters as well to help with moisture but holy crap I wasn’t expecting this.
For reference: enough water to soak 4 loads of laundry, use a shop vac, and mopping up extra in one day. AKA- towels cannot contain the water on the floor in any manner and when the snow melts I have to sit in the basement every 30-90 minutes switching towels and using the shop vac.
First time home buyer, I love life
Pic 1: Current yard
Pics 2&3: AI rendering of the wall (with the right corner pier location slightly messed up).
A while ago we had to remove a chimney from our century home. I kept the original bricks because I’d like to use them for this project.
The plan is to build a wall + wrought iron fence along the sidewalk at the front of the house. Nothing too big, but it’s obviously a pretty big undertaking (so I’ll be hiring a mason to handle this). We have small dogs, so it would also be great to enclose our front yard so they can’t go chasing cats/squirrels into the road (and we feel it would elevate the curb appeal too).
I’m curious what tips or advice anybody here may have, just so I know exactly how to scope the project. This isn’t a retaining wall, but since we’re on a hill I want to ensure draining is handled correctly.
Anything else I should be considering?
Anything changes you would recommend to this plan?
It feels a bit soft when I step on it. Seems a bit deep too. I can’t tell if it’s the foundation underneath. Should I mention this to my landlord? I’ve complained about many things but I have a toddler, so I need it to be safe in here. Thanks everyone!
Besides the issues, it’s a beautiful home. Love living in an old house💗
Redoing a kitchen in a ~100-year-old house.
After demo, I’ve got plank subfloor, and adjacent wood floors sit about 3/8” above those planks.
Plan was: -1/2” plywood over planks
That puts the tile roughly ~1”+ above the planks, meaning ~5/8”–3/4” higher than the hardwood.
Questions:
Trying to do it right without creating a tripping hazard. Appreciate any input.
Just using this to vent. I feel absolutely terrible that I have to remove these floors (safely of course) and that I can't just sand and refinish them. I see people here and on Instagram posting their reclamation projects and am filled with equal parts envy, sadness, and anger. Knowing children will be living in this house one day, tell me I'm doing the right thing...
Thank you, Jasco!!
It was hard to get a photo since these are south facing windows. I can’t wait to see what this one looks like in the end.
In previous posts, a couple folks said they’d watch YouTube videos of our work on this house. I’m not quite in a position to do that, but I did make a substack (free of course) to write/blog about our journey. If anyone is interested, I’ll post a link in my next post.
Flooring company is out there today refinishing the whole place, sans bathroom and kitchen.
Thank you all for the love and advice so far. Ciao!
editing to add: yes…. I did mangle part of the sill. There’s a learning curve here and it’s steep for lil ole me!
I will say it seems there’s only about 2-3 layers of paint with the top layer being v e r y shitty latex paint that was already staring to peel off, so with the help of my IR paint stripper it’s coming off like butter! I keep seeing some flecks of green paint which I’m assuming is lead paint so I’m wearing gloves and a respirator. I did read that these heaters don’t heat lead based paint enough for it to be toxic but I’m still being careful. How are you guys doing this with pets in the home, that’s my main concern especially with the fumes. I have an air purifier that works with VOC’s as well but want to make sure I’m doing this correctly since I never see anyone mention pets in the home. I’m working on the second floor for now and I keep them on the first floor on the opposite end of the house, windows cracked too. TYIA!
Hi friends. We're on the way to painting the interior plaster and lathe walls in our 19th century home and I'm looking for suggestions for breathable wall paints for the plaster and lathe walls. I've experience with Annie Sloan chalk wall paint and Farrow and Ball dead flat paints. Looking for other suggestions; I've not used James Alexander limewash paints, Auro clay paints or Keim mineral wall paints for example.
What have you used?
I am removing the failed strip flooring and putting down period correct reclaim. My cold basement air creeps up and is pretty unbearable all winter. I can only find really thick barriers that are usually made for lvp and nothing else.
Anyone here have luck with not just a thinner moisture barrier but also an air barrier under wide boards?
