Older Home Input Please

[heightsfan]

Good Morning ,

hope you have a great week!

Any input , advise, experience, opinions, etc . . .

will be greatly appreciated!

We are considering purchasing a home near E. 13 1/2 and Studewood and hopefully

the street contsruction wont take long . . . . we hope

If we wanted to do some minor interior upgrades what might you suggest ?

Hire a designer? what is there usual fee and for what ?

Hire an architect ? what is there fee " " "

Any recommendations for those professionals?

Should we just look through magazines and do the work ourselves ?

We would like to section off our livingroom/dinning room and upgrade kitchen.

Thank You

"make it a great day"

[Guest danax]

One general guideline that I would recommend would be to try to stay as much in line as possible with the original style and era of the house. The reasons for doing this are not just out of a love and respect for the original architecture and style but also for resale considerations in the future as many Heights buyers are sensitive to old homes and even seemingly benign modifications can spook a lot of potential buyers.

I would also recommend just living there for awhile, maybe a few years, before starting to change things too much. There are many stories of people who regretted the changes that they rushed into when they first bought the house later on. Do you want to recreate the feel of the original house or just keep the shell and "modernize" the guts? Keep in mind that what is considered "modern" today will be outdated in short time.

Unless you are already well educated on old homes, I would recommend researching as much as possible in order to gain a thorough understanding of what you've got. Over time you can formulate a plan for upgrades that is a knowledgeable compromise between authenticity and modern living. Being able to tastefully formulate and implement that compromise becomes a bit of an art and there is no substitute for experience and knowledge.

Using professionals to do the work is ok if you can afford to, but I would still have a thorough understanding of all that I mentioned above before hiring anyone so that you can direct them properly. Or, I suppose there are some professionals out there that you can trust to take over the entire process but, as I've mentioned, if you don't have a thorough understanding yourself, what you agree to today might seem horrible in 3 years. If you really want to get going on the projects then I would probably go to a couple of neighborhood meetings and ask around for recommendations of professionals and perhaps walk through a few houses to get an idea of what you want and who to use.

I have an old home and I shudder at the initial ideas I had when I first bought it. Luckily, I took my time and now I feel like I know the house and style and how I want to proceed. I do as much of the work myself, not only due to financial constraints, but due to my love for the house. Some jobs are very tedious and there is no way that I could pay someone to do them with the necessary care and patience. For example, I am currently stripping the paint off of the crown moulding on the exterior underneath my soffits. Trying to use a paint scraper with a flat blade along the curves of the wood without gouging it takes a long time, not to mention the lead paint precautions that slow the process. The "practical" thing would be to replace it all with a new material but that is just not acceptable to me. I'm talking about 20 foot long pieces of straight pine. Try to find that at Home Depot. So, the job is taking me months, but the result will be to my standards.

What I'm talking about is restoration. The other end of the spectrum is remodelling. What they do on This Old House is remodelling and makes a lot of old house lovers cringe. If you do decide to make drastic alterations, at least document the original layouts and keep old materials that are removed in the attic for future residents who might want to restore the house.

And don't tear out the wood windows!

[RedScare]

I couldn't agree with danax more. When I bought my house, I had grandiose dreams of redoing the whole thing. An older guy in a bar warned me not to go wild just yet. He said no matter what you do to an old house, it will never be perfect. You can spend a lot of money in that quest and never get there.

Now, a year and a half later, I only want to replace the garage and update the bath and kitchen a bit. I don't even want to get rid of the window units anymore. They are cheaper than central AC, both to install and to operate.

Unless the house is too torn up to live in immediately, move in and see what annoys you before you tear everything up. You'll be glad you did.

[pineda]

Danax-

In reading to your response, I had a couple of questions for you.

1. Do you know of any neighborhood groups/clubs/organizations that are dedicated to preserving the historical aspects of these homes that you might be able to recommend to this person?

2. Are there upcoming "Parade of Homes" like Christmas tours in the neighborhood where they could see some outstanding examples of preservation and architectural excellence in the area?

3. Do you have local sources where this person might learn the history of the house they're thinking of purchasing? Sometimes if you know the history, you respect it more.

[TJones]

If you need a contractor to help you out, let me know. I have access to some work crews and get you reasonable pricing on solid work.

[MarthaG]

I remodeled my house in Oak Forest, which is not near the age of Heights homes. However, I can make some suggestions that might help. I agree with the others...move in first. Live there at least a year. You will learn about the house and get to know the neighbors and find out what work they have done and what they would do different. There are lots of people in the Heights that wills share their knowledge.

