Restoring Old Houses

Janet Arnett is the former campus manager of adult education at Ontario’s Georgian College. She is the author of Antiques and Collectibles: Starting Small, The Grange at Knock, and 673 Ways to Save Money.

A passion for the past often takes the form of wanting to restore an old
house. And acquiring an old house is usually followed by the shock of
facing the true scope of the project. This book can help.

To put the task in perspective, Hutchins initiates a discussion on the
philosophy of old-house ownership and what it means to impose a modern
lifestyle onto a space created in another time, for other social and
family needs. Next, he asks readers to contemplate the differences
between restoration and either historical or adaptive rehabilitation.
For those who pass the test by scorning “TV colonial,” he moves
quickly to the task at hand: the foundation; the roof; the walls; the
windows and doors; the plumbing, heating, and wiring; the interior trim;
and even the fences and landscaping. If something could have gone wrong,
it probably already has. The restoration won’t be fast, and it
certainly won’t be painless. Assume that over the past 100-plus years
while your house has been waiting for you, a lot of deterioration took
place. Hutchins has seen it all, and with hundreds of photos
(black-and-white and color), drawings, sketches, and diagrams, he shows
just how bad it can be and what constitutes an acceptable fix.

Although this book gives masses of detailed information on the
structural and mechanical challenges presented by an old-house
restoration, it is not a how-to for tradespeople. Instead, it supports
the owner/restorer by clarifying the likely causes of many problems and
by suggesting both the pitfalls and the rewards to be had from
satisfying the needs of today while respecting the lifestyle of those
who lived in the house in the past.