From Sky news.

This is connections.

I'm Evan Dawson.

Our connection this hour was made in this old house.

Or maybe your old house.

Maintaining and repairing historic houses requires an unusual skill set.

It involves a commitment to preserving historic characteristics and an understanding of modern functionality.

And maybe you're pretty good around the house.

Maybe you consider yourself handy.

Can you handle maintenance and repair for historic houses?

Older houses?

We are definitely in kind of a cookie cutter world.

And if you're someone who loves the character of a beautiful old house, maybe you're driving down a country road and you think, boy, would I love to live in a place like that.

I wonder what it takes to restore it.

This is where Steve Jordan comes in.

He's an author and restoration expert, and he provides guidance for homeowners in his new book called The Historic House Handbook A Sensitive Guide for old House living.

This hour, we're talking with Steve about what homeowners ought to know design concepts, material availability, how to navigate difficult decisions, especially now.

And we're going to hear from local homeowners about how they've revitalized their homes.

I'm going to try for our YouTube audience to show you this book without covering my face.

I have the tendency to do this.

Is that really good?

That good?

They're going to kill me if I do that.

If you're watching on the Sky news YouTube channel, this is the book, the Historic House Handbook.

We're going to have some images as well, to share with you from the houses that are being featured.

And let me welcome Steve Jordan back to the program, the author of this wonderful book.

Hey, it's nice to see you, sir.

Nice to be back, Evan, thanks so much.

It's great to have Steve.

And we'll tell you where you can get this book.

Meghan Klemm is director of preservation services for the Landmark Society of Western New York.

Welcome.

Thank you.

Thank you for being here.

Ellen Ola is with us, a Rochester resident who restored her home from the 1870s.

I'm reading 1870s, 1870s.

Well, welcome to you.

Congratulations.

Fact award winning, which we're going to talk about.

And on the line with us is Bradley Huber.

And around two point resident and an old house DIY wire.

Hello, Bradley.

Hi.

How are you?

Good.

Great to have you.

Thank you for being with us.

So before we jump in here and talk about some of the specific houses, I just really want to say to the audience, even if you don't live in a historic house, I bet you some of your family has.

But you maybe you grew up in a place that has that kind of the bones and the structure that that come to mind here.

And, Steve, are we losing these kind of structures in our society?

Unfortunately we are.

And the, the book, which I should say is published by the Landmark Society.

Okay.

It's not just my book.

But the book is, is aimed at people who may not understand the special needs and the materials that that are required for old House maintenance because they're completely different from, the, the requirements of a, of a modern tract house or Home Depot material house.

And the Landmark Society has spent several years now trying to promote the traditional trades, trying to fill that dearth of tradesmen who absolutely who know how to work on these houses.

And this is partly aimed at that.

You know, we we, we cover the, the topics that are so important.

And, I hope that, I hope that people will look at it and understand what's special about old house living also, and what's special about neighborhood, old neighborhood living, historic neighborhoods.

Okay.

I love that.

Well, and I got to say, I mean, I'm not great around the house.

I've had to in recent months, you know, converting a room in my house into a new baby's nursery, you know, which I would.

Steve and I are joking like I'm too old for this, right?

No.

Any day now, a new boy has come into my family.

That's why I'm going to be out for a while and, you know, painting, preparing.

But it's a different deal.

And we're going to talk this hour about even things from safety considerations for older house.

Yeah.

You know, breathing considerations, what might be, you know, when was a lead paint era.

What about other things that you ought to know about.

I mean, the book really covers a wide, wide range.

And.

Meagan, Clem, I want to ask you about what you think this book will do for people who care about properties like this.

I think this book is really amazing.

Steve did a great job.

For those who don't already know about it, there was a book that Steve wrote back in the 1990s called Rehab Rochester, and this book is pretty much an update to that.

But we wanted to we wanted it to go beyond just Rochester areas, because it really is for pretty much anyone who old, owns an old home in basically the northeast United States.

And I think this book is really important for people who own those homes.

A lot of times I drive around and I feel like people, even people I know, they don't appreciate these older buildings, and the value that they really bring to our identity, our sense of place, who we are as a community.

And I think the book like this, that Steve wrote really helps these owners of historic properties understand the materials that are there, why they're so significant, why it's important to try to replace and kind and repair what you have.

Because truly, as Steve mentioned, we are starting to lose some of these, these historic buildings.

And it really is our sense of place, our sense of identity, what makes us unique from anywhere USA.

Yeah.

I mean, maybe three months ago on this program, we talked about old barns and at one, especially in Penfield, that boy, oh boy, sometimes you put together a program and you think, well, this is a little esoteric.

It's a little niche.

People were fired up about that because, again, whether you own a property like that or whether you have one in your family or whether you just drive by or there's one in your town, people really care about character and preservation, even if they don't consider themselves preservationists.

I mean, like, it sounds like I'm becoming an evangelist for you, and I don't mean to do that.

I'm still a journalist.

I'm here to grill you, but I do think there's probably more preservationist than most people than they realize.

