IT HAD BEEN A "BAND HOUSE" since the 1980s; one of those tired, featureless dwellings wedged between the bars and dorms of a northeastern college town. Each room was rented by the month to an aspiring musician; the common areas were an obstacle course of amplifiers, drum kits, and empty bottles. Upstairs, Goths flitted among bedrooms, a Grunge band resided in the dining room, while a reclusive Industrial composer lurked in the master suite. And this is how the current owners, Turner and Pherber, found themselves restoring it; the previous homeowner's band had broken up and she had moved away, leaving the rudderless coven blinking in the unfamiliar New England sunlight. Paperwork was drafted, funds exchanged, and for now, the house's legacy of a musicians' haven remained uninterrupted.
Built by a handyman, the modest house never had decent finishes, affording the owners a blank slate to create a scheme that one visitor dubbed 'Vampire Meets British Rock Star'.
The couple set about renovating it, room by room, as time and money allowed. "There was little to honor as far as the original fabric of the house," recounts Turner. "Aside from years of benign neglect, the modest house was built by a handyman around 1915 with little to nothing spent on finish details; materials came from the local lumberyard." This afforded the new owners a blank slate to create a scheme that a recent visitor dubbed 'Vampire Meets British Rock Star'.
For decades, the exterior was sheathed in aluminum, which upon removal revealed the original siding; economical triple-tab asphalt roofing hung in bands of grey and brown. Surprisingly, wooden clapboards had never graced the building. Winglets had been tacked onto the lower rake edges of the roofline at some point; the original porch had been remodeled into a cage of triple-track aluminum win- dows, now long missing many sashes.
Esta historia es de la edición July - August 2023 de Old House Journal.
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Esta historia es de la edición July - August 2023 de Old House Journal.
Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 9,000 revistas y periódicos.
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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.
