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My Before, During, and After Story, Part 3
This is the story of how we gutted our 1855 home’s kitchen and dining room. Read Part 1 and Part 2. I have thus far blogged about the kitchen renovation. Originally, gutting the kitchen was my only goal. In an old house, it is SO easy to get carried away with multiple projects, because there [...]
Continue reading...Make Your Own Tin Ceiling
18. December 2008
This house was built in 1855, and it has seen very little renovation since then (except for a horrifying kitchen redo in 1970 and a tsunami of wall paneling from the 1960s). I like to open up the walls and ceilings, here and there, to see what’s behind. (Any excuse to ditch that lousy wall [...]
Continue reading...Is the House Floor Plan Software Worth It?
11. November 2008
I’ve always preferred drawing my house plans and ideas on graph paper, by hand. As much as I love the computer, and as much as I have incoporated a lot of my tasks to it, I just can’t seem to leave the age-old tradition of graph paper and pencil (and for me, a big eraser). [...]
Continue reading...Can’t Get a Skylight?
10. November 2008
This is a totally, totally amazing gadget! Can’t install a skylight because you don’t want to hack a hole in your roof? Get a virtual one! It’s called the Ambient SkyCeiling. It’s actually an LED panel (some are flourescent), and they illuminate the images from behind. They are absolutely gorgeous! I think they’d be neat [...]
Continue reading...The New Not-So-Big House
7. December 2007
I just finished flipping through my New Old House magazine. I got it a few weeks ago (it’s the winter 2008 edition) but hadn’t gotten to it until now. An excellent article by Russell Versaci, Pennywise, got me very excited. It’s a topic that’s been on my mind for over fifteen years, ever since I [...]
Continue reading...Up, Up, and Away
23. May 2007
My house is a balloon-frame house. Balloon-frame houses became all the rage after the World’s Fair in Chicago, when visitors saw Augustine Taylor’s new building design in 1833. Balloon-framing was the alternative method of post-and-beam framing. PandB framing requires massive timbers with strong, skilled workers. The labor for this is extensive and demanding. The invention [...]
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I’m Rebecca
:) I’m a married mom of four teenage children. We live in Upstate New York. We bought an old 1855 home and acre property, over 10 years ago. We've been in the slow, agonizing process of living in the home while (trying) to renovate it. When I'm not renovating, I'm a freelance writer and blogger.
We've learned to dig a French drain, plant huge flower and vegetable gardens, wire a circuit panel, install furnace ducting, understand the enigmatic complexities of the plumbing system, and more. It's been *quite* the adventure.
You can read more about us here, read up on the history of the home, and read about what we've renovated so far. Thanks for visiting!
- Parging The Foundation Walls
- The Silent Summer: No Crickets, No Peepers!
- Building a Winter Cat Shelter
- The Tempurpedic Mattress Update
- How to Create a Serfdom
- Mrs. Mecomber: Marg-- good advice. At the time, however, we were ...
- blueyes: Okay, I remember reading this one already lol S...
- lin: Well, I guess licking mildewy windows is better th...
- Marg: You have your priorities backwards. You should sel...
- Mrs. Mecomber: Hi, Marcia. The counters are maple butcherblock. I...
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18. November 2010
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