You agree with that?

I absolutely agree with that.

I think even people who live in modern homes, they like modern construction completely.

Fine.

We do too.

But I think that it's becoming more and more, common for people to want these unique features in their homes to really, appreciate them.

And I'm seeing it more and more with my own friends.

Some of the younger generation, they're looking for this character, not for something brand new.

Not for something that looks so sterile.

So I absolutely agree.

I think that it's really becoming, like I said, much more common for people to really look at these historic places and identify with them.

Are you a sentimental type, Steve, about old homes to to a certain extent, I'm sentimental about old homes.

Yeah, I'll say that I am, if I'm driving down the road or especially out in the rural areas, and I see one falling down, I'm way more sentimental about it than as if it's been restored.

But also I, I am able to look at a house and give up on it.

I think that saves your energy for those that deserve your work.

So to divide that line for me, the ones that are in that stage where you go, we have to move on versus the ones where you say this really deserves the effort.

Well, almost any house can be restored.

And and I advocate for that.

But sometimes they've been compromised to a degree where I might give up.

That might mean vinyl siding and vinyl windows and inappropriate additions and landscaping.

That's compromise the appearance from the street, things like that.

I might give up on that house.

Okay, not not that it can't be brought back, okay, because it can.

I think it's probably surprising to hear you say that almost any house can be restored.

Yeah, well, I've been a one to restoration in business, and I say that a lot.

Any anyone that can be restored.

So let's talk to Ellen and Bradley about their experiences.

Before the program began, Steve and Meghan were saying that Ellen is an award winner.

What's the story here?

Yes.

So I think probably before my time at landmark, because I can't remember which year, but landmark suffered during Covid.

So it was first year, my first year there.

So we, the Landmark Society, does our, our preservation awards every year.

And Ellen won the, it's called the blood, Sweat and Tears Awards.

And it goes mostly to homeowners who have really put in a lot of blood, sweat and tears into their homes to restore them.

And so they, they won that award.

So, Ellen, tell me about this 1870s home and, tell me the story of the home and what you've decided to do.

Well, I didn't start thinking I was going to get an old home.

I started just looking for a home, and I fell in love with this house because it was.

Had beautiful woodwork inside.

But I knew nothing about taking care of an old home.

And, well, I went down the rabbit hole and had to.

I started with Rehab Rochester, which is the precursor book, and after that I just started meeting tradespeople and learning that this was a lot different than taking care of the houses that I've taken care of before.

What was the biggest challenge?

Finding the knowledge and finding, tradespeople to help with me.

Did you think at any point this isn't worth it?

Every day.

That's not what I expected.

No, I mean, it's it's constant work.

I love it, but, you know, it's not a modern home, so you can't just flick on the central air because it hasn't been installed or you like.

Yesterday I spent the day putting, taking storm windows down and putting screens, wooden screens up in my house so I can have airflow yesterday.

Yesterday, a little late.

Yeah, I got hot.

How so?

Sometimes when you, Especially in Europe, there's a lot of really thick walled, big stone wall houses, and.

And you're often told the old saw as well in the winter, you know, keep the heat in better.

And in the summer it'll stay cooler.

And I wonder if old houses in this country in that category, I mean, is yours.

It does stay cooler longer.

It does.

I can say that, but we do have an upstairs, and that gets hot just like everybody else is upstairs.

How much of the of the house now is similar to what we would have seen in the late 1800s?

A lot of it, a lot of it, a lot of it.

There's been an addition on the back where they put servants quarters in the late 1890s, but, pretty much it's got the three original bathrooms.

It has the original woodwork, its original fireplace.

So it looks pretty much the same.

It's in the category of really good bones.

Yeah, yeah.

Is it true, Steve Jordan, that they don't build them like they used to?

Or do they build pretty good homes these days?

Well, they build them by code now and and because the code in the 1870, the code is a minimum standard.

Yeah.

When we reflect back on homes built, we'll just say the 19th century.

They, they vary in quality.

You know, some are built much better than others, and very few of them probably live up to our, our modern codes.

But what we like about them is generally not the deficiencies, deficiencies or attributes of the structure, but what we what we like or are.

They apply to esthetics, the trim, the siding, the windows, the interior, Wayne's coats and and all of that.

That's why we love them so much.

Okay.

Which may or may not be.

Appropriate for for modern, for modern construction.

Well.

And so you've seen Ellen's, beautiful home once or twice.

And what do you make of it now, how's it doing?

Well, I think that the, the most impressive thing about Ellen's house is that, it has this fantastic third story or attic tower that was added to that structure later, and it was beginning to be an rather poor condition.

And she hired what I would say considered the best old house carpenter in town to help her reconstruct the siding, which is a very difficult type of siding to, join at the corners.

And she has stripped herself and with the help or all the paint off of maybe three sides of the house, to the bare wood using an air paint, removal tool.

And, is priming and repainting, and it looks like a brand new house.

That's what's impressive.

Most impressive to me.

So how much of your own blood, sweat and tears have you put into this?

And how much have you relied on others?

