Join Patricia Poore for an on-demand webinar.
OHJ has always been about preservation—and repair, restoration, rehabilitation, and adaptive reuse. But not preservation as it pertains to monuments, and not in a scholarly or curatorial sense. OHJ has instead championed private owners who, in taking on the stewardship of their old houses, actually accomplished much more than that. The tens of thousands of private rehabbers are an overlooked force. Together, we have:
- Kept countless tons of building products out of landfills. This includes now-rare materials and beautiful, skilled work done in the past.
- Participated in the continued beauty and livability of neighborhoods—from historic districts full of brownstone row houses, to streetcar suburbs of the garden-city movement, to bungalow tracts once considered passé.
- Assured some continuity of the historical record. An old house restored preserves architecture but also many details that are really cultural artifacts. Victorian gingerbread millwork is a record of a time when good lumber was abundant and the power saw was invented. Pocket doors tell us that there’s a time for open plans and a time for privacy and—quite likely—a time to heat only the rooms being used.
Still, old-house owners often fret over decisions. How pure do we have to be? What are the pitfalls and no-nos? And why does it seem that younger generations don’t recognize the inherent treasure that is an old house?
Patricia explores the pleasures and challenges of old-house living, taking us on a romp through successful projects, before-and-after photos, and defensible compromises. She may throw in some tips on finances and even a ghost story. Also on tap: a review of OHJ’s painless, easy-to-follow Golden Rules; Patty’s Pet Peeves; and a Q&A session at the end. Joining Patricia Poore for the Q&A is our publisher and dedicated old-house owner Peter Miller.
