Web forums, blogs offer wealth of DIY knowledge
By Kristen Cyr
Some of my biggest home improvement questions have been answered by complete strangers halfway across the country.
I didn't know it at the time, but when I bought a 1926 bungalow in 2001, I got more than a house in a particular style of architecture. I bought into a way of life.
Soon thereafter, I discovered American Bungalow magazine and its online forum. I had no idea this simple, practically designed type of house had such a following. On this forum, helpful bungalow owners from Massachusetts to California, even the occasional Canadian and Austrialian, serve up daily doses of advice, share stories on fixing and undoing "remuddling" attempts by previous owners, known as POs. They share resources for obtaining period-style materials and answer questions on the most arcane topics - some particular to bungalows, foursquares and other Arts & Crafts-era homes, some that apply to anyone trying to figure out an old house.
If you need advice on color, house_vixen is there to the rescue. When she's not renovating her own house, she's helping friends do quick fixes on rental units and transform their own apartments with paint. BarbaraSchwarz, an artist in Hollywood who works on her Colonial revival bungalow, formerly a crack house, often while her actor husband is off on location, offers great advice on gardening and gives moral support and encouraging words just when frustrated posters need it. And Rick_Carns in San Bernardino, Calif., VeronaJeff in New Jersey, TEConnor in Maryland and Mike_in_Iowa are there to answer questions about heating systems, plumbing, electrical and structural issues. Where else do you see a post like, "Help! Sagging overhangs"?
Some choose usernames that describe them, their houses or their interests. Tudorhead, fittingly, lives in a 1932 Tudor in Cincinnati, Ohio. Another Cincinnati resident, Kitschywoman, collects "anything and everything vintage."
Many have photos of their houses on photo hosting sites. Others have entire Web pages and journals, known as blogs (short for weblogs), detailing their restoration process.
Heather and Dave in Los Angeles have done a phenomenal job removing layers and layers of paint from beautiful, original woodwork in their 1912 bungalow. They started by posting amazing photos of before and after the restoration, then began a full-fledged Web site at www.davidchiu.net/house. Heather also helpfully collects and posts photos from various sources of vintage kitchens, bathrooms and garages for reference.
Jeanne and Aaron purchased a Chicago bungalow from the pack-rat daughter of longtime, world-traveling owners, then rented it back to her so she could finish cleaning out years and years of accumulated collectibles, books, paperwork and more. But when the rental period was up, the woman left behind more stuff than you can imagine, leaving them with a mess as well as a house that needed extensive renovation to restore it from lack of proper maintenance. They started posting examples of the kinds of things they found there in batches titled "What on Earth" on a Web page. Soon they moved to their own site and domain name, www.houseinprogress.net, where they detail the highs and lows, the one-step-forward-two-steps-back process of bringing their bungalow back to life with wit and gritty determination.
Their site lists several other blogs they enjoy. Two of my favorites are:
* A Delaware couple and their 5-year-old daughter renovate the Brickman House (www.brickmanhouse.com), built around 1840 as a one-room cabin that has grown over the years with additions into a stately five-bedroom house on several acres. Photos of the 1970s décor, mirrored wall, shag carpeting and all, will astound. The KiltedOne and his wife, ToolBeltBabe, try to fix the work of a previous owner, whom they have dubbed Bad Joey, Prince of Dark Molding. The blog entries are well written and, at times, laugh out loud funny: "Having exposed the beginnings of the work that He-whose-name-shall-not-be-spoken-aloud had wrought, the initial thrill of discovery inevitably is followed by the revelations of multiple additional examples of BadJoeyisms, piling one atop the other until wonderment fatigue at the woodworking ineptitude of The Plumber (as He is also sometimes charitably called) ultimately sets in, our sides ache from laughing so hard, and we are reduced to the type of cursing such as would make a Singapore-based sailor blush."
* "Old houses mended cost little less than new before they're mended," a quote from Colley Cibber, adorns the home page of This Decrepit Victorian House (www.lestercat.net/house), a renovation story from the Richmond, Va., area. Reading stories like these will make you feel so much better about the projects on the list at your house. Consider this entry: "It certainly feels good to be clearing out the mouse nests and spider-webs, too. And, as I was pulling the ceiling in the bathroom, I finally got to experience having a mummified rat fall onto my head!"
Others of interest I've found include www.fridayfishwrap.com/houselog, the story of a mid-century tract home renovation in Palm Springs, and the environmentally conscious www.glenhunter.ca, titled "Straw House Blog: We build a house, you get to watch." Many of those who maintain these pages have links to their favorite pages, which means you could visit one site and spend the day going from link to link reading others. Trust me.
Helpful hints
If it's solutions you're seeking, there are many forums out there where you can make virtual friends who can see you through your own projects. Here are some favorites of mine and those on the bungalow board.
* www.oldhouseweb.com, with boards, stories and great how-to tips, comes highly recommended by the bungalow gang. "Between [the bungalow board] and that I can do anything!" writes BarbaraSchwarz.
* www.gardenweb.com, where those with green thumbs offer tips, conduct plant exchanges and answer questions. There are categories for every interest, and a regional forum where New Englanders can trade hints about gardening in this, shall we say, unpredictable clime of ours. You'll need to register a username to post, but it's free.
* www.easy2diy.com/home_improvement.asp, which offers multimedia enhanced animated illustrations with its dose of how-to help.
* www.oldhousejournal.com, another magazine that offers a forum and selected stories from its issues.
* www.finehomebuilding.com, which offers its Breaktime forum, a collection of construction professionals and homeowners ready to answer your queries. Again, you'll have to register to post.
* www.doityourself.com, with more than 100 forum topics and plenty of how-to help for restoration and home maintenance.
These are but a few of the thousands of virtual resources out there. While it's great to have access to so much expertise, it's almost too easy to blow an entire day reading about other people's projects instead of working on your own. So surf wisely, fellow homeowners. The Web can be your best friend, but also a curse to those of us who have adopted Carpe Postridiem (seize the next day) as their home improvement mantra.
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