I couldn't have done it without the help and knowledge of others, but I have put in eight of the last ten years outside on ladders and scaffolding.

Wow.

During the summer months, scraping paint, restoring the, wood, and painting it, were you always handy growing up?

No, I, I grew up at the time when girls weren't supposed to do this kind of stuff, so, But my grandfather was a carpenter, and I feel like I inherited that, and I just.

I love being out there in the summer working.

How much more pride do you take in your home, given how much work you've had to do yourself on?

Oh, yeah, definitely.

I feel that I'm every time I drive up my driveway, I feel like it's something I did and it really makes me feel good.

I think you're the example element.

You know, you look at a book like this again, we're talking about Steve's book, The Historic House Handbook A Sensitive Guide for old House living.

You look at this book and it might be easy to say, yeah, like I can hire somebody.

I can find Steve Jordan and his clones out there, and we will figure this out.

But, Alan, you didn't grow up doing this stuff, and you've spent years now learning from Steve, from his previous book, from the work and the advice and so what would you say to people who are maybe put themselves in the category of like the, I am not qualified to do stuff like that.

It's a matter of getting resources like these, this book and the previous, book and also making, contact with the tradespeople, asking your neighbors who they use, who they thought was good.

And one of the best things Steve said to me one time I met Steve at a preservation conference in Brighton that the Landmark Society put on, and he helped us, and I kept calling him.

And he finally just said to me, Come Friday afternoon to happy hour, all the trades guys are there, just come.

And I came and they've all become my friends and I.

It was a wealth of knowledge, but it was so much fun.

So it was it's it's a community.

It's more than just fixing your house.

It's the neighborhood.

It's all those front porches.

It's meeting everybody and being part of something bigger than you.

Because the house will be there when I'm not.

So where can people get this book, the historic House Handbook?

We have for sale right now on the Landmark Society's website.

So that's, Landmark Society, dawg, if you go under our, bookstore on there, you can find the book on there.

We have options for, picking up in person or having it shipped to you.

You can also stop by the castle all while we do recommend calling ahead, make sure we're there and have books available and ready for you.

And then the third option would be right on Amazon.

You can find the book.

I mean, I'm glad you're supporting Jeff Bezos and historic House parts.

Oh yes, that's Jeff Pub just as a print on demand.

Jeff did that.

So okay, so so he did it before he got married.

It's too busy now talking to Steve Jordan and a crew of guests about the Historic House Handbook, a sensitive guide for old House living listeners.

If you've got questions comments about how to do this, you know, or basic restoration, if you've got an older house and you've thought about different kinds of rehab for it, we'll take questions.

Comments at eight, 44295 talk.

It's 844295825526365.

Call from Rochester 2639994.

You can email the program connections at morgue.

We are trying to, show you as much as we can on our YouTube channel if you're watching on YouTube.

So we got the book here.

We've got some images of these houses.

And you can join the chat there if you like.

David and Ovid writes to us from the finger like saying, is 1950s considered old?

I plan to eventually buy one of the small 1950s ranch houses in Geneva for a retirement home.

In my research, I found there are so many things to look out for, from insulation and foundation shortcomings to plumbing and electrical issues.

Lead, asbestos, radon the potential problems seem endless.

Hopefully at least some of these issues have been addressed by now.

But where to start?

It does seem a bit discouraging.

That's David and Ovid.

Steve.

Well, we consider we use the 50 year rule.

And so one of the things we had to do for this book was to update our house styles and information about what's historic and what's not and, and what's historic that that's we we use government standards.

What's the 50 year rule?

The 50.

Well, to to be on the National Register for the most part, house needs to be 50 years.

Okay okay, okay.

And anyway, I would like to add, you know, right now that we wrote Rehab Rochester in 1995, in fact, that came on the Bob Smith Show to introduce it and he introduced me and that very minute President Clinton sent troops into Bosnia.

So that was the end of the interview.

So I'm so happy to be here.

Okay.

But people have repeatedly said to me, why don't you redo the book?

Why don't you redo the book?

And I finally, with Wayne's approval, sat down, read it, thinking about a new edition, and realized it was horribly out of date.

The house styles, materials, techniques.

And you wouldn't think so, would you?

But but it was out of dodge.

Yeah, a lot change.

And that's why we did a new one.

And so when David you know but is asking is 1950s old.

Yes.

We consider a start.

Yeah.

The answer is yes.

Right.

So in fact young people are clamoring after ranch style houses.

Why is that I don't know, I'm an old person.

What do they tell you?

I want a ranch.

What do they tell me?

Well, I think they're enamored with the open interior style.

And, I don't know what was.

Once tribute becomes popular.

It's people.

People like fashions.

I never like 50s, 60s architecture.

And now I'm loving it.

Wow.

Okay, well, what would you say to David when he's concerned about electrical issues?

Plumbing lead.

He says asbestos, radon, the potential issue seem endless.

Well, can he get ahead of these issues in some way?

Can he make.

Well, well, well, absolutely.

You just need to understand each each.

