How urgent is your need to buy a house? Could you move into a rental while you look for something that meets your needs? There is a serious misapprehension about old houses that many people get stuck on. It's not an either/or proposition to live in an old house Tthere is no need not to have modern conveniences if you want them: this means electricity, running water, central heat, indoor plumbing, etc. You can often re-designate rooms to more modern uses; i.e. small rooms adjacent to bedrooms can become baths and former sitting rooms can become kitchens, for example. In a general way none of this is harmful to old houses, because it is reversible. However, what really is unfortunate about many remodeling projects, though, is the relentless desire to turn buildings that were orginally made up of distinct rooms into the vast, trendy, spaces that define the modern open plan house. You can see this playing out in the large room in the pictures with the fireplace and the tuructural members exposed by the gaping loss of the partition wall and the four windows in the ell which is a clear - and glaring - example. On one hand you have the lovely fireplace, with its (likely orginal) fireplace surround with delicate Federal-edging into Greek Revival period detailing. But by tearing out the wall and exposing the wooden structural pieces you have a jarring style collision. Exposed (and now empty) mortice pockets and rough hand hewn beams while they look old-timey to our eyes were not intended to be seen, ever. Even on very early houses, exposed structural beams (like summer beams or gunstock posts) often had careful dressing, and even carefully made beaded molding profiles. And then there's the bank of windows in the ell. That room is likely a much later addition (late 19th, early 20 or even later) and may even have had that bank of windows when it was orginally erected. But the look of an array of windows like that is not a match with the rest of the now-combined room. And keep this in mind: houses weren't "thick" as they are now in an era where day time light was mainly provided by windows. So while there were often rooms extended backwards in wings, the massing was often only one room wide, or just two rooms wide on either side of a stair hall. You don't have to choose against modern functions, but you ought to think twice about any impulse to turn an old house into a facsimile of a modern house that is vaguely styled to look like old houses. In other words, you need to understand that old houses, especially really old houses like this one, were always divided into smaller, distinct spaces. If you want a modern, open-plan house, then buy a modern house and decorate it with details that harken back to former styles. As for how you train your eye: well, books like the McAlesters' is good for classifying housing periods. The Midwest has its own set of building traditions, but keep in mind that early settlers to there were likely immigrants from NE and the Mid-Atlantic regions who brought their building traditions with them. At first, of course, they lived in settlement-period houses which were often small and primitive, but as soon as practical they built themselves better housing, an example of that style is this house. It may pay to study housing styles of NE and the Mid-Atlantic regions. Do you have access to a public library? I'd start there by borrowing - and sending via inter library loan- as many of the glossy- picture books showing houses from the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Look at the size of the rooms, and study any floor plans. If you want to do this I could offer sme suggestions for titles that are especially useful. Another (though not with many pictures) excellent resource which every old house owner, including people who are considering buying an old building, should be familar with is the set of Preservation Briefs from the National Park Service. This series of essays is about caring for old buildings, from those of great historical significance (Presidential birthplaces, for example) to just ordinary old houses that are have become extraordinary simply by their survival. (I'll attach a link, below to this series. It will give you a working understanding of the issues surrounding older buildings which will put you light-years ahead of many old house buyers.) You do not have to live without modern conveniences; you do not have to spend endless amounts of money on a money pit; you do not have to live in an unaltered museum piece. But you really should think twice about buying an old house and promptly obliterating those distinctive characteristics that make it a cohesive example of an older building. If you want a modern-style open-plan design then, please don't choose one of the remaining old plan houses to impose this on. Now, the house example you have linked to has had a good deal of this destructive choice applied to it, already,so in some ways it may be a lost cause. But if you buy it supposing it to be an example that has not been enormously altered, you may be disappointed when you encounter its reality. As a starting point, and to begin to learn the vocabularly of old houses, start with reading the Preservation Briefs linked below. There is even one on inspecting old houses and inventoring their conditions, which will help you at the home-inspection stage. This house still has a good deal of "character", but has lost a lot of it in its updating. You shouldn't kid your self about that fact. Some of that character may be easily replaced (you could re-erect the partition wall in the fireplace-room, for an example. Or perhaps even compromise in some way to conceal the the newly-exposed structural pieces, and retain the larger room. But things like getting rid of the grossly out-of-proportion eyebrow windows make take a significant amount of money to un-do. (Well, not hundreds of thousands, but maybe up to 5-10 grand to make that change back. And as I alluded to above the size of those windows mave have been driven by modern fire-codes requiring certain amounts of square feet of escape windows in bedrooms. So changing back might require interior changes as well to allow smaller windows to be installed, boosting the tab.) See if your local historical society has any pictures of this house, or closely similar ones to see what has been changed. There is one other thing I want to point out: Old houses reuire an above-average amount money or time, and sometimes both, from their owners. Their owners get a great sense of personal delight and satisfaction from them. But you can't realistically expect to reap those benefits without also expecting to pay those costs. Perhaps if you have no time, and don't want to make up for that lack of time by investing more money in having someone else do things for you, this is not the right time in your life to own and old house. There is no shame in that. Post back if you want a list of books to help you train your eye to see what's old, and what's just styled to look old. Liriodenron Here is a link that might be useful: Preservation Briefs, Technical Bulletins on caring for old houses

