WOW! It has been a while since our last update, hasn't it? Well, not much has changed since last September, right? WRONG!!!! Quick recap:  We finished our crawlspace work and installed our radiant floor heat We went to Wales, the Cotswolds, Cornwall, and London. The Nationals won the World Series We started a basement laundry room renovation (still not finished) We also started the renovation of our Foursquare's upstairs hallway  (still not finished) I got really sick with an unknown ailment that left me feeling terrible beginning in early November through January I've had severa ..read more

It's been so long... (how long has it been?) So long that I almost don't know where to start!  Just because we haven't posted here in a while sure doesn't mean we haven't been working hard on house projects, I can assure you! Between our row house's basement project, the hallway in our Foursquare, teaching our new dog, Truman, the ropes, a server crash that impacted the blog, life in general, and many outdoor projects, we've sure had our hands full. Rather than trying to bombard you with a million and one little details from all of the projects, let's focus on just one for today.  It's THE CRA ..read more

Well, I think it’s about time we make it “blog official,” we’ve added a new family member to our DIY crew! Ever since we lost our beloved Scottish Fold, Mel, on Thanksgiving morning 2017, our house has felt a little off. For weighing in at around 7 pounds, Mel was an anchor in our home. He was a part of our family since 2001, was Lulu’s best friend, and was a constant companion to each of us. We feel like we’ll never be able to find another cat that lives up to what we loved about him, but we’ve been considering adopting a second dog for a while now. The only problem with that idea is the ..read more

Have you ever searched for years for just the right piece of furniture, only to find it in an unlikely place? Well, we have. We spent the last five years or so looking for the perfect sideboard for our dining room, but we had a case of sentimentality combined with utility that kept getting in our way. As a result, the hulking buffet/sideboard from the photo below remained in our dining room, in spite of its scale. Shortly after we bought our row house in 2003, we discovered the amazing antique and salvage row of Cleveland's Lorain Ave. Nestled just a stone's throw from downtown Cleveland yo ..read more

What better day than April Fools to post a long overdue update on our basement progress? Yes folks, this blog post isn't a joke, so don't worry, you're not going to be had in the last line or two. However, this post is a bit out of character, as it largely involves how closely we worked with a great contractor to accomplish what we wanted to accomplish.  If you'll recall, back in November we told y'all about working on a major basement overhaul in our Old Town row house. It was about the time of our last blog post that we somehow reverted to the ways of our 20 year old selves and went full bor ..read more

The end of April 2018 marked the 7th birthday of Old Town Home and is a milestone of sorts in our time as bloggers. Seven years! I think Internet years are like double dog years. Since we're talking dog years, it is very appropriate that our blog is seven (or one in dog years), and the topic of today's blog post just happens to involve one particular dog of ours. Our favorite female canine, Lulu, has been a member of our family for just a little longer than we've been blogging. She'll be celebrating her ninth birthday in a few months, and we've had her as a member of our family for just about ..read more

We're making huge progress on our dining room, especially in our plaster restoration efforts! A little while ago we gave you all an update on the plaster restoration progress on our Foursquare's dining room walls. We'd successfully patched missing sections, rolled on the Plaster Weld bonding agent, and applied the base coat of Structo-Lite plaster with embedded fiberglass screen. In short, we had a solid foundation on which to launch our Master of Plaster restoration process. We last used Master of Plaster's restoration plaster in our living room renovation project a few years ago, and we love ..read more

What happens when cutting edge technology is at odds with spousal aesthetic approval? Well...you need to get creative! The more ubiquitous modern home technology becomes, we're seeing two very distinct styles and integration approaches from the manufacturers.  On one hand, as components shrink and become more low profile, some companies are attempting to make their products essentially disappear, designing them to seamlessly blend with their surroundings. Digital assistant microphones/speakers like the Echo Dot and Google Home Mini jump to mind. On the other hand, much has been the tendency fo ..read more

Our basement may be a complete disaster, but dammit, we want it to be a well lit disaster!! Ever since we bought our house in 2003, we've been fighting a bit of a losing battle in our basement. This narrow but long space plays quintuple duty on a daily basis. Storage, laundry, utility room, server closet, and shop. Oh how we long for the early days of a nearly empty basement area. Though it may have been virtually empty when we bought our home, we quickly took care of that quality of the space and built some shelving for storage and a little work bench from plywood and 2x4s.   In the year ..read more

Back in November we shared or progress on our Window Restoration project, and then we got distracted by other projects. This is the way of our home blogging and DIYing since the beginning. We start projects and then other projects take priority, so we stop projects. And sometimes we stop them for a long time. A really long time. And it makes Wendy angry with me. She doesn't understand why I stop them for so long, even though she does understand, but it doesn't mean she has to like it.  Our entire lives as DIYers has been a series of overlapping projects and priorities. Some projects are really ..read more