Wood vs. Engineered Wood? No contest in this case. If the home was built in 1905, put real hardwood in. This preserves the integrity of the home's building materials. Plus, as you can see from the age of these floors, higher grades (i.e. thicker) hardwood can be sanded several times; you usually don't get even one chance to sand engineered wood. The hardwood layer at the top of this multilayered product is simply too thin. Level Floors and Subfloors There are ways to level a subfloor, ranging from replacing parts of the subfloor with thicker or thinner sheets of plywood (or planks, see below), to pour-on leveling compounds that harden to make the entire floor level. What you use to level uneven areas depends on what the subflooring is. If it is plywood or concrete, the compound works. But more likely with this home, on floors at or above grade, there will be wood planks laid at a diagonal across the floor joists. So in your home, the layers were probably joists first, then subfloor planks of wood, then hardwood with tongue & groove joints. You cannot effectively use a pour-on leveling compound on a plank subfloor, as there are cracks between the planks. However, you can lay a new hardwood floor directly on a wood plank subfloor as long as those planks are sound and relatively level. Replace individual planks that have been damaged by water or insects, are otherwise compromised, or even missing (it happens!), with either new planks of lumber, or with plywood of the same thickness as the planks. Any lumber you install, for either the subfloor or finished flooring, should be brought in to your home several days prior to installation, so the materials acclimatize to your typical interior temperature and humidity. Unlike for ceramic or porcelain tile, the subfloor does not have to be perfectly level. And unlike vinyl sheeting, planks or tiles, the hardwood won't "telegraph" minor differences in height, and minor surface irregularities, so the subfloor doesn't have to be absolutely perfect; it should be sound, strong, uniform and essentially level. Your flooring contractor can give you specifics on what upgrades your subfloor may need once the original hardwood is removed. Joists If the floor is significantly not level in parts, or if certain areas feel spongy when you walk on them, I recommend you have your flooring contractor, a home inspector, or structural engineer inspect the subflooring and especially the floor joists. You don't want to invest in a new floor, only to have it become damaged because some joists weren't attended to. Transitions Transitions (a.k.a. thresholds or molding) between existing rooms and the new floor ought to be made of the same wood and same finish (stain, polyurethane, etc.) as the new flooring you are putting down. As wood ages, the finish becomes darker, so trying to make the transitions match the finishes of existing floors is very difficult and not recommended (what will match those floors right now won't match later after your transitions age up a bit). Eventually, the transitions wouldn't match either the new or the old floors! Transitions come in four types: reducer (when the two floors being joined are of different heights), seam binder (when the floors are the same height, and the boards from each are very close to one another), T-mold (when the two floors are the same height, but there is a crack between the two rooms' flooring) and stair nose or stair edger (when the flooring needs to curve around the front of a stair's "tread"--the flat part of a stair upon which you tread!). The transitions for your particular project can be ordered when you order the hardwood, so make sure to include measurements for those doorways/entrances. The contractor can tell you if he/she anticipates there will be a height difference or gap between the floorings, which would require those particular transitions. Dry Air Concerns Consult a local lumber supplier or flooring contractor familiar with your local climate conditions to discuss finishes or other tips for keeping your wood floors healthy in the dry winters. Sounds wonderful! Have fun!

Estimate for Hardie? I didn't but only b/c we got got the painting done for "only" $8k (note that I have a dutch colonial: brick 1st floor, only painting to be done was 2nd floor (white cedar shingles) and tiny kitchen porch railings and 6 window shutters.) This was after estimates for $15k and $12k IIRC. If we were planning to stay here long term I'd definitely reside next time. (Would research to see whats new first. There's a faux cedar shingle called "Cedar Impressions" another 1920s house used. They also have color choices like Hardieboard. That home looks new still - been at least 5 years since they resided. In another part of my town with tear downs/new construction: all have composite siding - so I'd go find out what they have. I don't ever see new builds with wood siding here.) As I get older anything I can do to make maintenance easier/less often is worth considering. I'd guess that the labor hours for residing is similar to that of painting - so probably wouldn't cost that much more. (Labor is, by far, the biggest cost to paint - sounds like in your area too as goodness knows paint doesn't cost $15k.) But finding a skilled carpenter is probably harder than finding a painter here.

Thank you all for your comments. I am still so torn because the trim on the siding is rotting away, especially on the back of the house that faces north. Granted, this wood is probably 25-30 years old... I am concerned that it will begin to rot again, when new wood is replaced. Our window sills are rotted and even windows are rotted. I assume this is from rain and maybe it can't dry out enough on the sides because the houses are close together? I just hate to waste a huge chunk of money on painting/staining the existing siding and have it all go to waste. It is going to be $18k to do the hazmat removal of the lead peeling paint, replace rotted wood and then put new wood siding on the addition. It's not like this is a $5000 job... Another concern is that I just found out a lot of moisture gets into the walls and seeps out of the house? Is this true? From cooking and showering? So this can cause the paint to fail prematurely if there is no vapor barrier, which there wouldn't be, since the cedar is original to the house in 1918. I also have concerns about going over cedar with vinyl for the same reason. I am concerned that mold could build up under the new vapor barrier that they would put up... I remember one siding company said it is a bad idea to not remove the old siding and this may have been why. We have had issues with mold in various places like under the front porch, but once proper ventilation was installed, it went away. I just don't want to have everything sealed up to the point that no water vapor can escape and is encapsulated in between the layers of siding, causing mold growth. I'm probably over thinking it, but we are stuck in which ever direction we choose, and neither is "cheap".

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.