Refitting an Old Home; The Realities
Working and restoring old homes and adding to their glory is one of our favorite kinds of projects. There is a lot that goes into the process and we wanted to share these realities with you. It's important to save and cherish these incredible works, but a lot of time and patience comes along with the process.
Restoring an old or historic home can be a daunting task. It will take time, patience, and understanding. Special care needs to be taken along with extra time to deal with older, and possibly damaged or ruined materials. It can be a process full of surprises, twists and turns, and issues that you might not have expected. This is a labor of love and an important one. Before you finally buy that home you've had your eye on for years, please consider these tips and realities.
If you are wanting to keep original parts of an old home that are period to its original construction, these items might prevent you from having some of the comforts of a modern home. Keeping it warm or cool could be hard, even floors or perfectly sealed windows might not be an option, and other issues could keep you from giving your historic home the modern spin you might prefer. If you love the antique aspect but wish to have more modern comforts, let them inspire reproductions and use the original pieces in other unique ways within the home. If you are sticking to the historical aspects, you must be okay with living in a new way or prepare to get used to it. You will need to make adjustments to your lifestyle to live comfortably.
With age, water damage and bugs can become a serious issue. Pay very close attention to any signs of damage caused by either, and get them addressed right away. This needs to be one of the first things you need to deal with before any other additions or construction happens. This kind of damage can affect the home's foundation, structure, floor, walls, and ceilings. This kind of damage can be a serious danger to you, anyone walking in and around the home, and those you've hired to work on it. If you don't know how to handle these issues, make sure you take to someone who does and mention them to your contractor and architect. This major first step can also help you understand the amount of work that will need to be done and what is ahead of you.
Create a team or work with the correct team who knows how to handle this kind of restoration, construction, and care. If you're working with a historical home, you will need to work with a local historian or contractor who understands the home, it's architecture, it's building materials, and it's history. This team needs to understand the home from top to bottom. This team can help guide you through what needs to be fixed, worked on, restored, thrown out, preserved, and what you can and cannot add to the home. You also need to be very clear to the whole team about exactly what your end goal with the home is, and what you want it to look like. You need to be clear with them how you want to live in it, what your day to day life is like, and what the building will be used for.
Understand that these projects are financially challenging and demanding. Buy a home on the scale of what you can afford and start small. Don't buy or take on a project that is too big finically or too much to handle. Always have a little wiggle room in your budget because as mentioned above, historical and older homes can be full of surprises. Understand that you are looking to raise the property value, preserve the history, and get out of it what you've put into it.
Modern heating, cooling, and plumbing additions to your home don't mean you'll have to tear down or cut into the bones of the home. There are so many new ways to add these modern conveniences, that if the home allows, you won't be hurting it.
Appreciate the quirks of the space and embrace them. Use its uniqueness to get creative when adding rooms or bathrooms. Re-purpose the spaces and what you find inside the home in new and unique ways. Use what's there waiting before start ripping it apart and throwing it away.
As we said, this kind of project is an incredibly interesting and wonderful experience. It's one that we love offering to our clients here in the Lowcountry. We always want them to know and understand what comes with this process and to avoid as many surprises as we possibly can.