Category: House & Home

View the complete This New Old House series

  • This New Old House — Part 17: Exterior, Siding, Roofing & Trim

    In which we make some good choices, watch other people undo them, and develop strong opinions about PVC By the time we got to the exterior, the siding decision came down to two options in the Connor package: cedar or HardiePlank. Jennifer would have preferred the cedar — she always gravitates toward natural wood —…

  • This New Old House, Part 16: Chim Chimney, Chim Chimney, Chim Chim Cherooh-Noo

    Some mistakes cost money. Some cost time. The chimney cost both, repeatedly, for years. If you’ve been following along, you know that this build had its share of “we didn’t know what we didn’t know” moments. The windows. The spray foam learning curve. The drywall saga. But the chimney — the chimney was different. Those…

  • This New Old House Part 15: Flooring – Wide Plank Heart Pine Dreams vs. Reality

    After painting came flooring. And I had a very specific vision: wide plank flooring with exposed face nails, just like colonial homes from the 1700s. Old growth wood with character. Reclaimed if possible. The authentic historical look. The Connor Homes kit included flooring as an option. It was beautiful — I think it was reclaimed…

  • This New Old House Part 14: Painting – Or: Why I Hope I Never Have to Use a Paint Sprayer Again

    After drywall came painting. And by “painting,” I mean painting literally everything in the entire house. Every wall. Every ceiling. Every piece of trim. Every window interior. Every door. All 27-28 of them. Both sides. Jennifer and I decided to do all the painting ourselves to save money. This seemed like a reasonable decision at…

  • (Eventual) Well Tank Replacement: How I May Have Ignored an Obvious Problem for Years

    January 9, 2026 The Signs I Missed Looking back, I think the well tank bladder had been broken since at least summer 2024. It might have been failing for a year or two before that. What I was noticing: the water pressure would drop a little, then go back up when the pump kicked in.…

  • This New Old House Part 13: Drywall – The Most Boring Post (But There Are Lessons)

    After spray foam insulation, plumbing disasters, HVAC complications, and window decisions I’d come to regret for the next fifteen years, we finally got to something relatively straightforward: drywall. Spoiler alert: this was one of the easier parts of the build. Which means it’s also one of the less interesting blog posts. But there are still…

  • This New Old House Part 12: Insulation and Air Sealing – When Tight Isn’t Right (Or Is It?)

    When we decided to build our Connor Homes kit house, we had visions of a super-efficient, modern home wrapped in the latest insulation technology. We’d read all about spray foam insulation, tight building envelopes, and energy efficiency. We were going to do this right. Spoiler alert: We sort of did. Maybe. I’m still not entirely…

  • This New Old House Part 11: Windows – The Decision Where More Mistakes Were Made.

    If you spend a fortune making your house air-tight with spray foam insulation, and then punch 27-29 holes in it and fill them with cheap windows, you’ve basically defeated the entire purpose of the exercise. This is the story of how we did exactly that. The Window Budget Reality By the time we got to…

  • This New Old House Part 10: HVAC – The Radiant Floor Mistake?

    Or: How Warm Floors Can’t Save You From Bad HVAC Decisions Winter 2009-2010 After the plumbing nightmares, it was time for HVAC. We installed radiant floor heating throughout the house—hot water running through tubes in the floors, heated by our Triangle Tube boiler. It’s actually very nice to have warm floors in the winter. Walking…

  • This New Old House Part 9: Plumbing – PEX, Paying Twice, and Poisoned Septic Tanks

    Or: How I Paid Two People to Do One Job and Discovered Water Lines Don’t Make Sense Winter 2009-2010 After electrical was complete, it was time for plumbing and HVAC. My friend, who had been coordinating most of the work, had apprenticed to learn plumbing and HVAC. But because of all the equations for sizing…

  • This New Old House Part 8: Electrical – The One Thing We Got Mostly Right

    Or: How an Electrical Engineer Wired Our House (and What We Still Got Wrong) Winter 2009-2010 After framing was complete, it was time for electrical. This is where having a friend with an electrical engineering degree really paid off. Actually, let me rephrase: this is where we got more things right than wrong, which for…

  • This New Old House Part 7: Framing a Kit House (and the Ruts We Left Behind)

    Or: How Pre-Fabricated Walls Met Our Clay Field Fall – Winter 2009 With foundation complete and the Connor Homes kit ready to ship, it was time for framing. This is where our decision to act as our own general contractor would really be tested. We had a choice: our realtor’s brother was a professional builder…

  • This New Old House Part 6: Foundation, Basement, and Future Regrets

    Or: How “We’ll Finish It Later” Became Our Most Persistent Lie Fall 2009 With septic and well in place, it was time to dig a hole and pour concrete. The foundation is literally the base of everything, so naturally this was where we’d make some decisions that would haunt us for years. Jennifer had specific…

