The colonial building you want to restore was built by hand.
The tools to make the materials to make the building were made by hand.
The materials to make your building were cut and shaped by hand.
There were no short cuts during this process…. then.
Why should you accept short cuts in the restoration of your colonial building today?

Restoration of antique timber frame structures is not a production related process even though carpenters trained in 20th Century production methods would have you believe it is. The word, Restoration, has become a popular code word added to contractors advertising to increase their business leads along with bathroom and kitchen remodeling, additions, and new construction. This …

Old House Journal is a great magazine and one that i read often. This month, there is a great article by John Looke about Slate Roof Stand-In’s that explains how inventive imitators can match the panache of stone without the overhead.

There is also an article about Classic Kitchens where Vintage appliances add the perfect touch to a period kitchen.

Sills may be the lowliest parts of a wood frame house but, like the keel of a boat, they form the base that supports all other structural members. When old house sills succumb to rot and insect damage, it takes technique and experience to replace them.

Read the rest of this article on Curing Sills here

Yes, it’s a story we talk about daily.

The American barn is disappearing from the landscape. It may not evoke the nostalgia of a one-room schoolhouse or covered bridge. But for more than two centuries, it has stood as a symbol of hard work and a rural way of life.

Here it is hitting the mainstream with an article at USA Today.

Inventive imitators can match the panache of stone without the overhead.

Slate shingles, traditionally split from natural stone, are known to perform for decades—even a century or more with good installation and regular maintenance. Since the 1890s, however, roofing manufacturers have been combining other materials to produce man-made shingles that aimed to last longer, look better, or cost less. Have any of these products ever lived up to their promise? Sometimes, yes.

Many a building roofed with asbestos cement shingles in the 1930s or ’40s is still sound and dry today—a testament to the durability of one of the oldest types of “slate pretenders.” When asbestos was eliminated in building products in the 1970s, though, it opened this specialized corner of the …