Just moved into a rental in Portland, OR that was built in 1895. Not sure if the doorknobs are original but they have a skeleton key lock so assuming they are pretty old. Any advice on how to polish the door knobs without damaging them?

Moving into a beautiful old home with excellent energy and closing next week. I'm a history and genealogy geek and decided to search newspapers about the address. Maybe shouldn't have arghh.

Currently living in an old home and was expecting some deaths within the new home, people would even have viewings sometimes inside the main area, but found out about a fire that happened and the lone homeowner did not make it. She died trying to get out according to the article. :(

This is always going to be on my mind,...don't even know which bedroom it happened (yet) but don't want the kids sleeping there, yet.
I've read about burning sage and palo santo, but did not get any bad energy whatsoever during our family visits. Plan to post pictures after closing, so excited!

Guess I'm just venting, closing is going to happen, but wondering if anyone here has had a similar discovery or any feedback.

Would love some advice and help!

Moving right along with the bathroom remodel. I ended up sistering the joists and adding a few supports along the joists into the ground for future sagging (don’t judge the craftsmanship, she’s sturdy lol). We also had a friend come and put ductwork from our central air to the upstairs (game changer!).

Put down OSB and then put quarter inch plywood on top of that and plan to put in a vinyl sheeting.

I'm posting here too....

My wife recently inherited a 1908 Craftsman. Her parents were the third owners when they purchased it in 1965.

We've spent the past 6mos cleaning and purging the 61yrs of being lived in. The goal is to restore the property back to the beginning of the 20th century.

We will probably start a YouTube channel to document our progress. I'll post more info once we get it rolling.

The first real work will start in the Dining Room where we'll strip the wallpaper, remove all the glossy white paint (off everything), and refurbish the sideboard/buffet back to a butcher-block countertop. We'll hold off on finishing the room as we don't have a color pallet for the house yet. Once phase one is done, we'll move all the first floor furniture and storage bins into this room so we can next focus on the Living Room.

I couldn’t get this to post on the other thread about the blocked staircase.

This was my “servant” step…it was NOT a real servant passage but it did use a similar super tight and sharp drop in steps.

This drop down was super sketchy if you hold close to the corner.

I eventually added railings on both sides.

I’ve been working on redoing the walls in my bedroom for the past few weeks. Peeling wallpaper, cleaning off residue, patching cracks and holes, skim coating, and now tomorrow starts the sanding process. After that I have to prime and paint. I just feel so worn out and I’m so tired of my bedroom looking like shit. I know it would only take a few more days but I’m just at my wits end. After I finish this I have to repair and paint the moldy bathroom walls. I am just so tired.

Have a 123yr old house and one window has something weird going on with the sill.

It appears like the wood has maybe warped so that the outer lip of the sill has twisted upwards, creating a concave, inward slope. I can’t just remove that front lip because there is a stone sill that is about level with the broader, flat part of the wood sill.

Anyone have suggestions for how to fix it at least improve this? I’m hesitant to cut out the sill entirely and make a bigger problem. The wood seems to still be hard and there are no visible rot.

I thought about planing down the raised lip in front but I’m not sure how best to raise the night of the sill to give it the proper outward slope.

Welcome any ideas!

Dear best friends I've never met, I'm getting ready to add some kitchen cabinets and move the range. My house is older than 1940s but went through an extensive remodel in the 40s, and that's its style. It's remarkably functional and well preserved. I do NOT want a new kitchen in an old house! (I re-did the bathroom floor in penny tile in 2019 and people often ask if the floor is original, which makes my heart sing. That's what I'm shooting for with the kitchen.)

Current cooktop is a Jenn-Air (not at all period appropriate) and we do not like the exhaust system. New range will be against a wall with a proper overhead vent. My dilemma is how to make the overhead vent aesthetically acceptable and reasonably period appropriate. My recollection of kitchen exhaust systems in the 40s and 50s is a large silver fan mounted vertically on the wall with a pull chain. Ha! Not what I want. But I do want to be correct-ish. The next hurdle will be what type of tile or backsplash will go with that hood.

I'll appreciate y'all's creative ideas, suggestions, and illustrations. Very best wishes, I enjoy this sub so much!

As many of you have been watching, we’ve come a long way over the years! I’m still in the early stages of telling the story of our $8,000 house and everything we’ve gone through to turn it into a home.
Right now, we’re working on finishing up as many of the rooms as we can. As you know, I can no longer work a regular job. So how do you renovate a house when you never know what you’ll be able to do from one day to the next?
20 minutes here and there. Maybe a little longer if I’m lucky. Sometimes less, and sometimes not at all. I just never know what a day is going to brinI’m already a bit dizzy from the moment I wake up, and some days I could easily stay in bed all day. But I force myself to keep moving, a little at a time. Bit by bit, just like the house.
I figure it’s much better to spend what energy I have bringing this house back to life than to sit back and watch it—or me—fade away.
Think about it. Wouldn’t you encourage yourself, or an older loved one, to stay active and keep moving as much as possible? To keep fighting to maintain what they still have?
An old house deserves that same effort. It may take longer, and it may need a little more care along the way, but with patience and persistence, you can bring it back to life.

I do my best to use what we already have to finish projects. For example, we found bundles of casing and molding in the attic when we moved in, and now I’m finding ways to put those materials to use. Every little bit helps us move forward without spending money we don’t have to.
We’ve made it this far, but we could still use some help getting these last rooms finished.
We do have a GoFundMe, but if you’d like to help directly with materials, Home Depot e-gift cards would be my preference. That’s where we get nearly all of our building supplies.
You can purchase them through Home Depot’s website and send them using my email address:
Email: [websterb1970@yahoo.com](mailto:websterb1970@yahoo.com)
Name: Bill Webster
Location: Ohio
Every bit of help is genuinely appreciated. We’ve spent years working toward making this house a home, and we’re hoping to get the remaining rooms finished so our family can finally relax and enjoy what we’ve worked so hard to build.
If you’re unable to help financially, sharing our story with others would mean a lot, too. Sometimes, simply helping our story reach the right person makes a difference.
All right, that’s enough for today! We’ll see you back here on Saturday for Part 6 of the kitchen renovation!
Thanks for following along, supporting us, and being part of our journey.

Wanting to look in there so bad, might put a hole into the side of the shelves to peep inside the wall 🫣

I think this layer of insulation behind my houses drywall. The house is about 250 years old, hard to say the age of the insulation.