“This Old House”, by Bob Vila and Jane Davison

Vila, Bob, and Jane Davison. This Old House: Restoring, Rehabilitating, and Renovating an Older House. Boston: Little, Brown, 1980. Print.

I ran across this book on the library website while trying to find out what branches have subscriptions of the magazine called “This Old House”.  I had to put it on hold, because I fondly remember Saturday mornings watching the TV show on PBS in the late 80s and early 90s.  I must have seen re-runs of the show, since the book was published in 1980, and the show must have aired before that.  Seeing the pictures, though, I am quite sure I saw episodes featuring this house.

I read the whole book in a single sick day, unable to put it down.  It almost read like a mystery novel, trying to see how they would get the house done in time for the final episode of the season.  Although the pictures of the house as they purchased it didn’t look too bad to me, they uncovered the usual heartbreaking roof and porch rot, substandard plumbing retrofits, and insufficient joists that we all end up with when we buy an older house.

There are tons of pictures and floor plans, which make it a quick read.  Each chapter covers one episode, but is split into two parts (like the episodes, as I recall).  When they talk about the topics like insulation or heating and how they are going to handle it in the house, the second half of the chapter talks about it in more detail, which makes it more useful to the reader.  However, 30 years later a lot of that information is outdated.

Speaking of outdated… the kitchen they install is horrible by modern tastes, and the electric baseboards that they think are so wonderful stick out like a sore thumb in the final pictures!  Likewise, the picture of the original bathroom, where they say “it was just old enough to be obsolete, not old enough to be quaint” (p. 12)… well, 30 years makes a lot of difference, and I wish I had the tiles, sink and tub they demolished.

It’s amazing that they bought that house for $17,000 and thought they’d spend $30,000 renovating it.