Category: House & Home
View the complete This New Old House series
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The Solar Story Is More Complicated Than the Brochure
There was a window — and I think most people missed it. A few years back, the federal government and New York State were practically paying you to put solar panels on your roof. Between the federal tax credit and the NYSERDA grant, we were looking at roughly $10,000 coming off the top of a…
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This New Old House Part 22: Porch Upgrade (That Happened to Coincide with Lockdown)
Our kit house came with about a dozen front-entry options. Most of them weren’t really porches at all — they were flush to the house, or very slightly recessed with some nice trim work. A couple had actual covered entryways, but those weren’t the style we chose. So we ended up with a flush entry…
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This New Old House, Part 21: Post and Beam Kit Barn
From the moment we started planning the house, we knew there would eventually be a barn. Eventually being the operative word — we were already stretching to build the house, so the barn was going on the someday list alongside retirement and peace of mind. What we knew for certain: no attached garage. I know…
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This New Old House, Part 20: Interior Doors, Trim, and Hardware
I wasn’t sure this post was needed. I thought we’d covered interior doors and trim somewhere — maybe with the windows, maybe with painting. Turns out we hadn’t. So here we are. This will be short. That’s what I always say. The doors For interior doors, we went with five-panel solid wood from Solidhardwooddoors.com, which…
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This New Old House, Part 19: Bathrooms
When we designed the bathrooms, we made one decision upfront that was purely forward-looking and, honestly, pretty smart: the first-floor powder room got a shower. The room next to it — which we were using as a playroom, game room, whatever it is on any given Tuesday — could eventually become a bedroom. Aging parents,…
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The Navien NCB-240/110 Propane Combi Boiler — One Year In
Our Triangle Tube Prestige SOLO 110 finally gave up the ghost. Actually, “finally” is generous — it went out on its own schedule, which was, of course, the worst possible time. The short version: indirect water heater tank with an anode rod that needed replacing, ongoing iron and sediment issues, and the slow creeping realization…
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This New Old House — Part 18: The Kitchen
Layout and Flooring The kitchen is where you spend most of your waking life in a house. Jennifer did the layout and it works — the flow is right, the dining area sits just off the kitchen where you can see into it without being in it, and the whole thing makes sense in a…
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This New Old House — Part 17: Exterior, Siding, Roofing & Trim
Siding 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 — but once we actually looked at what HardiePlank offered, it wasn’t a real contest. HardiePlank is fiber…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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How I ignored a broken well tank for two years
January 9, 2026 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. I thought the pressure…
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The heat pump job I gave the wrong company
March-April 2025 If you read my previous post about the emergency boiler replacement, you know that Company PPH didn’t exactly shine during that crisis, while Company NCS stepped up and saved Thanksgiving. You also know that I felt guilty about the miscommunication and decided to give PPH the heat pump job to make it right.…
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When the boiler died the Sunday before Thanksgiving
November 2024 Our Triangle Tube Prestige Solo 110 boiler had been breaking down occasionally, and each service call was costing a minimum of $1,200. I got so frustrated with service companies that I learned to fix minor issues myself. But every technician told me the same thing: boilers have a lifespan of about 15 years,…
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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. It went fine. Which, in this build, was its own kind of miracle. Hiring a Subcontractor My friend who was acting as our general contractor took one…
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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, tight building envelopes, and energy efficiency. We were going to do this right. We sort of did. Maybe. I’m still not entirely sure. The Plan:…
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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…
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This New Old House Part 10: HVAC – The Radiant Floor Mistake?
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 barefoot on toasty floors is lovely. It’s also the…
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This New Old House Part 9: Plumbing – PEX, Paying Twice, and Poisoned Septic Tanks
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 units and the complexity of the systems, he suggested we hire the professional he’d worked with. Since…
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This New Old House Part 8: Electrical – The One Thing We Got Mostly Right
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 build was a massive victory. The Friend Who Actually Knew What He Was…
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This New Old House Part 7: Framing a Kit House (and the Ruts We Left Behind)
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 who could have managed the entire project. He…
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This New Old House Part 6: Foundation, Basement, and Future Regrets
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 requirements: minimal foundation showing above grade for aesthetics. The house should…
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This New Old House Part 5: Water Wars – The Filter Saga
2010-2026 So we had a well. It produced water. The lab said the water was safe. We were good to go, right? We were not good to go. The lab test for your certificate of occupancy checks for bacteria and major contaminants. What it doesn’t test for is whether you’ll be living with hard water…
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This New Old House Part 4: Septic Systems and Well Disasters
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 even think about a foundation: somewhere for water to come from (a well) and somewhere for…
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I Hate Our Pella Architect Series Windows. They Look Good and that’s where It Stops.
I have to admit something before any of the rest of this will land. Our Pella Architect Series windows look beautiful. The proportions are right. The wood interiors took paint cleanly. The aluminum-clad exteriors have held up for sixteen winters. From across the room, from the road, in any photograph, they are the windows I…
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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…
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This New Old House Part 3: Land, Surveys, and Driveway Drama
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 to hide with strategic bucket placement. We found a property that checked…
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This New Old House Part 2: Kit House Dreams – Discovering Connor Homes
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 could make. There were forums, sure, but they were mostly people arguing about whether PT lumber would…
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This New Old House Part 1: The Impossible House Hunt
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 opposite: space, quiet, land, maybe even a garage or barn. Jennifer is…
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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…
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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…
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Concrete Drain Board Repair Part Two: It’s Done. It’s Blotchy. Here’s What I Learned
I finally finished my concrete drain board refurbish. It’s blotchy as hell. The shape is perfect. It looks exactly like a drain board should look. But after all the layers, all the different materials, and all the well-intentioned repair attempts I documented in Part One, it ended up looking like a topographical map of somewhere…
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The Drain Board That Broke Me: A Concrete Countertop Repair Saga
Back in 2010, when YouTube had DIY videos but nothing like today’s endless stream of concrete countertop influencers, my wife and I poured our own concrete countertops. The information I found online was decent but limited. Most of the instructions involved pouring counters in a shop and then installing them. But my friend Marty, who…
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Electrolux Washer Review: The Second-Floor Guarantee That Wasn’t
I’d had Electrolux earmarked as our next washer practically from the day we bought our LG in 2010. Our LG was reliable, but when it hit the spin cycle it shook the whole house like a small earthquake. With laundry on the second floor, that’s less an inconvenience than a structural concern. When our thirteen-year-old…
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Electrolux Dryer Review: Built to Match, Not to Dry
We needed to stack our washer and dryer because of laundry-room space, and stacking kits aren’t universal — so once we picked the washer, we were locked into the matching Electrolux dryer. That’s how I ended up with the Electrolux Front Load Perfect Steam Gas Dryer with Instant Refresh, model ELFG7437AW. A name longer than…
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Café GE Refrigerator: The Good, The Bad, and The “Did Anyone Actually Test This Thing?”
Our Kitchen Aid refrigerator gave up, and we had to go shopping. When we built the house, most of the appliances came from online retailers and big-box stores. This time we went local. The criteria seemed simple: 36″ French door with bottom freezer, dual compressors or evaporators for efficiency, interior water dispenser. Some of that…
Even that's Odd 