Vintage Home Renovations
The ArcFluence crew dives into the charm and challenges of vintage housing and its unique role in modern real estate. Join Nick and Paul as they explore the intricacies of renovating historical homes, from defining “vintage” properties to preserving original materials and tackling unforeseen structural issues. They discuss everything from repurposing elements like bricks and antique vanities to navigating city commissions that uphold neighborhood aesthetics. Whether you’re drawn to the character of early 20th-century homes or considering a restoration project, this episode offers valuable insights on the financial, architectural, and cultural value of preserving vintage housing.
Nick: Well, hold on. What about some fun commentary at the very beginning?
Nick: Welcome to the ArcFluence podcast where we talk about how design impacts the way we live, work, and invest. I'm Nick Karakaian, your host. And with me today is my business partner and co host Paul Fatkins. How you doing Paul? Good. It's a good morning. Nice and sunny. Perfect temperature. I'm noticing an empty seat again.
Nick: I know. I know. We'll, we'll do something about that next time. All right. We're gonna, we'll, uh, we'll send out a A reminder.
Paul: No, we're gonna, we're gonna take a rope and my truck and tie him up and throw him in the back and just drag him here. All right. Yeah. I know it's, I know it's drastic, but you know, drastic times call for drastic measures.
Paul: Nino will not
Nick: be hurt during that process.
Paul: It'll be a friendly kidnapping.
Nick: Well, today is episode 19. We're starting to get up there. We're knocking these out. Um, today's topic is something that I think we're going to have fun with vintage housing. Vintage housing. Paul, what, what is vintage housing?
Paul: It's a good question.
Paul: Um, if you talk about vintage cars, it's like what 20 years, 30 years, and you get into that, you get into the era where technically you're considered a vintage or classic car, um, I don't know. It's a vague term, right?
Nick: So I guess what we're going to be. focusing in on is the vintage housing stock around the turn of the century, um, and all the way up to probably pre war.
Nick: So 1940s.
Paul: Yeah. I'm thinking the housing that's been, you know, sat around for a long time. It's been, um, Just not well maintained. And basically it gets to the point where it's on the market for super cheap. And you have an investor who's like, great, I'm going to scoop it up and do renovation on it. We've done a ton of projects like that.
Paul: And it's usually in the 1900s, 1910s, 20s, you know, maybe 30s. So kind of within that range of time. But I mean, technically vintage could be like, what? 70s or 60s or 50s. Mid
Nick: century modern. I think it's also like, we got to think about the American city. When was this, when were most of our cities started? Um, there was a lot of, there was a lot of cities that popped up in, you know, right around between World War II, and after.
Nick: So, we have, we have these towns that have popped up at the turn of the century, um, and some are, We're very interesting. If we're thinking about Ohio, Cincinnati comes to mind. I think that has one of the largest stocks of old turn of the century housing. And not only that, but they had some money back then.
Nick: They were really prepping to be the super hub of transportation, et cetera, which Chicago ended up stealing that away. At the last minute, but, um, they have these beautiful homes with all this ornate detail and just lots of, lots of substance. Right.
Danny: Yeah.
Paul: Yeah. There was a lot of money floating around Cincinnati.
Paul: Plus you had the river and the ports and, you know, connection to the south there, cause technically Ohio was, was the North. So yeah, it had a lot going on. And even today there's quite a few fortune 500 companies that are headquarters like in Cincinnati. Yeah. So I mean like, yeah, Cincinnati has a great stock.
Paul: Cleveland has a decent, you know, amount of. Uh, housing stock from that era as Cleveland was a little
Nick: different though. It was more the blue collar worker and
Paul: you know, and you had the lake and the steel industry that really like kicked off in Cleveland as well. And again, like, you know, decent amount of housing was built during that period of time.
Nick: And they also, they, so Cincinnati kind of calmed down and died out a little bit for, for a couple of decades where Cleveland kind of pushed on and it kind of like just chugged on and survived for the, A century, right? And basically you had these blighted areas of homes instead of getting renovated and rejuvenated, they just knocked down these houses and started doing larger structures.
Paul: Yeah. Well, and if you think about it too, in the 1900s, tens, 20s, thirties, You know, the highway system wasn't around either. So it's like the communities were built a certain way. Um, you know, it was still like a walkable community and really the automobile hadn't really taken hold. And, you know, when you get into the fifties, sixties, seventies, you're talking about a whole different ball game.
