Thoughtful Restovation

I was chatting with an acquaintance recently and, not surprisingly, the topic of the house came up. Project progress and whether we're done yet are the most common conversation starters. He didn't ask this, but every once in a while someone will ask when we're going to sell and do it again. Judging by the amount of time we've taken so far, we're obviously not in it for a "quick flip".

As you might expect, quick flippers and some  of the popular TV shows about old houses aren't terribly popular on old house websites. Mostly those sites are populated with people who have a passion for preserving old houses and their criticism is of the "remuddling" decisions that run counter to the design ethos of old houses or work that destroys the house's character.

As we prepare for the upcoming tour I've thought a bit about our approach to our house. I'd classify it as thoughtful restovation (restoration and renovation) of a historic building.

Where it makes sense, we've restored things and found period pieces of hardware to replace broken or missing pieces. If that's not possible, we've sometimes found appropriate reproductions. We've also tried to keep with the style of the house and used period colors in many cases. That doesn't mean we're fanatics about originality however.

In other cases, we've renovated using modern materials, etc. In those cases we carefully considered the house and the modern way of living. We've tried to stay in harmony with the style of the house, borrowing original design cues from elsewhere in the house while understanding that it's not a museum or a time capsule, but rather a house in which a family lives.

So far, we've received a lot of good feedback that we've successfully balanced the competing forces.