Hello, folks!
my fiancé and I recently bought a 103 year old home in RVA. Its plaster and lathe with some drywall patches, but some things (like the windows) were updated ~10 years ago. It seems sturdy, a structural engineer and general home inspector both looked through before buying and gave a clean bill of health. So far, its been good with some quirks that come with an old home. I’ve noticed these cracks around the stairwell landing (pics 1-5) and the second floor chimney (not being used and patched over, pics 6-7).
Hopefully just settling, but as there is a bit of a bulge on the stucco exterior near the window that our inspector said was likely old water damage, figured I should get some more experienced advice.
Thank you!!
Traditional Thiyya House Of Kerala.
Hi all, my husband and I are under contract on a lovely Victorian home from late 1800s. It has wood siding with brick foundation and the sellers made an addition in 1996 in which they added a primary suite and kitchen / family room area to the back of the home. When we put the offer in on the home we knew it needed a little TLC (paint, we want to strip paint from the trim, kitchens and bathrooms are outdated, etc.). However, we just received our inspection report and are wondering if we’re scaring ourselves or if this house really is going to just be one problem after another. Some items that came up:
- There is a large tree (we think a Burr Oak) in the neighbors yard but the branches overhang our house
- The covered front porch was rebuilt in 2020 but has a very severe pitch away from the house
- There are ungrounded outlets in the original part of the house. The sellers said electrical throughout the house was new and there is 200 amp service. Additionally, a 40 amp breaker was observed serving a 10 gauge wire. Our worry here is the original portion of the home still has cloth or knob and tube wiring.
- We were unable to complete our sewer scope because of roots in the line. The sellers have since rodded it but we haven’t been back to scope yet.
- There is mold in the attic which we knew about and sellers are remediating, but inspector noted improper ventilation in the attic and bathroom fans vented directly into the attic instead of outside.
Our family is telling us to run but we still like the house. Any advice or suggestions appreciated
We had water ingress damage a plaster wall.
Now the leak is fixed, what is the best way to get this back to a point where it can be painted?
Home is 785 square feet. To give you a frame of reference.
I know this is more HVAC territory but I figure the plumbing folks would know more about pipe fitting.
I’m not sure why this is plumbed half in copper and half in cast, but it’s leaking in a few places and I’d like to clean it up. The weird zigzag with the shutoff at the bottom of the boiler is the bit that actively drips when the system cools off, but the outlet from the boiler on the top has plumbers putty on it so I’m sure it needs work too.
My questions:
Why did they use copper in the middle here? The system piping and the boiler connections appear to all be cast iron. I would repipe it all with cast unless told otherwise.
Is there anything special I should know about repiping this? I wasn’t sure if there was a particular reason the expansion tank is hanging off there to the side, or why the shutoff for the bottom of the boiler is oriented horizontally when it seems like it could have been put in vertically.
I recognize that the fittings are likely to be stuck on there pretty good but I think I can work them out with heat and PB blaster like I’ve done for other pipe fittings that were subjected to decades of outdoor exposure. The boiler is only about 20 years old and it’s a basic unit with very few components that works great so I’m not keen on replacing it anytime soon.
This is my first century home, a modest but overpriced 1920s farmhouse in New England with ample horsehair plater walls. Most of it is in pretty good shape, but I found some large cracks in a bedroom closet that had obvious attempts at lazy repair plastering before I came along. The two walls with the most cracks abut the exterior.
Since this is a closet and I'm lazy too, I set about putting up some spackle and calling it a day. Attempting a sanding after that led to crumbling of the surface around some of the bigger cracks. These sections of plaster have clearly detached a bit from the lathe. I've already ordered some plaster washers, mesh tape, and construction adhesive, but was a little concerned by a subtle darker color difference in the underlying plaster (left side of the exposed chunk) that I thought could indicate the presence of mold, and potentially be the cause of the detachment here. Pictures go from broader to closer.
While we've had a rough winter for snow, ice dams, and rain, this area did not seem to be damp at all at the interior - as far as I've noticed. Do you think it's okay to do a standard minor drywall repair, versus exploratory tearing-out to check more thoroughly for mold? Am I being paranoid?