Show us your vintage home!

[AtomicEraTom]

Thank you! It's been going surprisingly smoothly. I just wanted to get enough going before winter, to prevent the whole alley from ending up in my yard.

Related to my story, I once watched my mother run a chainsaw all the way down to the bone in her leg. We were tearing down an old pig barn on the farm, which was as much constructed of roofing nails, as it was from lumber. Long story short, she caught some nails, chainsaw bounced up, then down into her leg. No hospital, just wrapped it up and went back to work. My mom's always been tough as nails

Nice job, Tom and family! Laying crossties is waaay down there on my list of things I enjoy doing. True story.....years back I was involved in building a couple of new homes on a steep hillside. There was a couple guys building crosstoe retaining walls to keep the hill from sliding into the back of the houses. One day we were heading out to grab some lunch, and one of the older guys had a tie propped across his thigh cutting it down with a small chainsaw. Whoa! I asked him, what's up with that? STFU was his reply, he'd been doing this since I was in elementary school. Well, we got back from lunch and.....no crosstie guys. He'd dug that ****ing chainsaw into his leg clean to the bone. Dumb@ss.

FadingFast the ivy climbing up your building is truly a sight to behold...and so is that mailbox.

 

[Stearmen]

Thank you! It's been going surprisingly smoothly. I just wanted to get enough going before winter, to prevent the whole alley from ending up in my yard.

Related to my story, I once watched my mother run a chainsaw all the way down to the bone in her leg. We were tearing down an old pig barn on the farm, which was as much constructed of roofing nails, as it was from lumber. Long story short, she caught some nails, chainsaw bounced up, then down into her leg. No hospital, just wrapped it up and went back to work. My mom's always been tough as nails

Your mother is definitely from the same age group as me! The only stitches I had growing up, was when my wisdom teeth were pulled. We just pored peroxide on and wrapped it tight!

 

[AtomicEraTom]

Hahaha! Yup! That sounds like her! She turned 50 this year (you didn't hear that from me) and she's still tougher than most men my age!

Your mother is definitely from the same age group as me! The only stitches I had growing up, was when my wisdom teeth were pulled. We just pored peroxide on and wrapped it tight!

 

[Fading Fast]

1928 NYC Apartment Restoration update:

Sorry it's only two quick pictures today, but life has been crazy busy. If I can, I'm going to try to get some more pictures to post soon as there's been some good progress even since I took these shots early in the week.

This is the reclaimed wood floor in the kitchen - it hasn't been stained or finished yet. I'll try and get some better detail shots as the wood is beautiful and the border (not visible in this picture) is really well done


This is the start of the subway tile in the bathroom (done in the "Sanitary Cove Movement" style - no sharp corners or edges for germs to collect was the thought at the time). I also want to get you guys some more detailed shots here as well as the corners, etc. are really neat to see:

 

[fashion frank]

1928 NYC Apartment Restoration update:

Sorry it's only two quick pictures today, but life has been crazy busy. If I can, I'm going to try to get some more pictures to post soon as there's been some good progress even since I took these shots early in the week.

This is the reclaimed wood floor in the kitchen - it hasn't been stained or finished yet. I'll try and get some better detail shots as the wood is beautiful and the border (not visible in this picture) is really well done


This is the start of the subway tile in the bathroom (done in the "Sanitary Cove Movement" style - no sharp corners or edges for germs to collect was the thought at the time). I also want to get you guys some more detailed shots here as well as the corners, etc. are really neat to see:

Nice FF I love the subway tiles ,gives it thwe vintage look and the floors are going to look awesome too.
Hey stearman did you get a headache with the poly on the floors ?
I did that one time on a very humid day years ago and thought I was going to pass out !

All the Best,Fashion Frank

 

[ingineer]

Fading Fast;
So nice to see the #2 red common oak.
Hope you don't stain it dark
Slap the plumber for not leaving space for the tile on the waste flange

 

[Stearmen]

Nice FF I love the subway tiles ,gives it thwe vintage look and the floors are going to look awesome too.
Hey stearman did you get a headache with the poly on the floors ?
I did that one time on a very humid day years ago and thought I was going to pass out !

All the Best,Fashion Frank

That's why I hired a guy!

