"This Old House" book

I just finished reading "This Old House," the companion book to their first their first project in 1980. Everything we're doing, they did the same thing 25 years ago--nothing has changed!  Except the cost, of course. And the scope:

	This Old House Bob Vila with Jane Davison	Speedwell Forge B&B Dawn Darlington with Gregg Hesling
House	1860s Victorian	1760 Colonial, plus six 18th century outbuildings
Size	3-stories including finished attic; approx. 1,500 square feet	3-stories including finished attic; 5,000 square feet in mansion; 3,000 square feet in outbuildings
History	Bought and sold numerous times; converted into a medical office, then into apartments, then back to a house	Sold once in 245 years; east wing added in 1795; last renovated in 1870s.
Roof	Mansard roof with asphalt shingles, rotted eaves; replaced with asphalt shingles and wooden gutters	Mansion had gabled slate roof, replaced with slate and copper gutters; Summer Kitchen replaced standing-seam metal roof with slate and copper gutters; eaves were rotted; Workshop replaced asphalt roof with slate and copper gutters, some of the rafters were rotted
Exterior	Clapboard siding; required scraping and painting; Rotted front porch that was demolished and rebuilt	Stone building that needed to be repointed; Front porch scraped and repainted; Rotted back back that was demolished and will be rebuilt
Windows	24 windows, all two-over-two, needed to be repainted	46 windows in the mansion plus 16 on the outbuildings; generally eight-over-two or six-over-two; needed to be disassembled, stripped, repaired, rebuilt, reglazed, and repainted
Land	Quarter-acre flat lot; removed a few old trees and added sod and foundation plantings	120 acres, sloped lot, need to create a swale around the house for drainage; removed six dumpsters of trash from the property (so far)
Garage	Brick garage	Have to resurface the quarter-mile driveway and add additional parking areas; Can't replace the roof on the 6-bay tractor shed because of local stormwater ordinances
Fireplaces	One, with restored marble mantle	Seven, four with full-length wooden mantlepieces
Floors	Restored wood veneer flooring	Restored solid wood flooring; replaced flooring in Summer Kitchen
Walls & Ceilings	Replaced sagging plaster ceilings with blueboard and plaster	Gutted attic, cut out water-damaged sections on all floors; replaced with blueboard and plaster
Electric	30-amp service converted to 200-amps; hooked to city service	30-amp service converted to 400-amps; installed new transformer; hid meter on back of the privy
Plumbing	Replaced one and a half baths with two and a half baths; hooked up to city water and sewage	Replaced three and a half baths with six and a half baths; drilled a new well; built the world's biggest septic system
Kitchen	Replaced existing kitchen cupboards and counters	Built a new 4' x 8' island to house all modern appliances; restored Dawn's grandparents 1950s-era stove; had a new floor-to-ceiling cupboard built to match existing and hide refrigerator
Heat	Replaced an oil-burning steam boiler with a gas-fired hot water boiler	Replaced an oil-burning steam boiler with a new propane-fired steam boiler and added a propane-fired hot water boiler, plus two heat pumps for the outbuildings
Cooling	N/A	Added a "split-system" in basement and attic; ran ducts to first and second floors; hid compressors in the first floor of the workshop
Other	Demolished mud room	None.
Cost	Purchased for $17,000; budgeted $30,000 for restoration; spent $80,000 (that's in 1980 dollars)	Inherited; budgeted $200,000 for restoration; spent a lot more than that (and we're only half-way through)
Timeframe	3 months	15 months

If you get a chance to pick up the "This Old House" book, I highly recommend it, if only to see Bob Vila in a plaid shirt installing orange plastic laminate counters. (They didn't need put a copyright date on the book; that picture said it all.)

One interesting footnote: Russ Morash started This Old House back in 1980, and stayed at the helm until last year, when he retired. Good job, Russ.

Todd wires a head
(Get it? The privy? The head? Wires a head? Oh, forget it.)