Tag: Home Improvement

  • This New Old House, Part 20: Interior Doors, Trim, and Hardware

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    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

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    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

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    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

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    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

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    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

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    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

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    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

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    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

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

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    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 10: HVAC – The Radiant Floor Mistake?

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    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 8: Electrical – The One Thing We Got Mostly Right

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    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 6: Foundation, Basement, and Future Regrets

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    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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  • I Hate Our Pella Architect Series Windows. They Look Good and that’s where It Stops.

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    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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  • Concrete Drain Board Repair Part Two: It’s Done. It’s Blotchy. Here’s What I Learned

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    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

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    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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