Nick: Sure. I would argue that a lot of our cities are still designed around the automobile, maybe not with highway infrastructure, but. Yeah. Well,
Paul: I was thinking just the highways when they came in, they demolished chunks of the city. Right. And then they divided neighborhoods and, you know, and then you had all of a sudden pockets created in places.
Paul: Permanent
Nick: domain. They're taking half of people's properties or buying them out and be doing these roadways. Yeah.
Paul: Yeah. Well, and then it's also interesting too, cause you had smaller lots, more of an urban condition. Right. In the fifties, sixties, seventies, the lots definitely grew and it was like your single family home with the driveway and two car garage.
Paul: And sure. No. And now I can dream. Yeah. Now I feel like it's, it's come back to where it's a very small lot, but I think the reason why is, is more for the economics, you know, they, they make it as small as possible.
Nick: Well, I mean, if you're in Columbus and, and, and probably that's what we're going to focus on cause that's where we did the bulk of our work.
Nick: You have a lot of different types of housing. Um, but the, the vintage stock is predominantly located downtown, you know, some specific neighborhoods. Um, and there's a lot of opportunity. A lot of investors buy these houses. They're not necessarily first time home buyers who are looking to move into this place and get comfortable.
Nick: There needs a lot, a lot of work needs to be done, right? There's not been tube in a lot of these cases, everything that you might have some sagging in your floors. Um, the design of them in general is also much different. Okay. The way we designed houses in the early 1900s. I mean, we focused on a lot of different things.
Nick: The kitchen wasn't as big. The dining room was massive. That's where we spent most of our time. We had this great dining room, separate space. Um, and basically, you know, that has changed. We've now have spaces today where large spaces that are combined kitchen and dining together. Um, and obviously the kitchens have a lot more function.
Nick: A lot more appliances and equipment. Um, it's a completely different dynamic.
Paul: Yeah.
Nick: Well, and
Paul: so first, first thing on my list of things here, my little cheat sheet documentation, right? I mean, back in the day you had a group of guys that would just come out and build the thing essentially. Yeah. Um, unless you had.
Paul: Like a house that was, you know, of a certain caliber, a majority of typical housing that we're talking about was just basically built and done by whoever, whenever, it's not like you had an architect, you know, helping or drawing or anything, you know, but they're still beautiful and have a lot of character and charm and all these things that were put into it that we just don't do nowadays, right?
Nick: It's too expensive. Um, And, and this, these are times where we had where two by fours were true two by fours,
Paul: actually two inches by four inches. We had slate
Nick: roofs. We had all these, I mean, we had asphalt, um, or, uh,
Paul: it, it's funny to look at the documentation through time though, because it's like, again, all these things.
Paul: We're done to these houses that, you know, some of the things you're talking about, but none of it was drawn. None of it. I mean, like as you go forward in time, you get a little bit more, a little bit more, a little bit more now to the point where it's like we tried to draw almost everything before, before it even gets approved.
Paul: Well,
Nick: I was going to say asbestos shingles and there's just a lot of materials that we don't even use anymore for certain, for obvious reasons. Right. Yeah. Um, so yeah, a lot has changed.
Paul: But, um, I mean, aside from the document, so it's like, we come into these houses typically and there's, there's nothing, right?
Paul: So it's like, we have to do everything ourselves and all of this stuff is, is there an existing and we have to find a way to document it. Um, you know, a lot of times these are in areas where you have like commissions that are at play. So, you know, again, the whole community is still somewhat together because of these commissions, because they want to maintain the integrity of the community.
Paul: That's there. And just in case, what, what are commissions? Um, like the, you know, we've talked about it before on the podcast, like the Victorian village commission. Um, there's also the one in short north, which is the Italian,
Nick: uh, These commissions are essentially, um, made of the people who reside in the neighborhood.
Nick: And we, there, there's a set of rules that they kind of create and agree to, to preserve the neighborhood, certain design standards to preserve the neighborhood, primarily the exterior of the houses.
Paul: And so when you go in front of them, You need to have every, it's like almost every nut and bolt, you know, documented and shown, they want to see elevations.
Paul: They want to see, you know, what the materials that you're going to put on, um, they have certain things that you're allowed to use and not allowed to use for materials, whether it comes to the rooftop or the flashing or the siding, you know, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.
Nick: I mean, Up until recently, they always said, we, we want you to restore this.
Nick: So if it has wood siding, we want to see wood siding has wood windows. It's want to see wood windows. Now they're starting to relax a little bit. And some of these higher end materials like composite or hardy board can now be used.