Well, I don't want David to be overwhelmed by the bulk of all of this over his head.

He should just attack this one issue at a time and realize that it's all doable.

Okay, his house may not even have lead.

You know, he needs to read about it and and follow up with testing.

A19 what do you say, 1960s, 50s, 50s house.

The lettering may be fine.

It may need to be updated a little bit, but shouldn't be too bad.

And I would expect it has copper plumbing, which you can't beat.

Copper plumbing.

So I don't know.

I think he's got a lot of positive issues there.

Instead of thinking about all the negative issues.

David, good luck to you.

Thank you for the email.

Michael writes to say a friend of mine bought a farmhouse that was built in 1873.

She told me she had no idea what she was getting into.

Well, I mean, that was Ellen, and Ellen is loving it, right?

18 around 1873.

That's right.

Yeah.

Mid 1870s.

I don't think we have an exact date, but, yeah, it's it's about being organized and, you know, tackling what you can at the time, you know, very similar to what Steve was saying, you know, just it's easier to get overwhelmed.

So just stay on track for what you're doing, and get an email asking, what's in this?

I'm so comfortable saying the words servant quarters.

What's in the servant quarters?

Now?

I'm the servant now, so it's my room.

Oh, it's your room.

It's.

It's the primary bedroom.

It's the primary bedroom.

Yeah.

See, it look a lot of reinvention.

Let's do this.

Let's take the only break of the hour.

Let's do that now.

We're going to come back, and we're going to talk to Bradley Huber and around to quite resonant and old House DIY, or about his experience and listeners, if you've got more questions, comments about restoring old homes, about questions about how to do that, or common issues that you may feel, might be insurmountable, they're not insurmountable because Steve Jordan is here and his book is called The Historic House Handbook, and it is available now.

And we're talking to Steve.

We're talking to Meghan.

Clem from the Landmark Society of Western New York, Ellen Ola Bradley Huber, joining us to talk about their experiences.

We'll come right back on connections.

I'm having Dawson Thursday on the next connections.

In our first hour, we're joined by Rochester Mayor Malik Evans, along with Mitch Gruber and Miguel Melendez.

Melendez, the president of Rochester City Council.

Gruber, the finance chair there, talking about the recent city budget.

Then we're going to talk to Steven Holley, member of the New York State Assembly, about the state budget, your chance to ask elected leaders questions Thursday.

Support for your public radio station comes from our members and from Mary Carey Ola center, proud supporter of connections with Evan Dawson, believing and informed and engaged community is a connected one.

Mary Carey ola.org.

This is connections.

I'm Evan Dawson, Steve Jordan wanted to mention there's one other place you can get this book that we haven't mentioned where Historic House pass on South Avenue, historic House parts on South Avenue and I somebody does written to say don't forget vermiculite.

Vermiculite is it was in insulation maybe.

Is it insulation?

Vermiculite was an insulation.

It was a loose fill insulation.

It looks like this odd looking stuff like rocks.

It's got mica in it, but it often has asbestos in it.

Okay.

So the issue would be related to asbestos.

Yeah.

Okay.

And, I have two emails about recognizing lead one.

Just as hard to know paint is lead and the other is do I can I paint over lead paint that issue with yours?

Ellen yes, I did, and, the easiest way is to go down to one of the big boxes and get the lead test.

They're little swabs, and you swab them on the paint, and if it changes color to the correct color, then you have lead.

It's if the lead, if the paint isn't chipping or anything, you can just paint right over it and you have no problem with it.

It's the chipping paint that's the problem, where you then would maybe ingest it and have it a lead issue.

So you want to make sure your paint is, intact.

Can I add to that?

Yeah.

Please do.

Windows, doors and cabinets where you have abrasive surfaces you can't just paint over you.

You've got to get the paint off the abrasive surface because that creates dust.

Okay.

Yeah.

Okay.

You're having a child.

You need to be I should I I'm trying.

I'm trying to do everything right.

Are you kidding?

I'm not.

And, you know, the house is probably.

I got to be in that category of old now.

Everything's old.

I'm old.

I'm almost historic.

I'm 46.

I'll be historic soon.

So is a.

Let me get back to some of your emails and phone calls here.

844295 talk.

If you want to email the program connections@sky.org.

And actually, we'll get back to those questions comments in just a moment here.

I want to bring in Bradley Huber, who's been waiting to join us here and around quite resident and old House Dyer.

And Bradley, why don't you describe a little bit of your own experience first, and then we'll kind of get more specific.

Take take us through it.

So I bought a 1930, bungalow in Aranda quite like 2011.

And then, read some more recently have bought an 1878, cottage down at the Silver Lake Institute outside of Perry, and did a lot of renovation work on that cottage.

Most recently, the cottage was falling down.

It was dilapidated.

It, was covered in asphalt siding, and most of the folks down here thought it was a tear teardown.

They might have been right, but I think that there was hope.

And can I comment on that, please?

I also want to give Brad and his partner a shout out, because they are nationally famous for their work on that silver Lake house through Stacy Grant's felder's True Tales from Old Houses podcast, which is the most popular old house podcast in the nation.

