When Cindy Young was negotiating to buy her 1947 cottage in Portland, Oregon, the men selling it told her they were about to gut the kitchen. Cindy saw it as the most redeeming part of the fixer-upper house. She got the sellers to agree to leave the kitchen alone, and instead give her credit toward the Forbo Marmoleum floor she wanted to install. (She also got a new heating system and a fence in the bargain.)
Cindy boned up on the history of the period so she could appreciate the times. She culled decorating tips from advertisements in vintage homedécor magazines. “That’s where the idea to use linoleum countertops came from—instead of atomic-age boomerang laminate, which is more 1960,” Cindy explains. The entire house is furnished and decorated to the postwar period. A thorough search of neighborhood garage and estate sales turned up vintage accessories for every room.
Esta historia es de la edición May 2020 de Old House Journal.
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Esta historia es de la edición May 2020 de Old House Journal.
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Navigating the Lumberyard - Here's some lumber lingo you should know before you venture into a lumberyard.
Here's some lumber lingo you should know before you venture into a lumberyard. Almost everyone fixing an old house will end up at a lumberyard-whether it's a local supplier or the organized aisles of a big-box home-improvement store.
a farmhouse renewed
Sensitive renovations and restoration work preserved a house that dates to 1799.
AN OVERVIEW OF METAL ROOFING
METAL ROOFS ARE RESURGENT, FOR GOOD REASONS.
ENDURING BEAUTY IN WALLS of STONE
Now back in the family who had been here since 1830, the old farmhouse is again ready for generations to come. Additions dating to 1840 and the 1950s were preserved.
ARCHITECTURAL DETAILS COME TO LIFE
Owners and their designer celebrate the unique features of a 1912 Arts & Crafts Tudor.
For a Wet Basement Wall
If there's problem common to old houses, it's a wet basement. I'm not talking about occasional flooding, but rather a basement that apparently seeps or leaks after even a rain shower or during snowmelt. Several approaches are available; sustainable solutions will get to the root of the problem.
Patching a Plaster Wall
Fix a hole in the wall with a few common tools and some drywall supplies. Practice your technique!
Roofing & Siding
Make note of these historical and unusual materials for the building envelope.
The Riddle of the water
When water incursion happens, the roof isn't necessarily the culprit. Maybe snaking a drain line, or clearing debris from a clogged gutter, temporarily will stem a leak. But a recurring problem usually means other forces are at work. It takes persistence-and a team with the right skills and patience—to identify the source and apply a solution.
Light-filled Craftsman Redo
For a dark kitchen in a 1914 Illinois house, the trick was anchoring white expanses with woodsy warmth.
