The biggest mistakes you’ll make when renovating your home

If your home is historically significant, destroying the original features of your home is suicide. For example:

Taking out original features:

• Installing modern, vinyl windows on a historic home, with no thought to maintaining the architectural integrity;

• Painting over wood features

When we moved into our 1895 Queen Anne Victorian, it had 115 years of paint on the front door. That was a crying shame, because underneath all that was a virgin redwood masterpiece. Here are some photos of the excavation process:

Our house, before

This was our door when we moved in, in 2010

The excavation begins

More excavation. Look at that GORGEOUS door knob!!

To compare, here is one of our virgin redwood pocket doors, which was never painted (thank GOD)

Here is a mid-stream shot, as we started to get things cleaned up and flowers planted

Basically, I could write a whole book on what NOT to do to your house. I might actually have to, based on what I’m seeing out there.

To keep it simple: never destroy or remove original features, especially in an architecturally significant house.

What that means:

If someone installed a kitchen in the 1980s in your Victorian house, and it’s ugly as sin, feel free to remodel it. However! Use your home’s architecture style and period as your guide. If you are putting in a new kitchen, go with the architectural style of the house.

A false front for a modern fridge — that looks like a vintage icebox!

Let me repeat: If you’re putting something in, GO ORIGINAL.

Does that mean I need to install a 1914 Icebox instead of a modern refrigerator? No, but you can hide your new fridge behind a faux icebox facade, like so:

This is a trick I learned from Brett Waterman, of “Restored” on the DIY network.

Respect your house, and your house will respect you.

<Off soapbox>