Okay, so there you go, Brett.

And, and that that is, in fact, the reason that I'm not in studio today is because we're actually getting ready for our wood window workshop that's coming up this week, and we've got, almost, 30 people coming from across the country to learn how to restore old windows.

And the, the demographics then, excuse pretty young, like late 20s and early 30s.

So there is, a lot of interest in, this restoration and, and information that's covered in Steve's book.

How much have you learned about this process, in the last few years here, Brad?

It's been, trial by fire.

Learn as you go.

Most of this work I did myself simply because I couldn't afford to hire, contractor.

And when I did hire a contractor, I was constantly sort of policing them to make sure that they were doing things the way that was the most appropriate way to do them hanging over their shoulders, leaving them long, detailed notes, ensuring that they weren't reckless and took that extra, duty of care, with the work that they were doing.

I got two emails from marks and, I mean, one of them is, the first mark was asking about whether contractors now are schooled in this, basically schooled in this kind of stuff.

So let me start with you, Brad.

And in general, how has your experience with contractors been?

I'm curious now what Steve is going to say about this.

Go ahead, Brad.

So generally, I only hired a contractor when it was wildly inappropriate for me to do something too dangerous or just plain illegal.

So, when I did bring in contractors, especially when I was trying to work with the low bidder and things like that, like, no, they definitely wanted to do things the way that they wanted to do things using common materials and kind of working to, you know, quickest, fastest way to do it.

And so I would constantly have to say, okay, I know that that will work, but that's not the way that I wanted it done.

They would often question me about why a lot of the time it came down to esthetics.

So having a guide like this is helpful for a person like me, because it reassures me that I am on the right track and can show something on paper to the contractor and say, okay, but you know, this is a more eloquent reason of why I want it done the way that I would like it to be done.

Now, if you're getting like a restoration contractor, you know, it's it's totally different.

But generally those guys are more expensive because of the quality of their craftsmanship.

Steve, what do you want to add there?

We sort of divide contractors.

Crudely into two directions.

One would be the Home Depot carpenter.

Nothing wrong with that.

But they buy preassembled parts and put them in the old house.

Carpenter is the other one that that we like the most, and that's the person who understands and can disassemble and reassemble old house parts in a way that you can't tell the difference.

They can repair a pocket door, or they can, repair the loose stairs appropriately.

They can rebuild or reconstruct a front porch so that you don't know it was ever touched.

And those those skills are often few and in between.

And there aren't that many people left that can do that work.

And that's why we try to promote the traditional trades.

I was just going to say Megan Clem, I mean, part of the Landmark Society's goals in recent years has been to increase that that quotient of people who can do this work.

Right?

Absolutely.

We, just last year did a window workshop with, Steve and Brendan flush our from the old window company.

We brought in some students, and they learned from start to finish how to repair, old windows, old wooden windows.

And we're looking to try another one of those in the next year.

We'd like to, to do that again.

And it's actually becoming a conversation with our preservation organizations across New York State, because it really is truly, a detriment to preservation, knowing that a lot of these crafts people are retiring, they're they're, you know, aging out of being able to do the work.

And we're trying to find that younger generation with that interest.

And it's part of why we have, at the Landmark Society, we have our, contractor referral list.

So people can, submit the form right on our website for whatever that scope of work is that they need help with.

And who do I reach out to?

And we do our best along.

While Steve is one of the people who helps us try to keep that updated, we do our best to try to match people with, even if it's a general contractor who may build new homes, but they may also have some skills with historic homes as well.

Well, listen, young workers are looking to I proof their careers.

I'd love to see I do what you do.

Steve Jordan.

Eat your heart out.

Robots?

Yeah, I'd like to see I do that.

You know, that's what your conversation was yesterday.

I know, and I. I will give a shout out to Grammarly, which is I.

And I couldn't live without it.

Oh, yeah.

Oh, boy.

You're more eye friendly than I am.

Hey, before we get back to Ellen and Bradley stories here, let me grab a little bit more feedback because it's starting to pile up.

Jerry in Rochester is on the phone.

Hello?

Jerry.

Hey, Evan.

And hey, Steve.

How you doing?

Hey, Jerry.

Just just like the old days.

Yeah, it is just the only.

It's the other way around, right?

Yeah.

I just wanted to throw in a couple of things.

One, for anyone who is interested in, buying an old house, I think that the headline should be do No harm.

So many of our TV shows and so forth, people walk in and they'll see, a mud set tile bathroom with, it might have pink and green tile or something like, oh, we got to get that or we got to get rid of that.

Well, if that's what you got to do, then maybe an old house isn't for you.

Do no harm.

And then certainly Nagin's comments about landmarks.

Contractor list.

That's one of the reasons, why I got involved with landmark is when I was inspecting homes.

I needed to know more about older homes, and that sort of got me hooked.

So good resource there.

And, you will find sensitive contractors who will, do no harm.

So that's my, two.

And a half cents.