Starting now is fine but I don't like late season plastering. The initial cure is about 4 weeks but it does continue to cure for several months after. As plaster cures, the pH of the water rises. Left alone and unchecked in the off season, the calcium in solution tends to drop out and form calcium scale stains. Waiting until Spring to plaster will afford the plaster more time to cure when the pool is open and being tested regularly. That will reduce any opportunities for scale formation significantly. The down side is the back yard will be a quagmire for a while and could present some safety issues that will need to be addressed. If an animal such as a deer, raccoon, skunk, etc... finds it's way in the shell in the Winter, guess who gets to help it out? Scott

I would never build another pool without solar heating again. Cant comment on the solar attic concept, but it seems to me it would both heat your pool and cool the attic, Ive seen the company reply to the question of leaks and they seem to have it covered. I live in so cal close to the ocean (about 5 miles east) and no matter the temp during the day it cools down at night sucking the heat our of the pool. My solar routinely puts 800K BTU's a day into the the pool that I would otherwise have to pay for. I have a 400K btu gas unit I use for teh jacuzzi and as a kicker. I can run both the gas and solar concurrently for a staggering output to the water for a quick few degrees when visitors arrive. The second story should be fine with a 1.5, but an inteliflo or Epump would be better as your pool doesnt likely need near that much pump when the solar tap isnt open. Remember you have to size the flow for the amount of panels you have as each has an ideal GPM rate so although usually the faster the flow the better for efficiency you literally cant run 1.5 HP through 1 or 2 panels without overpressuring them. Going solar was the best pool decision I've made. Uncle Dave

Please look into Permaculture / food forests or forest gardening. Plants and trees can provide beauty and function, and the idea is that you plant things that are perennial and will give you food. You could plant some evergreens that will give you pine nuts, some paw paw trees, persimmon trees and understory ones like Asian pears, serviceberries, figs and hazelnuts; bushes could be Cornelian cherries or bush cherries, blueberries or honey berries, currants; the list is endless. Even asparagus can be used, and it will resemble tall grasses. You could have rhubarb for their amazing color and leaf size, and strawberries as a ground cover...you could have a large pergola or arbor with kiwi or grapes...all of these plants are beautiful, many provide seasonal color and fragrance along with delicious fruit. I started a food forest last year, and along with what I had planted, I have well over 30 kinds of fruit that I'm growing and I plan to add more. I will have fresh fruit from May through November / December. I live in a zone 4-5 climate in Vermont. Watch a few videos by "Canadian Permaculture Legacy" to get the idea. It does not have to look like an orchard or vegetable garden, but instead, an integrated and verdant oasis of interesting plant shapes, heights and colors intermingled . Personally, I love raspberries, but I won't grow them because I don't want to deal with the canes which get unruly and are kind of labor intensive. All of my choices are tidy and low-maintenance. Right next to the sidewalk, for example, I have planted a 120' hedge of Regent serviceberries which will serve a number of purposes: all of the leaves from the neighborhood won't end up in my front yard, it will offer privacy in the summer but still be of a friendly height, it will feed the birds, act as a sound buffer for the constant traffic and will help with the dirt and dust that gets in the house from the highway. The hedge will explode in blossom in the spring; it will offer tons of food for me and it will offer fall color. Plants should provide more than a single purpose! With your upstairs windows, I was wondering if you could replace the existing ones with somewhat bigger/taller windows and add a second and third one on the left and right windows to help align with the downstairs and to let in more light.