Category: Education

Off-Grid Living

Saturday, December 12th, 2020 Is it possible to live off-grid? Just ask Kyle, who has lived off-grid for many years

This Warm Olde House

Because you really can save 30 – 50% on heating costs in your traditional or heritage house! Now that I have your attention, this workshop may be for you!

Wooden Scaffolding

When I was young and foolish, I would climb ladders and walk ridgepoles on three-and four-storey houses without a care and without fear.

Making Keepers

I am sure our readership is aware of my passion for antique hardware, to wit, I have become a collector of early Suffolk and Norfolk latches, with a few interesting Tudor and Elizabethan era pieces.

Even More Wallpaper Woes

In our previous article entitled “Wallpaper Woes,” where we gave our best advice to repair plaster walls after the removal of many layers of wallpaper.

A Closet Solution

Many people who own traditional houses have one thing in common, the total lack of closet space!

Water-Based Paints Of Old

Paint has had a very long history as is evident in cave paintings and the Egyptian Hieroglyphs, and in the colourful 200-year-old armoire you purchased while on vacation in rural Quebec.

Architrave Restoration

In a previous article we tackled one of the most demanding projects on an old house – replacing wooden sills. We will continue this series showing a step-by-step restoration of very early window architraves.

For The Love OF Wooden Columns

More and more terribly executed repairs are being perpetrated on original verandah, portico, or porch posts and columns in Canada each day.

A Wooden Dado

In the mid to late 18th century, lath and plaster walls were devised to hang beautiful hand-blocked wallpaper.

Antiquities: Primitives, Design Essentials

I am a personal admirer of primitives. I am not talking about new items that are just made to look old, rather the items that are very old, very simple and of very high museum quality.

How To Choose Furniture For Your Heritage Home

Restoring the “envelope” of an historic building requires many skills. Not only does the restorer need to know about the various trades, but must also approach them from a historical perspective.

Circa 1842

Stroll up the path, past some barns and a split rail fence, until you see a clapboard house with a cedar roof, a few feet from the shore of Lake Erie.

The Bedroom

It has taken almost one thousand years for bedrooms to evolve into those which we see today.

Traditions

The earliest houses were an example of the direct outgrowth of architecture from function and materials.

Wallpaper Woes

Many people who live in century houses come across, in some cases, dozens of layers of wallpaper on walls and ceilings.

Circa 1835 Ireland House

Exceptional for many reasons, Ireland House is a valuable historic structure – an architecturally intact farmstead – which remained in continued use by one family for five generations.

A Wooden Box Latch

You will find all sorts of interesting things when you dismantle an old building.

Ready For Another 200 Years

Somehow the universe guided us to this old house. Vacationing here as children, we never dreamed that one day we would own it.

Crafted In Wood

The woods of the Colchi, in Pontus, [in modern day Turkey] furnish such abundance of timber, that they build in the following manner.

House Spotting Carpenter Gothic

Originally, the Gothic Revival style was meant to be executed in stone and brick imitating the imposing cathedrals of mediaeval Europe.

Painting A Raised Panel Door

Recently we restored an early six-panel wooden door. When it came to painting it, we found the task not as easy as one may think. If you paint across the grain, the finished product looks terrible.

Painted Brick? What to do?

Many times I come across houses that have been painted and many of our subscribers ask what to do with the painted bricks and in some case, how you can remove the paint from the brick?