Upstairs, downstairs & photos we don’t print

Museum houses offer the occasional nooks-and-crannies or behind-the-scenes tour—three hours, at least. The general public walks through in 45 minutes to ooh and aah over four-post beds and the parlor view of the garden. Aficionados (old-house geeks) who pay extra are led to the boiler room and attic, and to watch plaster consolidation in progress. In its early days as a self-help restoration newsletter, OHJ spent a lot of ink on “before” pictures. For pages on end, we illustrated different types of settlement cracks. OHJ was a means to an end: the rehabilitation of the house, still standing and with a tight roof. When I toured houses in those days, sometimes I had to wear a mask. OHJ as a magazine has kept the DIY grit but also relied on aspirational photos that show the “after” views. So in this issue, we see an 1870s Tuscan Villa-style Italianate, designated a mansion in rural Vermont, now restored and redecorated (p. 14). You can tell these owners are hardcore, though. For a rear deck, they salvaged balusters from a bank and then made the built-up newels and finials. They created a compatible kitchen, designed the exterior color scheme, and laid a walkway. Ron papered a ceiling, then went up in his bucket truck to trim locust limbs for a better view of the church steeple from the yard. And, no surprise, they sent me pictures of their basement! Stone foundation, rusting iron: even the photos are redolent with age. Here Ron has his wood shop and Nancy has her stained-glass studio. Not every story and photo fits in an article, but I saved some cool outtakes for this page.