Wednesday, January 22, 2014

If You Love Old House Rehab

 Things I keep meaning to tell you.....

I cut my teeth (and deepened my old house love and knowledge base) on the original episodes of This Old House. The years of the show when the old house owner was on a real/honest/not insane budget and did lots and LOTS of the work alongside the expert advice of Norm and Tom and the gang.  New England. Old but wonderful houses. People with (few) dollar(s) ~ just a hammer and a dream. A-maz-ing what I learned.

HGTV (still a wonderful and favorite channel) evolved. House flipping and massive alterations to old homes predominated the renovation shows. Even TOH evolved - still interesting and full of information but not as "grassroots".  Much less 'hey, this is my life!'  TOH and I didn't break up but we took time apart from each other, lol.  I am massively committed to accurate historic reno so I grew less addicted to renovation shows. To each his/her own but it saddened me to see so many old homes 'modernized'. 'Updated' to the point of no longer looking or feeling or preserving any 'age'. I skipped past many of them each week.

That all changed when I watched my first episode of  Rehab Addict with Nicole Curtis. All the reality of TOH with a woman calling the shots, rolling up her sleeves and dedicated to saving and renewing original detail whenever at all possible. (She even keeps a pile of original scraps and bits from each house on site for her contractors/herself to search first to use original wood, moldings AND to save money). She runs machinery, throws mortar, paints, rallies neighbors, saves original windows (by re-glazing) moves concrete - uber hands on without doubt and she loves each house. This is my kind of rehab!

So if you are/will/dream of (or have the periodic nightmare about, lol) renovating an old house to original charm or if you want to see some actually affordable tips to old house reno you would probably enjoy tuning in....

photo found at diy online
 Rehab Addict on diy (not a channel I have, so no details - sorry)

Rehab Addict on HGTV Ch 229 on Thursdays at 9pm 
And this Thurs 1/23/14 they are running old episodes at 7pm & 8 pm
before the new weekly episode at 9pm.
photo found at pintrest C.Steiner
One last thing I love about the show?
The show/houses/Curtis are located in MI - SNOW! COLD!
FROST HEAVE! FROZEN PIPES!
You need heat to PAINT!
(But it's 90 in the summer! lol)
Oh yeah, my rehab life roflmao....

PS no, I don't get a dime or a nod or a holler for this post
just honestly enjoy and knowing many of you have/love/hate/are interested
in old homes and rehab thought you may want to check out  :-)


2 comments:

Michelle said...

This Old House is one of my all time favorite shows. I will have to check out this show on HGTV!

Hans Georg Lundahl said...

This Old House - isn't that after a song?

It was translated into Swedish, and it is one of two Swedish hits about (and against) pulling down houses.

They inspired me to this piece in Latin.