Well, speaking of good resources, Jerry, you have been that for this community for a long time.

I appreciate the work you've done and the contributions on these airwaves.

It's great to hear you.

Thank you for calling in, Jerry.

Well, thank you, I appreciate it.

And, Steve, thank you for upgrading the book.

I already have a copy, and I think you're going to start by an autograph.

I am, and I want to add that Jerry and his late partner edited every sentence in this book for me, and how much I appreciate it and how valuable that was.

I had a lot of editors, but you were the top.

Well, thank you, Steve.

Okay, Jerry, I appreciate you.

Thank you for the phone call.

No, Jerry is one of the greats, but we need more.

We need more Jerry's and Steve's and the Landmark Society says you ought to.

You ought to get working on that.

Well, here's an email.

Let me just kind of clear out the email stack here.

Linda writes in to say, the wood window workshop this weekend.

Yeah.

Says, I would like to sign up for the wood window workshop that was just mentioned.

How do I sign up for that?

So that is being run through Brad.

So I'll let him talk about that.

Go ahead Brad.

So ours sold out.

It's sold out like in like eight weeks or something like that.

There's a massive amount of interest in this type of work.

In fact, only a handful of the people that we have for our workshop are local.

Most are coming from across the country.

But it sounds like landmark has one on the or on the horizon as well.

What we do.

Brad, I'd like to ask you, what's the ratio of men to women who have signed up?

That is a great question because it is almost entirely women.

Well, I do this across the country, and I'm finding that women are our best students, not nothing against you guys out there, but women are the best students that we're getting.

So I wanted to know that.

Thank you.

You know, so, so, Brad, what would you tell Linda or anybody else in the future who want to do more of this?

To try it out?

I mean, the thing that we found with most of the participants that are coming to the window workshop is that they they generally know what to do, but they sort of seem to lack the confidence to just go ahead and do it.

And they're just kind of looking for an expert like Stacy, who's our teacher, to guide them through that first wind window and build up their confidence, because there's a lot of resources online that kind of show you how to do this.

The materials are not expensive.

And as long as you're working, you know, that's safe.

You take the worst window in the house in the back corner and and start there.

And then as you get better, work your way to the front of the house.

Well, I mean, Ellen said earlier this hour, you grew up being told, what about girls doing this kind of work?

Another nothing.

There was no offer of girls doing this work just wasn't done.

No, but a lot's changed.

Yes.

So there you go.

Linda.

Thank you for that email.

More emails here.

Cory says Evan, great show today.

What is the recommendation for insulating a 1930 balloon framed colonial Steve Jordan, a 1930 balloon framed colonial insulation?

You mean insulation throughout the house or just the attic?

That's all I got in the universe.

What's the what's the recommendation for insulating in there?

No, that's that's a dangerous question because there's so much we don't know.

We don't we don't know if the if the, if the, if there are bedrooms in the upstairs that have ceilings that are slanted with the attic slope, I don't know what's already that.

That's that's a difficult question.

There's too many unknowns.

I'm not going to go I'm going to ask the email or Corey, write us back, get us more details and Steve will try to help you here.

Oh.

Let me just say this, in the book, I've made it clear that modern foam insulation materials are usually not appropriate for retrofitting into an old house.

And why, why?

Well, there's two ways to look at that.

If you are.

Well, first of all, we're beginning to see some mold and moisture problems with interior moisture that can't get out.

But there are other problems with foaming.

It and attic if if, for example, the roof leaks, that foam is more or less waterproof.

And so you may get moisture trapped between your roof sheathing, sheathing and the foam, and have extensive rot and insect problems going on literally for years.

And you're unaware of it.

Okay, so that's what I tell people when they're resolved to use foam.

Is are you the kind of person who goes to work in the morning, gets in the car and just drives to work, never looks at the house, foams, probably not for you.

Or are you the kind of person that every day backs out of the drive and looks at the house and thinks the roof looks good?

I wonder if my gutters are clean?

Oh, look at the chimney.

It may need some repointing.

I need to take care of that.

You may be able to live with foam.

Okay.

I don't know if that's clear to people, but it just depends on your old house ethics.

Okay, well, we'll see if Corey follows up here.

Down the list of email here.

Eric says I have a house from 1924 with lead paint on the outside.

Yeah, I want to have the house sided with cement fiberboard.

But how do I find a contractor who will take who will take off the old clapboard with lead paint safely?

I have two small kids I'm worried about.

I've seen Ted Robertson, Kirkwall Construction do this repeatedly over the years, and he's one of the few contractors I know always does it by the book.

The the way that's done.

Is it you?

You lay six mil plastic down on the ground and you remove the, the siding and you drop it into the six mil plastic.

Not too much at one time, only enough that you can roll up duct tape around it and pick it up and take it away.

That's how it's done it.

That's not a big deal.

Okay.

All right.

Let's see here, right down the list.

Jen from Highland Park.

Hi, everyone.

Coming from a city with where the oldest homes are usually from the 50s or 70s, I fell in love with old houses.

My favorite thing about them is how colorful they are.

