Caring for Your Old House: A Guide for Owners and Residents (Respectful Rehabilitation Series)

By Judith L. Kitchen

A Guide for Owners and Residents of Old Houses What are the best sources for researching the history of your home? How do you know if a particular old house is right for you? The original siding on your historic house is missing -- what can you do? How can you safely clean the exterior of your house? The answers to many questions such as these are given in this well-illustrated handbook for owners and residents of old homes. Caring for Your Old House offers comprehensive advice to old-house owners and residents on researching, repairing and maintaining an old residence to avoid the pitfalls of too many changes too soon. In this authoritative guidebook, the author demystifies the questions surrounding what is historically significant, what is an appropriate rehabilitation and when is restoration appropriate. Caring for Your Old House offers helpful advice on: * inspecting a house for possible purchase * what to expect when considering repairs to exterior and interior portions of the house * energy conservation methods * hiring architects and contractors * ongoing maintenance * and much more This book is filled with checklists and tips including 10 money-saving ideas for consideration before beginning rehabilitation, a capsule history of the preservation movement, descriptions of key architectural styles and 14 ways to finance a rehabilitation. Also included is a glossary, a reading list, the Secretary of the Interior's Standards for Rehabilitation and more than 150 illustrations and photographs.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0471143715
• ISBN13: 9780471143710
• Release Date: April 1991
• Publisher: Wiley
• Length: 208 Pages
• Weight: 1.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 8.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Great Book

A great read for devotees of This Old House, this book chronicles the story of their very first project. Old pics of Norm are especially fun.

Excellent for historic home owners

Finally a concise, easy to read text that any historical home owner should own and read. It is the bible of historical building maintenance! This text should be used by every historical society and historic preservation commission as a guide for recommending proper ways to treat and maintain historic building materials. It would be a wonderful text to suggest to an interested student, as well. Thanks Judith for putting something together that is so user-friendly!

Fascinating Information for lovers of old homes

I bought this as a gift for a friend. He shared it with me after reading it cover-to-cover. Great info for anyone concerned with historic preservation. Not quite the "handyman" book I had expected but nonetheless it proved to be some worthwhile reading.

A complete guide for Mantaining an older building

This book was required for an architectural conservation class which I am currently enrolled in. I have found it extremelly helpfull. Unfortunantly I bought this book at the bookstore for a lot more money. The author gets quite technical at times, however they give you quick insights that are at once complete and easy to read. This is definantly a very affordable guide for home owners, designers, and preservationists of all sorts.