  • This New Old House Part 5: Water Wars – The Filter Saga

    Or: How I Became an Accidental Expert in Water Treatment Through Sheer Desperation 2010-2026 So we had a well. It produced water. The lab said the water was safe. We were good to go, right? Reader, we were not good to go. The lab test for your certificate of occupancy checks for bacteria and major…

  • This New Old House Part 4: Septic Systems and Well Disasters

    Or: How We Learned That Clay Soil Is God’s Way of Saying “This Will Be Expensive” Beginning Summer 2009 With our land purchased and our house design finalized, it was time to deal with the unglamorous but absolutely critical underground infrastructure. When you’re building off the municipal grid, you need two things before you can…

  • Pella Architect Series Windows: The Review I Should Have Posted 14 Years Ago

    Why I Will Never Buy Pella Windows Again Product: Pella Architect Series Double-Hung Windows Specification: Double pane, E-glass coating, wood interior, primed Installation: 2009-2010 Review Date: January 2026 (15+ years of use) Rating: ★☆☆☆☆ (1/5 stars – and that’s generous) Note: I should have written this review 14 years ago. Maybe I could have saved…

  • 450′ Gravel Driveway: A 15-Year Journey of Expensive Mistakes

    Plus an Ariens Sno-Thro 926053 Hydro Pro 28 Review The last few days of snow and clearing the driveway stirred up this memory… We built our new old house back in 2009 and, in what seemed like a great idea at the time, set it at the back edge of a small hay field. This…

  • This New Old House Part 3: Land, Surveys, and Driveway Drama

    Or: How “Temporary” Became Permanent and 14 Acres Got Divided Three Ways Spring-Summer 2008 With our house design settled, we needed the actual, you know, land to put it on. The Land Hunt Finding land was actually easier than finding an existing house, probably because land doesn’t have a leaky roof that sellers are trying…

  • This New Old House Part 2: Kit House Dreams – Discovering Connor Homes

    Or: How We Learned That “Kit” Just Means All Your Problems Arrive at Once in a Truck Spring 2008 After deciding to build, I went down the research rabbit hole. This was 2008, so the internet existed but wasn’t quite the resource it is today. There was no YouTube showing you every possible mistake you…

  • This New Old House Part 1: The Impossible House Hunt

    Or: How We Learned That “Fully Renovated” Means “We Painted Over the Problems” Late 2007 – Early 2008 My wife Jennifer and I had been living in NYC apartments for years—the kind where you develop an intimate relationship with your neighbors’ arguments and learn to sleep through sirens like they’re lullabies. We were ready for…

  • The Gable Epidemic: A Plea to Modern Home Designers

    What is going on with all the gables being added to homes over the last 10 years? Seriously, are there tax breaks for the more gables you have that I don’t know about? Or have architects and builders just gotten too lazy to figure out a coherent design plan? The logic seems to be: Design…

  • Tub Resurfacing: Many Mistakes Were Made.

    Mistakes were made. Back in 2009, when we were building our house, we decided we were going to do The Right Thing™: reclaimed bathroom fixtures for two of our three bathrooms. Reuse. Character. History. Surely the planet would send us a handwritten thank-you note. Except for the toilets. Those had to be modern low-flush versions, because…

  • The “Finished” Drain Board: A Concrete Countertop Reality Check

    Let me start with the truth: I finally “finished” my concrete countertop drain board refurbish, and it’s blotchy as hell. But here’s the thing—the shape is perfect. It looks exactly like a drain board should look. It’s just that after all the layers, all the different materials, and all my well-intentioned repair attempts, it’s ended…

  • The Great Concrete Drain Board Debacle: A DIY Odyssey

    When a simple countertop repair turns into a three-week saga involving four molds, toe-damaging weights, and enough failed attempts to question your life choices. The Origin Story: DIY Concrete Counters Circa 2010 Back in 2010, when YouTube had DIY videos but nothing like today’s endless stream of concrete countertop influencers, my wife and I decided…

  • The Great Washer Swap: Electrolux vs. Our Old LG

    The Hunt for a Second-Floor-Friendly Washer Look, I’ll be honest—I had Electrolux earmarked as our next washer practically since we bought our LG back in 2010. Why? Because our LG, while generally reliable, shook our entire house like we were experiencing a minor earthquake whenever it hit the spin cycle. When you’ve got laundry on…

  • The Dryer Saga: My Electrolux Gas Dryer vs. Physics, Common Sense, and My Old LG

    When You’re Forced Into A Matching Set Let’s talk about being backed into an appliance corner. With limited laundry room space, we needed to stack our washer and dryer. And because stacking kits apparently cannot be universal (heaven forbid!), we were forced to get an Electrolux dryer to match our new washer. Enter the Electrolux…

  • Café GE Refrigerator: The Good, The Bad, and The “Did Anyone Actually Test This Thing?”

    When Your Kitchen Aid Gives Up the Ghost There comes a time in every appliance’s life when it decides it’s had enough of keeping your food cold and calls it quits. Such was the fate of our Kitchen Aid refrigerator, which prompted our foray into the brave new world of refrigerator shopping. Having survived the…