My neighborhood is so vibrant and beautiful compared to all new housing developments.

What do you make of that?

Megan, I would have to agree with that.

I personally am not a big fan of new developments.

I feel like they're very cookie cutter.

Everything looks the same.

I often drive by and asked my husband if we lived there, how would we know which house was ours when we drive into the neighborhood?

That's not to say it's not for everyone.

If it's your thing, that's that's great.

But I really do love the old homes and and exactly what John is talking about with the vibrant colors.

You know, older homes often have a lot of, you know, woodwork and trim and things like that that we don't really get on our new builds now.

And you can have fun.

We always tell people, have fun with color.

Historic homes weren't necessarily boring.

They weren't all painted the same color.

Especially if you own a queen and don't paint it all the same color.

Have fun with it.

And you know, I do get a lot of questions from people who say, I want to repaint my house, who can come out and tell me what colors I should be painting it.

And there's a lot of paint companies that have, historic color palettes that you could use.

But also I would say that, you know, you have to love it, too.

It's your house.

You're going to live in it.

So you can't really go wrong.

And, you know, with older homes, you're able to to have that fun with the color wood trim and then the siding and portrayals and all of that kind of stuff.

Hey, man, it sounds like Jen lives in the neighborhood where it's clear where if you live in that neighborhood, you're never going to mistake your house for someone else.

Oh, there's a bright blue house over there that I walk.

I walk that neighborhood.

Well, here's the most important email we're going to get.

This comes from Pierce Jordan here.

I know that boy.

I know that says Ask Steve if I can put vinyl windows on my old house.

That's from Steve, son Pierce.

Jordan.

Thanks, Pierce.

I appreciate, is he just trolling you?

He's trolling me, but my my sort of blank box that I live in has vinyl windows that I hate because I've been in a window restoration business forever, and they're all going bad.

And, you know, so it's been a topic in my house for years.

What's wrong with vinyl?

Vinyl is fine.

All right?

Now, what's wrong with it?

They're inappropriate in an old house.

They don't look right.

They don't hold up the windows.

You have probably lasted 100, maybe even 200 years.

And they can last that.

They can last that much longer if maintained and restored and well cared for.

Okay, vinyl just is a product that is, dangerously produced and hazard to the people that live around the factories.

And then it goes into the dump.

So it's we have a waste problem.

Pierce knows how to get under your seat.

Oh.

He does.

Yeah.

He'd been problem, do I, Stephen?

I get along so well because windows is my soapbox and preservation.

I do have another windows question.

I just, I'm going to edit a little bit down here, an email basically saying windows are expensive whether you're putting in new or restoring.

So what's a well what's a cost effective way to think about windows?

Are windows always just going to be a big ticket, expensive item safe?

Well, you get what you if you're buying new windows, you get what you pay for.

And whether you're buying windows from the, the big three, you know, Anderson, Marvin or Pella, you sort of get what you pay for.

And, a good window is expensive compared to an inexpensive vinyl.

Vinyl window.

But I'd also like to throw out there that, there are people all over the United States and here locally who rebuild reproduction windows out of wood that won't rot.

And using weatherstripping materials, it won't wear out and can use any type of glass that you won't even, even, insulated double double pane glass, if that's what you want.

All right.

This is the second mark.

Emily says.

Evan, we recently bought a house built in the 1940s.

It has been updated to a point.

We thought a quick solution to spruce up the rooms would be a new heating AC wall vent cover, but it seems all the vent covers are different and odd sizes.

Do your guests have suggestions where to find odd size vent covers?

That's a very specific question.

I don't know that, I can't answer that.

I don't know.

We could certainly look into it.

Yeah.

If that were your house, where would you start looking?

Steve?

I would go online, or I might, reach out to salvage architectural salvage houses to see what they know.

There are vent covers that are being reproduced.

I mean, I've seen this on this old house, okay.

Just recently.

And so I know that it's possible, but I just can't name a place I, I don't know, Mark number two.

Good luck to you.

That's a tough one.

Corey writes back because so Corey had said, what is the recommendation for insulating a 1930 balloon framed colonial?

And he follows up to say the house is two stories with bedrooms on the second floor.

There is also an attic that has been converted to additional living space.

No insulation in the walls with the exception of exterior foam board under vinyl siding.

Yeah, that doesn't offer a whole lot of insulation.

If if you were determined to insulate the walls, I would use densely packed cellulose.

The the problem with this is that he has vinyl siding on the house now, and they'll have to pull it off to cut a hole in the walls to blow it in.

And, you know, if you're if you just bought a house and you hadn't moved in, you can blow them in from the inside and repair the plaster very easily.

Okay.

But from the outside, it's, it's it's it's tough.

And if the siding weren't there, a lot of times the installers will bore holes in your siding, which is inappropriate.

You should pull the siding down piece at a time, then bore the hole and push the siding back up, which makes it much more expensive in.

The contractors don't want to do that, okay, but what I think my world, if they were listening to this would say is it would be to hyper insulate the attic and maybe not worry about the walls.