 

[ingineer]

Like my Father would say we are carpenters, we don't paint

 

[Fading Fast]

Fading Fast;
So nice to see the #2 red common oak.
Hope you don't stain it dark
Slap the plumber for not leaving space for the tile on the waste flange

My girlfriend has done a decent study of the proper stains to reflect the 1920s and we are going to go with what I'd call a mid-color stain - definitely not dark, but not blonde or yellow either. She thinks it is closest to what was probably the color of the stain on the red oak floors back in the '20s when the apartment was new.

In the bathroom shot, that is the base of what will be the toilet - so what is the plumber should have done?

Thank you

Also, thank you, Fashion Frank, for your comments (hope your recovery is still going well).

 

[fashion frank]

Also, thank you, Fashion Frank, for your comments (hope your recovery is still going well).

Thanks FF getting better every day , going to P.T. Today as a matter of fact !
Just taking it one day at a time.

All the Best , Fashion Frank

 

[Stearmen]

Like my Father would say we are carpenters, we don't paint

 

[ingineer]

FF;
sorry, didn't mean to upset you.
Its is just that the old school plumbers i worked with would not install the hub until the tile was laid
Or space it out to accommodated the thickness of the tile
its all good with an extension to match the level
perhaps he did not have a tile sanple

 

[Fading Fast]

FF;
sorry, didn't mean to upset you.
Its is just that the old school plumbers i worked with would not install the hub until the tile was laid
Or space it out to accommodated the thickness of the tile
its all good with an extension to match the level
perhaps he did not have a tile sanple

ingineer, thank you for all the explanation and follow up. I have no experience with installing tiles and any color helps.

 

[Fading Fast]

1928 NYC Apartment Restoration update:

As promised, some more updates.

This is the unstained kitchen floor, I just wanted you to see the beautiful border detail the guys did. It matches the border detail of the original floors throughout the apartment so - along with being reclaimed red oak (the same as most of the original floors still in the apartment) - it should help the kitchen floor feel original to the apartment


Some of the kitchen cabinets were delivered this week. We went back to 1920s architectural design books and had the cabinets designed as fitted pieces of furniture which was the style of the time (not perfectly seamless cabinetry as is done today) and, where possible, we used old style woodwork like the center wood drawer runner you see (but for some shelves / drawers that need more support, we did have to compromise and use metal side support). But overall, the effect should be very vintage (enhanced by the glass-front top cabinets that haven't even come yet as they are still having the vintage glass installed):



The walls will be subway tile in the Sanitary Cove Movement style - this is how the tile will look at the floor


While it's not installed yet, you can see that the end of the tile will be flush to the wood floor to create a smooth transition (no sharp edges was a big part of the Sanitary Movement - thought to prevent places for germs to accumulate)


These next two are just fun shots out of a window to show you, once again, the ivy on the side of the building. The views out are pretty good, but these pictures were taken to show you the ivy (hence, I angled the camera to focus on the adjacent outside wall, so it looks dark and closed in, but the view is actually pretty light and opened).

 

[Bamaboots]

Fading Fast, thanks for the updates. I really like the way the wood floors have been bordered and that transition between tile and wood is a unique rendition that I think will look great. Nice views as well.

 

[Cocker]

Our house, built in 1700, partly rebuilt with sadly missmatched bricks around 1985:

 

[Stearmen]

Did a little redecorating in the living room! What do you think? I think it needs more!

 

[Stearmen]

I found this board the other day in my house. Can any one read it? I can see it was written in 1890, April 19, and "yours with love", but not much else! Trying to read the last name at the top, so I can cross reference it to the 1890 city directory. Seems my house had at least three different house numbers, the farthest I can trace it back is 1898, clearly, this shows it is older, since it has been incased in a wall all this time!

 

[sheeplady]

I found this board the other day in my house. Can any one read it? I can see it was written in 1890, April 19, and "yours with love", but not much else! Trying to read the last name at the top, so I can cross reference it to the 1890 city directory. Seems my house had at least three different house numbers, the farthest I can trace it back is 1898, clearly, this shows it is older, since it has been incased in a wall all this time!

When shall we three meet again?

When you look at this and read think of me.
I am the lad that put this back on in the year of 1890 April 19, yours with love.

 

[sheeplady]

As far as the name, I see:
James (?) Beids

The next line I will think on.