Paul: The original material, but with the performance of a modern material, you know, versus like the old
Nick: school performance, which I think is fantastic because if we're replacing wood siding, it's sometimes it's happening every 10, 15 years that can get expensive.
Nick: Yeah. Every,
Paul: every now and then, um, we will get into situations where it's an older house that's not in one of these commissions, but I mean, still, you still have to document. And you still want to have a certain touch when you go in to do the renovation. Um, you don't just come in and bulldoze the whole thing.
Paul: Oh
Nick: no. The whole point of having some, one of these houses is to preserve that character and still have a modern house with this, this elegant vintage style. Right. Yeah.
Paul: It's funny when I was in Cincinnati, I actually lived in a couple of older homes and I mean, I didn't mind it at all. You know, I mean like, Oh, I love it.
Paul: It's, I mean, it's beautiful, you know, just these, these things are not made the same now as they were then. I mean,
Nick: the way I approach design, like even with our interior interior design team, like spaces need to be collected, right. That includes your house. So like, it's a story meaning that. You're going to have this modern feel, design, and function, but at the same time we have this older look or at least these pieces or, uh, aspects of the house that are going to be vintage.
Nick: Like, it's layered. It just feels more homey. It feels, it feels less like a hotel. Which I think if you want to make something yours, you need to have some things that aren't just brand new.
Paul: Oh, and it's like, again, even if you get into a situation where you have a brand new hotel, um, a lot of times like they'll pull in whatever they can again from an older era and try to repurpose things in a certain way.
Nick: And I repurpose, like we knocked down our chimney. Because it was right in the middle of the house and we wanted to open that up. What, what year was your house? Yours, yours is older, right? Like
Paul: fifties
Nick: or sixties.
Paul: No, I think it's twenties. Oh really? Yeah. Okay. I didn't realize it was that old. I thought it was a little newer.
Nick: No. Okay. So they had the, and you can, you know this because the basement is six and a half feet ceilings. Yeah. When, um, when you
Paul: guys opened up your, so you did like a full gut to that place essentially. When you guys opened up your walls, what did you find? I know in Chicago, Chicago. They would find like newspaper from like the 20s basically just like glued to the wall like papier mâché And
Nick: that was your installation.
Nick: We've done a lot of houses. So I mean not specifically the house I live in now But like we found beer cans The drywallers would be putting up their drywall and they'll throw beer that they're drinking on the job Throwing their beer cans down the walls. So you find old phone books Yeah, you know, for insulation, they just put newspapers for insulation.
Nick: Cause
Paul: yeah, I know in Chicago there was newspapers, you know, and again, like from the twenties and you know, yeah, they would just like slap it on. Sometimes
Nick: you find nothing and these houses aren't insulated at all. Um, in fact, that's probably the majority of the case. Um, sometimes, you know, we find termites and we're like, Oh, I'm really glad this is standing.
Nick: It probably shouldn't be. Um, so, and we have to replace all these members. And of course, then we have to like take into account the new codes or rebuilding these walls. I
Paul: think, um, that's an important thing to know. You know, these, when these things were built, you know, we talk about some of these things like phone books and newspapers.
Paul: I mean, you know, there were standards back then there, there were some standards, but to the extent around the country that there were standards, it was very minimal. And then even then, like the amount of enforcement was, was very minimal. I mean, there's a reason why, you know, prohibition and these mobsters were able to take hold and go crazy.
Paul: It's like everyone did whatever back then and it was like a free for all. So, I mean, when you get into one of these houses as you might pick it up for next to nothing, because again, it's been, nobody's been really living there and maintaining it and it's just fallen by the side. Or maybe somebody has been living there
Nick: and not maintaining it.
Paul: Yeah. Because it takes, you know, a little bit of. It might be on a fixed income or, or whatever. Yeah. And it takes a little, little bit of time and effort to really restore or at least repurpose or reuse or whatever, or even put in these modern installation values and other things that you should take into consideration when you're doing the renovation.
Nick: Unfortunately, in most cases we are like, I love to try to save the The 12 inch baseboards or the pocket doors that are in these 14 inch thick walls. Um, there's certain elements. If there's any like stained glass windows, we want to save those. Um, but unfortunately the stair railings are never up to code.
Nick: They're the stairs themselves are usually not up to code.
Paul: Well, sometimes you don't even have them. They're not even the same. It's like one step is six inches and the next one is seven. Yeah.
Nick: And like, of course, back then we had these attics that we could walk up into. However, they're not, they weren't meant to be habitable.
