Flooring for kitchen in 100 year old house. Help please!!!
Kim Thompson
4 years ago
last modified: 4 years ago
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insulating our 100 year old house
Comments (15)The basic plan it to draw an imaginary line between the "inside" conditioned areas and the "outside" areas. Any place that those 2 meet, you want to seal up any air movement and then add a layer of insulation. (If you have plywood or similar on the floor, you might have to take that up temporarily to seal and add the insulation. ) For venting, you want vents at the lowest point and vents at the highest point and nothing obstructing air from flowing between the two. That way, cool air is pulled in from the bottom and hot air vents through the top. That keeps the attic cooler in summer and keeps heat from building up and melting snow in winter....See Moreworking with 100 year old kitchen cabinets
Comments (9)Pictures please - I wanna see! Original 100 yr cabinets in their original setting - extremely rare, at least around these parts. Used to see them occasionally, back in the day. Back before the easy credit of the 90s did a number on old houses and so many original kitchens, windows, doors, etc. ended up in the landfill and so many houses took on that blah beige vinyl look. Now - original cabs of that era and styleare just about impossible to find. You occasionally see some in architectural salvage places commanding top dollar, depending on condition and quality. Hardly ever in a house for sale - out of hundreds of online listings I mustve browsed in the last 10 yrs I probably only saw 1 or 2 original 100 yr old kitchens and they weren't even very good or very well cared for specimens. Actually a lot of old kitchens of that period didn't even have much built in cabinetry. You asked for pro's and con's and a con would be that you are altering the architectural value of your house, and consequently maybe even the value in terms of dollars and cents. Not saying flat "don't do it," just saying tread lightly & use the same critical judgement with your house parts as if you were considering altering a piece of rare antique furniture or collector car. Do your research and due diligence to get all the details right and make sure the carpenter is wholely on board with using period correct methods and techniques and materials - you may want to interview several and see samples of their work. I would reuse hardware and use the existing shelves and wood to create the rebuilt boxes - with additional vintage wood if needed or at least same species of wood as the original shelves etc. IMHO, you don't want only the "look" of the original cabinets. You want the original cabinets, period.... with modifications to enable more comfortably use- people are taller now, no getting around that. No Im not always a purist or stickler for details - if you were like many of us whose houses have been futzed with to some degree or another, then I would not hesitate to say "have at it." But it sounds like you may have something worth being a stickler about...?...See MoreJust put an offer in on our first house...and it's 100-years-old
Comments (24)Continuing...our custom house needed painting after eighteen years, inside and out. We had replaced a small kitchen island with a large custom one. When we moved to our 1803 dream, it needed paint, inside and out, including our famous 1927 roof. It needed some electrical work and plumbing done because we gutted a twenty year old kitchen to install a kitchen to accommodate both of the cooks in the family. We spent a (planned) fortune to line and cap five fireplaces, but we had budgeted for that, fireplaces being so important to us. We had to remodel a twenty year old bathroom for our aesthetic, not for function. Most everything we have done has been for our design vision and to be a good steward of this historic property. My husband is an amateur woodworker and restored the shutters, showing me the difference in the construction of the shuttered on the original portion of the house versus the latter 1836 addition. We didn’t replace them with vinyl shutters, he repaired them. We haven’t ripped off the plaster from the walls, we cherish it. For those of you who don’t love an old house, that’s fine. Just please, please don’t buy an old house and “modernize” it by tearing down walls for open concept. The mantles in the front and back parlors are too formal for my taste BUT they are staying, being original to the 1836 addition. They are part of the history of the house. How many posters here are ripping out a perfectly functional fireplace to “update” it, even if it is original to the MCM or the Victorian or the 2010 house they just bought. The Scotch Irish in me cringes when people “hate” the solid maple or the cherry or the quarter sawn cabinets and rip them out or paint them gray. Stop discouraging people who buy history....See MoreBuying a 100 year old house. Need design advice
Comments (50)As a former owner of a 1900 Victorian, hope you have deep pockets because I see a good bit of work and restoration. Renting the whole house seems challenging at best. Porch looks like there might be some wood condition issues. What budget are you planning for? Will you upgrade plumbing and electrical and sewer lines. These infrastructure items can eat a budget fast and must be done. Big undertaking. We had a 10 year plan and the house was owned by one person. Year 10 we got job transfers and second redo of kitchen got handed off to new owners. I wouldn’t tear down any walls. If people come, they are looking for a 1920 experience. Not a modernization. We sold our house in hours. At asking price. So think things through. Research what renters want....See MoreKim Thompson
4 years agoKim Thompson
4 years agogirl_wonder
4 years agolast modified: 4 years agoweedyacres
4 years ago
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