For more tips on preparing your old house for winter, check out my video interview with expert Desiree Lawlor of Hart Water Conditioning.KATE WOOD grew up criss-crossing the country in the family’s Volkswagen Bus, visiting house museums, battlefields, Main Streets,

Historic windows are an important character-defining feature of old houses. For me, as a preservationist, that alone is enough reason to go to the mat. I wrote a piece for CIRCA Old Houses covering the history of window technology and

You've signed the pile of closing documents, officially hold the keys, and now stand in front of your house, realizing that smell is now YOUR very own damp plaster, mildew and mouse pee! What now? You might scan your memory for all

Congratulations! You’ve purchased a home that is 50, 100, 200(!) years old and brimming with special qualities. Maybe it’s the way the light filters through wavy-glass windows and warms the mellow wide-board floors. Or the smooth feel of the banister,

People come to me when they have an old house that needs work, they know it’s special, and they desperately don’t want to f&%# it up. How do you bring a 50- or 100- or 200-year-old house into the 21st century

"You realize it would be faster and cheaper to just tear it down and rebuild it from scratch.” My client and I stood outside the ca-1876 train depot she had purchased a few months earlier, the contractor who made this pronouncement

Begin with the end in mind

Moving Day in Little Old New York, satirical painting, c.1827 Time for a little spring cleaning? May is a time for fresh starts - planting a garden, hitting the trails, opening the windows and letting the air in. The idea of

Spring Break is over. Easter chocolate and jelly beans have been consumed. Taxes are filed. So, what’s next? Here’s my calendar for the upcoming month, full of items that need tending to. After a long season of fireside planning, life is