Make sure that you have good storm windows that your prime sashes or weather strip.

The doors are sealed well, that that you don't have, warm air leaking into your attic and that you've got good attic ventilation.

I mean, there's a whole lot of ways to talk about this.

There's books written about it, so there's a lot more here than I can go into.

I Taunton Press fine Home Building has a wonderful book on insulating old houses.

Cory.

Good luck.

That's a tough one to, And I want to get back to Bradley and Lynn before the program closes.

And you heard Brad Huber say earlier this hour that your cottage down in Perry Silverlake.

Yet neighbors who thought maybe it's a tear down and a big theme that we've had.

I think Jerry made a really, really good point.

The do no harm idea, the if you're going to buy an old house, a historic property, maybe bring the mindset of do no harm first, invest in in caring about what it means to try to preserve it as best you can.

So for you, Brad, why wasn't it a tear down if everybody around you thought that's probably a tear down, why was your mind in a different place?

Well, it was only $49,000.

That help.

Oh, yes.

You know, I was looking for a summer cottage and quickly, you know, looked around the area, quickly was understood that I could not afford to touch anything on the Finger Lakes.

Wanted to be in a historic community like the institute is.

And this fit my my budget.

And so there was opportunity there for me to be able to do something with this, to tear it down and restart over again would have been, I think, a negative impact on the community overall and would have put this outside the scope of what I could afford.

Another incentive to not tear down the house is that and Steve talks about this, I think, in the last chapter of his book about, National Register Historic Districts and so a large incentive to keep this house was to buy inside of a National Register different district because it offers, tax credits and incentives for the rehabilitation of the house, which then, cut my, the amount of money that I had to leave invested into the rehabilitation of the house in half.

And so in order to qualify for those credits, you have to follow nearly all of the recommendations that Steve is making in the historic House handbook.

And therefore, something like this is an incredible resource to someone like me.

Brad didn't just buy a cottage.

He bought a community down there.

Okay, that that's kind of important.

It's a great community, Silver Lake.

Oh, well, Silver Lake is a great community.

But what you're you're saying that the the neighbors are interested, supportive, connected.

Sure they are.

And they're all they're all eager to see people, restore their cottages and bring them back to the way they used to look.

Okay, absolutely.

I should add in that Brad as actually kind of leading the way down there with the group.

We're currently expanding their historic district there, and it's, you know, a lot of it is because, well, it should have been included.

But also, he wants them to be able to use those tax credits like he did.

And Brad did get an award for this project from the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation last year.

So, the state has recognized the great work he did on this cottage.

Brad, I'm sure your neighbors appreciate your, your your dedication.

Yeah, they're very they were very surprised.

They I think a lot of them thought that when they went on the market that it was going to be torn down, and, I don't know, maybe boat storage or maybe a new cottage.

So I tried to use the cottage as a way to show other people that it can be done.

And, and that there is opportunity even for things that seem, I mean, I'll, I'll be honest, this place was really on the cusp.

Well, that I mean, that's a great story.

And I love the fact that there's so much appreciation that Brad has from the community down there.

Alan, maybe that's a good place to end.

Do you have friends, family, neighbors, perhaps people who drive by who see what you've done and maybe have questions about how that applies to them, and or interest to themselves?

Yeah.

There's been a lot of interest in from, you know, the neighbors to also, people just walking in the Park Avenue area because I would be on ladders or on my scaffolding, and you would get a lot of appreciation from people, and it really makes you want to be more it motivates you to continue to be out there in the heat and with the bugs and, covering things in the rain and just pushing through when you're too exhausted.

But you're like, hey, this this looks great when I keep moving forward.

Congratulations to you and to Bradley Huber.

And I want to mention before the hour's up here, this is the book where to get it.

The book is called The Historic House Handbook A Sensitive Guide for old House living.

Steve Jordan is the author.

Where do you want people to find this book, Steve?

You'll find it through the Landmarks Society, through Historic House parts, and from Amazon.

Okay, that covers it.

Megan and I thought, what do you want to leave with listeners as we wrap up today?

I think we just want people who own old homes to not be afraid of them.

Know that there are resources out there, this book, there are, contractors out there who can help.

And we at the Landmark Society are also here to help connect you with those resources.

So don't be afraid of your old home.

The book is available now.

And think about what Ellen said, how much pride just takes.

Just looking at the outstanding work that you've done that you probably never thought decades ago that this is going to be you in your life?

Well, it is Ellen Ola, congratulations to you.

Thanks for sharing your story with us, Bradley Huber.

Good luck to you.

Thanks for sharing your story with us.

Thank you.

Megan Clem from the Landmark Society of Western New York, thanks for being here.

Thanks for having us.

And what a great book to have for summer for for whatever.

This is a beach read.

Steve Jordan, you're like the classic beach read, right?

Yeah, it's a beach free.

That's what it is, what it is.

Steve's the author of the historic House Handbook.

Thank you for being here.

Appreciate it.

Great being here.

Thanks.

And from all of us at connections.

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