Historic Home Details

Weather Stripping

Historic vs Efficient

Overwhelmingly, the buyers of old and historic homes are willing to pay more for homes with original details. The original elements give your old home its uniqueness. Stripping those for replacements kills its value and originality. Eventhough you may succeed in bringing energy costs down, in the end it's a loosing game.

4 Easy Ways to Weatherstrip Window and Doors

• Foam tape (Easy, $) Self adhesive foam tape weatherstripping is available at every home store in a variety of sizes and colors. It is the easiest thing apply.
• Felt (Moderate, $$) Felt weatherstripping has been used for decades. It is very effective and can last quite a white. Like foam, it will eventually be compacted enough that it's air sealling abilities are reduced, but is lasts much longer the foam tape.
• Spring Bronce (Moderate, $$$) We've talked about this before, but this is the grandaddy of weatherstripping. Once installed, it will never need replacement or maintance for well over 100 yrs.
• The Bottom (Don't Forget) The space between the bootom of your door and your threshhold is an often overlooked spot for draft sealing and it's one of the biggest.

Picture Rails

How to Hang Art

The term "picture rail" refers to a thin piece of horizontal molding that usually sits about 12 to 20 inches below the ceilling in a room.

"Originally,[picutre rails] were designed for use on plaster wails so that you did not have to damage you wall (or wall coverings) to hang artwork.

So before you start trying to hang a picture or art into your plaster wall, see if you have a picture rail and trying hanging it the correct way!

Wavy Glass

A short history of glass

For years, the only glass available was hand-blow glass. A local glass worker would blow the glass on a rod and spin it into discs which when cooled could be cut into small pieces. That is why homes built in the 1600 and 1700s have so many small panes of glass in their windows. Price and availability of glass dictated windows designs and lite patterns.

Later as technology improved in the early 1900s, achine drawn cylinder glass was introduced, This process drew large cylinders of glass vertically from a machine. These cylinders could be updwards of 40 feet tall!

They were then cut into smaller cylinders of 7-10 feet typically before beting cut lenghtwise and reheated to flatten them into one big sheet, from which the glass could be cut according to the window marker's needs.

The around the mid-20th centurey, float glass was invented, which is how we get modern glass. The molten glass is poured out onto a bed of molten tin, which allows the glass to float on top and level out perfectly to remove any imperfections.