6 Smart Tasks Before Restoring Your Home

Before old house restoration even begins, save time and money with a little investigation. Ever wonder what your home used to look like before modern improvements? Was there always a wall there? How could your Victorian home have such a modern kitchen? What is that exterior siding covering where the windows used to be? 

Over the years, your home may have seen many remodelings. The larger and older your home is, the more opportunities the previous owners had for making substantial changes. Most homeowners like to leave their mark on property in the name of comfort and upgrades — everyone wants improvements. For whatever reasons, every "next owner" usually has different priorities. Like home ownership itself, remodeling is part of the American Dream for many people and the opportunities for "re-muddling" increase as the age and square footage of the house increase.

Many people want to restore a home to its original beauty, but how do you do that? Learning about the earliest design of your home can take many months. If you have no blueprints, you'll need time to do some serious detective work. These handy tips will help you discover the origins of your old house, inside and outside.

Tips to Discover Your Real Home

1. Begin with age. Homeowners think they are buying their own homes as personal property, but any property owner is really buying into a neighborhood of history. How old is your house? How old is the neighborhood? With a deed, the answer may be straightforward. Beginning with this information gives context to your house.

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2. Your house is probably not unique. All architecture, including the common home, tells the story of time and place. Building and design are lessons in the history of populations. Put your house in context with how your country was populated. Where do people live in the United States? Consider this basic question: Why was your house built at all? What was the need for shelter at this time and at this place? What architectural style dominated the region at the time? If your home is in a line of houses, stand back across the street and look up — does your house look a little bit like the house next door? Builders very often built two or three houses in a row, efficiently using the same handed-down plans.

3. Learn about the history of your community. Ask your local historian or ask a reference librarian where to look in your local public library. Does your town or city have a historic district with a historic commission? Anyone interested in houses, including real estate agents, often know a great deal about local builders and housing styles. Visit your neighbors and different neighborhoods. Their homes may mirror yours. Make maps of where houses were built in relation to local businesses, including farms. Was your house part of a farm whose land was split up? What major industries were nearby that may have affected rapid population growth?

4. Find floor plans for your old house. Remember that your old house may never have had blueprints. In the early 1900s and before, builders rarely drew up detailed specifications. The entire process of building was handed down from generation to generation. In the U.S., architecture didn't become a profession until the 19th century and building codes and regulations were rare until the 20th century. Still, research before restoration could ultimately save a lot of time.

5. Look under the rug. Remember the concept of hiding something under the rug or sweeping secrets under the carpet? It's good to remember that much of your home's history is right there in front of you with very little effort — if you know where to look. Unless remodeling was done by a master craftsman, evidence is left behind. Pull up some baseboard or molding to see the finished (or unfinished) flooring edges or wall heights. Measure the thickness of the walls and try to determine if they were built upon each other. Go into the basement and look at the under-flooring to see if it's been patched when a new central heating system was installed. Where is the plumbing — is it all in one area, in an addition when a bathroom and kitchen were added? Many complex older homes started off as simple structures and were added to over the years. The architecture of a house can evolve over time.

6. Define your project. What are your project goals? Knowing what you want in the end will help you find a path to get there. Note that many of the words we use to describe the actions we take on a structure begin with the prefix re- which means "again." So, here we go again.

Which Method Is Right for You?

Remodeling: This often-used word describes a process of making changes to a house with little regard to the history of the home and its environs. The "model" chosen is at the whim of the current homeowner. Before you remodel your home, establish a checklist for your remodeling dreams.

Renovation: Novus means "new," so when we renovate we want to make our home like new. This term is generally used to fix a home in disrepair.

Rehabilitation: Often abbreviated as "rehab," rehabilitation is to restore or fix-up a property while keeping its architectural value. According to U.S. Secretary of the Interior standards and guidelines, you can do this "through repair, alterations, and additions while preserving those portions or features which convey its historical, cultural, or architectural values."

Restoration: Coming from the Latin word restauratio, restoration brings the architecture back to a certain time period. The Secretary of the Interior's working definition includes words like "accurately depicting the form, features, and character of a property as it appeared at a particular period of time." Methods include "the removal of features from other periods in its history and reconstruction of missing features from the restoration period." Does this mean you rip out the kitchen sink and build a new outhouse? No. Even the federal government says it's okay to keep "code-required work."

Source

• Preservation Terminology, Secretary of the Interior's Standards and Guidelines As Amended and Annotated, https://www.nps.gov/history/local-law/arch_stnds_10.htm