I agree with "restore" as much as possible. I used original interior doors as much as I could and tried to match original trim work and those wonderful glass door knobs when ever possible. I took a 1500 sq. ft. house and converted the attic to add another 600 sq ft. (2 bedrooms, bath, and small sitting room). You can hardly tell anything from the outside except for the new windows.

I hired an architect which saved money in the long run... Making changes on paper is a lot less expensive than on the actual project.

And expect to spend twice as much as you think. Those little upgrades as you go along add up super fast, and never fails, something is going to go wrong. There was a shortage of sheet rock when I did mine.

My house is perfect now. Of course I had lived in it for many years first and knew exactly what I wanted. It even came out better than expected. Hope you have the same results.

[cwrm4]

I too agree with what everyone has said...great advice given in this forum!

Before you do anything, read and look at all you can for at least a year. One good resource is the This Old House magazine, which is dirt cheap to subscribe too, but usually features some homes that have been redone in the "original" style.

When I looked for my place, I went through several Heights homes that had been perfectly redone on the inside...only now the interior looked just like some house in Pearland. To be honest, they felt a bit freaky. I noticed that those houses took a lot longer to sell than houses that were still mostly original/preserved. Personally I treasure the original doors, fixtures, floors etc in my 80 yr old place.

There are several home tours in the Heights each year, I believe the next one up (this weekend?) is for Norhill (saw a sign in the median on Watson just before I-10)

You will kinda be in Woodland Heights, they have a great forum for discussion of restoration, home repair, development etc.

http://www.woodland-heights.org/phpBB2/index.php

Unfortunately, I read somewhere yesterday that the Studemont reconstruction now will not be finished until next summer. At least I finally saw them working on it today.

[Guest danax]

Danax-

In reading to your response, I had a couple of questions for you.

1. Do you know of any neighborhood groups/clubs/organizations that are dedicated to preserving the historical aspects of these homes that you might be able to recommend to this person?

2. Are there upcoming "Parade of Homes" like Christmas tours in the neighborhood where they could see some outstanding examples of preservation and architectural excellence in the area?

3. Do you have local sources where this person might learn the history of the house they're thinking of purchasing? Sometimes if you know the history, you respect it more.

#1; No, I don't know of any such groups on the neighborhood level, but the Heights would be the obvious place to meet people who have fixed up similar style homes. I meant that he attend one of the neighborhood homeowner association meeting.

#2; As cwrm4 mentioned, the Heights, Norhill, and Woodland Heights have tours and so does Eastwood and 6th Ward, I think.

#3; Yeah, learning the history of the house definitely makes you more likely to want to restore instead of remodel. The first place to start is the Julia Ideson building at the Central Library. City directories are good for tracking down the various residents and even seeing when your house got it's first phone and phone # (mine was in 1939). Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps, although there are lots of years missing, show bird's eye view drawings of each house in many neighborhoods through the years. Between those two, you can get a pretty good idea as to when the house was built and who lived there at various times. Then if you really get interested, the microfiche collection of the Post and Chronicle can uncover interesting info via real estate ads and promotions for many Houston neighborhoods. I found the obituary for the man who built my house and was the patriarch of my neighborhood, Pecan Park. I printed it and took it home and eventually met the man's grandaughter and gave it to her. She was quite interested and moved.

Posting pictures here on the Old House Web will get accurate evaluations from members as to the style and likely original features that a house has/once had as well as great input for possible projects. One should be prepared to be tarred and feathered, then drawn and quartered, in a very civil and friendly manner of course, if one suggests vinyl siding.

If you have any interest in history and puzzles, along with a love of working with your hands and creating art, then buying and restoring an old house can become a passion that consumes great quantities of time and money. Let the buyer beware.

[Norhill Dennis]

Actually the construction is a good thing to keep traffic down right now. I have a listing on Fugate, right off Studewood and the owners have noticed it is actually much less busy right now. You're in a good spot though if you are on 13 1/2, because it's a dead-end street. You shouldn't have much traffic. One thing you migh do is come to the Norhill Home tour on Oct 15 and 16 to get some ideas and talk to the owners (including my house on the tour). The Heights Association has a restoration Committe that meets once a month at someone's home to see what they've done and swap stories.

http://proctorplaza.com/events/tour_default.php

Dennis Sigut

[stolitx]

I couldn't agree with danax more. When I bought my house, I had grandiose dreams of redoing the whole thing. An older guy in a bar warned me not to go wild just yet. He said no matter what you do to an old house, it will never be perfect. You can spend a lot of money in that quest and never get there.

This is great advice. I quickly slapped up tile in my guest bath. Now I regret that I wish to tear it down and start over. The old tile was falling off the wall but it's a bath that no one uses. But me, not known for my patience, jumped in and decided it had to be done immediately. What kind of delusion was I in when I picked the tile, I will never know.