Restoring Your Historic House: The Comprehensive Guide for Homeowners

This book is not for sissies! This is an extremely comprehensive reference for restoring a historic home from foundation to finish. If you want something to teach you what goes into restoring a historic home from top to bottom, that is honest about all the pitfalls, expenses, and joys of fixing up a classic home, this is for you. If you’re looking for a pretty coffee table book that makes breathing life into 100+ year-old home look like a walk in the park, keep shopping! Owning this book will save you thousands of dollars of mistakes that you could make by not understanding everything that needs to go into a comprehensive renovation. It does not sugarcoat the difficulties in managing a large project and will help you decide which things you should do yourself and which things you should really leave to the experts. The author has shared everything from the big picture to the most mundane details involved in a classic restoration, and is very candid about things that went right, and also some things that could’ve gone a lot better. Ultimately, you can really see that his goal is to save other homeowners money and time by sharing his own experience in words and in photos. I have restored more than one old house and this is one of the best reference books I have ever had. I am about to embark on a restoration of an 1885 Queen Anne Victorian and I am looking forward to going into the project with even more knowledge than I already have about the process from start to finish. Highly, highly recommended.

This book won't exactly teach you step by step to do to repair on a historic home. What it does provide are alot of tips and foundational knowledge about how historic homes were built, what to look for when planning rehabilitation, best practices, and good examples of historic rehabilitations. I read this book in it's entirety and wish I had read something like this prior to some of my own work. Examples like how gypsum being different then lime based plasters. I do wish a bit more information was available on slate roofing and resolving structural support issues that might effect the historical appearance of a space (ex I have 20+ ft span ceilings and the only thing I can think of is running steel or wood support beams jacked up across the ceiling of my kitchen). Overall I enjoyed the book and is worth a read.

I cannot say enough great things about this book! Well written, beautiful photos but the best part is the information - straight forward, realistic and brimming with great ideas on restoring your historic home while maintaining character. We are 2 years in to the restoration of our 1880 Folk Victorian home and while we've learned a lot on our own this book has given us so many more ideas and reminded us that we can make the most of our home, modernize it and still maintain its historic integrity. Currently working on a bathroom reno and have already made some changes to preserve its history. A big thank you to the author for taking the time to put this book together. I can't wait to share it with my local historic preservation group.

This is the best old house book I've ever seen. We bought many when restoring our house, and none had the detail that this one does. It has such great information compared to others available. So many tips from a professional restoration expert. I've never seen a book like this and haven't even gotten very far into it yet. It is one everyone is fighting over to read because it is so interesting. Such an amazing book that I bought a second one for my parents to enjoy. Love this book and am recommending it to everyone. Thank you for writing this and sharing your knowledge!

Beautiful book! Photos are great, relevant, informative. This book is like a text book. Having restored a Victorian 30 years ago, this book covers so many problems we ran into and more we were lucky enough not to. Bought as a gift for son-in-law, who is buying old house. Once I heard him talking about taking front porch facade down, and putting pillars up oh! and ripping off cantilever (interior stairs landing) to relocate stairs ?!?!? taking with it a huge 4x5 foot tall stained glass window...I knew I had to get him this book. Hopefully his remuddling will be minimal!

This is really a whole book, and part of a second. It covers the “restoring” your house part really well. It also goes into a good bit of the “decorating” your historic house. But, there’s a catch. The restoration part is thoroughly covered, addressing restoration basics, concerns, old house construction techniques, materials, tools, and modern substitutes. It’s thorough and gave me enough to get started and move forward confidently. The decoration part is much more cursory in its coverage. It addresses just the basics of various styles, but doesn’t address any of the real issues you will find in getting the look that you are seeking (and one you won’t regret later after you realize you have simply mixed and matched various incompatible styles). And yes, there are many styles for historic homes (probably 25). The author addresses this by mentioning he planned to write a companion volume “Decorating your Historic House” but that volume was never released. That’s a shame. That would have been a powerful companion to this tome on renovation. Lots of do’s and don’ts covered, and alerts to some of the pitfalls you will encounter. He also conveys the emotions involved in owning a home like this. The ambition, tempered with realism. The joys and frustrations, the fascinations, the sense of accomplishment at restoring something that was once beautiful and grand to its former glory. Old house affianadoes will enjoy this aspect of the book. Overall a massive book and of great use to someone (like me) who has accepted a historic house renovation project. The restoration tips and techniques are worth the price. I’ll just have to find the decoration guidance elsewhere.

This is a must have book for everyone interested in historic houses and their loving and careful restoration. Profusely illustrated.

"Restoring Your Historic House" is not a detailed DIY how-to-book -- there are other books for that. However, this book provides excellent insight to the construction designs, techniques and, most importantly, advice in meeting the challenges of restoring/maintaining a historic home. The book is well illustrated, and easy to read--not perplexingly technical. Owning and restoring a historic residence is not for the faint-of-heart -- "Restoring Your Historic House" is a must for anyone considering or already owns an older home. Strap on your tool belt!

So fantastic! Owning a 140 year old house this book is chalked full of useful info history and tips about restorations and why things were done that way back then. The insight is fabulous and cent wait to get thru it all - 5+ stars!!

We own an old historic house and the guidance from this book has saved us thousands.

The book is huge and beautiful. It is full color (except historic photos). Of course, there is a massive amount of text since this is a true restoration handbook and for this reason, too, the color photos are not for the most part full page. This book should definitely be your first stop if you are planning a restoration project.

I bought this book for my mom since she loves to renovate old houses. She is amazed with this book she says it is her go to and she learns a lot from this book.

Awesome! This book is soo big and full of information!