OUR OLD HOUSES ARE BUILT FROM OLD GROWTH WOOD
From their framing to their siding to their doors & windows to their built-ins & their flooring, our old houses, are built of old growth wood. Thousands of board feet of it. "Old growth." What does that mean? Let's have a tree history lesson. Fossils show that...
MY 1910 CRAFTSMAN IN EAGLE ROCK
The story begins with my love affair with the Alfred W. & Grace D. Hare House, a beautiful Craftsman, in Eagle Rock, a bungalow neighborhood in N.E. Los Angeles. Once an incorporated town in its own right, Eagle Rock is just west of Pasadena & was clearly...
STAY HEALTHY WHEN RESTORING AN OLD HOUSE
It’s not easy to stay healthy when restoring an old house. Increased demands on your time, your finances, the toxins in the materials you will demo & install, & the stress of making constant decisions, facing too many surprises mean that to stay strong, you...
PAINTING A BUNGALOW LINOLEUM FLOOR
The reason I'm even proposing the weird idea of painting a bungalow linoleum floor is because lino wears out. Through decades of footsteps in some of the highest traffic areas of the house, roller skates & doggy toenails, abrasion can annihilate the printed...
AMERICAN BUNGALOW MAGAZINE COMES TO CENTRAL FLORIDA
What seems like a lifetime ago, with a great amount of help from my friends in the 3 areas that make up the bungalow neighborhood of Seminole Heights, in Tampa, Florida, I produced an American Bungalow Magazine event. I had coaxed, cajoled, pleaded with the editor to...
THE DANGERS OF RESTORING AN OLD HOUSE
The dangers of restoring an old house can be considerable, but with proper planning can be minimized. Let's take a look at the actions required. A contractor has been hired to begin the restoration of your home. You have discussed your staying in the house while the...
WHAT IS THE BIGGEST CHALLENGE OF RESTORING AN OLD HOUSE?
Long ago, when feebly attempting to restore a Folk Victorian, I discovered that the biggest challenge of restoring an old house is battle fatigue. It’s extremely easy to get disheartened. I know I’m not your mother (Disclaimer: I think I’m everybody’s mother.) but I...
BUNGALOW DETAILS: EXTERIOR- GLOSSARY
This bungalow details exterior glossary will help you get a rapid grasp of what makes a bungalow a bungalow, & not a Mid-Century, a Queen Anne or a Dutch Revival. Many of the terms are applicable to other styles of homes, & some to all periods of architecture...
FLORIDA’S HISTORY MUSEUMS & HISTORIC HOUSE MUSEUMS
Florida’s history museums & historic museum houses tell a 3D tale of the state & the land boom of the 20's that cannot be fully expressed in any book, though I have to admit that I did a pretty good job in the historic documenatry film I produced! The...
CREATING A DREAM BUNGALOW KITCHEN, Part 2
PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER Clutching my well worn BUNGALOW KITCHENS book, I began collecting the pieces for my dream bungalow kitchen in Tampa. The first was the stove because I knew that it would take 2 ½ years to be restored, all the way in Georgia. When I had lived in...