Resources For Learning About Older Homes

in another posted Jane suggested that it would be nice to have some good resources for learning about what we talk about on here. all of us know about the book written by that man in Brooklyn, in the late 60’s or 70’s. i forget the title. Bob Marvin will have the answer. here are two other books,

Renovating Old Houses by George Nash.

Renovation by Litchfield.

Here is the problem with these books. they are written by guys who are working on detached houses, mostly wood frame. the construction is different. so someone reading this trying to do structural work or thinking about plaster on brick, might find they are not as useful here in the city. i will be honest, i do not refer to them for anything i am doing here in the city. Even for my own house, which i have a structural issue in, i am not going to bother reading; i am calling bill (restoration contractor).

andriywww1990

in General Discussion 4 years and 5 months ago

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Guest User | 4 years and 5 months ago

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Watch Mike Holmes’s shows (Holmes on Homes, Holmes Inspection, Holmes Makes it Right). I believe HoH is now on Netflix.
https://makeitright.ca/tv-shows/
https://onplanners.com/notebooks

catboot | 4 years and 5 months ago

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Restoring Your Historic House by Scott T Hanson is quite good. It doesn’t focus on row houses specifically, but a lot of the information applies. Ingrid Abramovitch’s “Restoring a House in the City” was the first book I bought on the subject. While it’s not as in-depth as I would like, I still crack it open from time to time. And while it’s more like a booklet, the LPC Rowhouse Manual is a decent primer for someone who is just starting out learning about old houses. It’s free on the LPC website.

Arkady | 4 years and 5 months ago

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He’s still around, or at least he was before Covid – I saw him walking on 7th Av. just before we locked down.

andriywww1990 | 4 years and 5 months ago

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So, there is an article in the ny times about clem lebine and his wife putting their home on berkly place up for sale in march of 2018. He was said to be 81 at the time. Their plan was to stay in the slope.

Its a shame he is not active on here. I bet he would have a lot to say. Watch, one of these other folks take his name as a screen name.

stevecym | 4 years and 5 months ago

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And thanks for that middle initial. The ball player was clem w.

RobertGMarvin

in General Discussion 4 years and 5 months ago

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If Clem b Labine is still living he must be well into his 90s. IMO the OHJ was most useful when it was a monochrome newsletter, punched to fit into 3-ring binders. IIRC it became a less useful glossy magazine even before it left Brooklyn. Prior to the OHJ the Brownstone Revival Committee published an equally useful quarterly newsletter, on a similar format, called “Brownstoner”.

andriywww1990 | 4 years and 5 months ago

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I just read about the history of the journal. It seems that it has spread its wings and moved to denver and in the process, i assume, become a good bit more commercial and geared toward a less urban focus. That is a guess. A quick glance at the website mentioned things like arts and crafts and ranches but nowhere did i see the word brownstone. When did they leave PS and what became of mr lebine? Was he related to the ball player

RobertGMarvin

in General Discussion 4 years and 5 months ago

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Clem Labine edited t HT e Old House Journal when it was based in Park Slope and was mainly about Nrooklyn row houses.

andriywww1990 | 4 years and 5 months ago

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ok so get this. how could this happen? there was a guy name Clem Labine who wrote a book and lived in Brooklyn in the 60s and 70s and there was a ball player by the same name who lived in Woonesocket, Mass. i was talking about someone the book, years ago, and we decided that it must be the same person. i just read the ball players bio on wikipedia and there is no reference to books or publishing. how could there be two guys named clem labine and is there anyone out there bored enough on a saturday to make sense of this?

andriywww1990 | 4 years and 5 months ago

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no, the old house compendium? something like that. circa 1970. the fellow had been i think a professional ball player or his father had?

RobertGMarvin

in General Discussion 4 years and 5 months ago

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“Buying and Renovating a House in the City “? But that was by a women—Joy Wilkes—not “that man in Brooklyn “.

hkapstein | 4 years and 5 months ago

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I’m assuming you’re talking about Bricks and Brownstone? I have a lot of interesting books in my library, including a new shepherd book on wood finishes 😉 I’ll post a few titles next time I look through it. A lot of the best plaster books are out of print, but worth hunting down. I did get my lime plaster flatwork done, and it wasn’t that difficult or expensive, but there was a lot I had to learn. We had to spend some time training the workers, but it came out great.

@cate, ever think about writing a book? You obviously know how to write, and you know a lot about this topic, you have the brownstoner brand behind you. Just saying.

Guest User | 4 years and 5 months ago

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These are good recommendations thank you. I am going to check these out.