Nick: They're not for storage. Now we want to make them habitable. So we have to go through the attic conversion process.
Paul: Yeah. They would just, again, people would do whatever and they just throw a bed up there and okay, great. It's a bedroom. Even though really it's not, it's not safe to occupy.
Nick: Another thing too, is like, you know, You'll buy a house that's from the turn of the century.
Nick: It was probably renovated between, you know, within the last hundred years. So maybe it was renovated in the 50s and you have or for the 40s you have asbestos shingles or tiles in the kitchen or you just so you have these Renovation layers of renovation too that you also need to go through sometimes you need to see what's going on You know At the framing, you know, and you have to tear off two layers of tile or this or that.
Nick: Sometimes you drywall right over the plaster, like found lots of interesting things where we'll gain, you know, five or six inches in rooms just by like going down to the studs and then properly insulating the space and putting up new drywall. Didn't, um, was it
Paul: Elsa? Didn't you find like a space that was like just wall?
Paul: It was like, yeah, like literally we did all the measurements and drew everything out and we're like, Wait, there's a small area over here that's walled up and it's, it's a negative space. Like it's like a large closet. Yeah.
Nick: And it was just walled up and empty. Yeah.
Paul: You
Nick: were hoping
Paul: to find
Nick: treasure inside, right?
Nick: I didn't find any treasure.
Paul: At least you didn't find anything, you know, suspect in there.
Nick: I feel like most people hid their money in their mattress and not their walls.
Paul: I mean, you never know. It's just odd. Right. But like you said, over time, people do whatever layer in renovation sometimes. So yeah, there was also, um, again, same project.
Paul: Um, there's also other discovery you found too, right? Didn't you have issues with your, was it the framing or was it just the,
Nick: well, one house we had, uh, we were gonna, we gutted and then we realized the framing was bad. It was an actually an addition that was done in the fifties that they added on to the original footprint of the, of the smaller house.
Nick: We had to tear it all down. We had to do new foundation. Was you mentioned termites? Was
Paul: that the one with
Nick: termites or no? Had some termite damage, had bees too. Lots of bees. Yeah. Yeah.
Paul: Okay.
Nick: Carpenter bees.
Paul: And what did that do to your budget that you had planned?
Nick: Um, it added about 50, 000 to the, to the budget.
Paul: And the overall budget was what, like 150, 000, 200, 000?
Nick: Yeah, that one we got really lucky and, oh man, we got really lucky because the house turned out so good. Like, it turned out unbelievable. And then my partner on the project, she's like, I want to buy it. So we gave her the equity off of what we would have done to split.
Nick: We came to an agreement on a fair price. Gave her equity out of it. She ended up buying it out for, you know, a really great price. And she loves it. It's a beautiful home. And yeah, we nailed
Paul: it. Yeah, but I, I think, I guess the reason why I, I was kind of prodding you with those questions. Um, whenever you get into these older homes, you should always, always, always budget.
Paul: I don't know what, what percentage would you say? I use it at least 10%. I used to
Nick: say 10%, but sometimes you just don't know. Yeah. Like, and that's the thing about new construction, it's like. There's no surprises. We just build it. We design it. We build it. Here, here you go. Of
Paul: course. I mean, it's, you know, you know exactly what you're getting into.
Paul: You know exactly what X costs for material and you're probably spending more money.
Nick: Foundations are very expensive, but at the same time, sometimes you can get lucky on, on these full guts. And sometimes you might have to do, you might have to rip out part of the house, tear down part of the house and rebuild it.
Paul: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I would say if you can engage, Either, you know, someone on the design side to take a look at things before you get into it, um, or even if there's a contractor. That has experience working on this era of home, you know, or, or, um, somebody that has basically done it before to come out and actually look at what's going on.
Paul: I think the other thing you mentioned, like additions to, like you said, throughout time, like things happen. And so, especially when you have an older home that has an addition, I think those are definitely red flags that should be, you know, Thought about very carefully before you get into the project.
Nick: Sure. I think that's also why those houses are discounted. So like you have to go in there assuming like, this is the chance you're taking, like we might have to tear this down or rebuild this section, or we might find termites or, you know, there's just going to be some unknowns that we're, we're assuming we have to replace.
Nick: All the equipment, all the walls, like all these things. Yeah. So, I mean, granted, if I like to preserve wood floors, like I love floors, like that's one of the big selling points in a vintage home. Um, so if we can preserve that. I always want to do that. Sometimes we have to take them up, save as much as we can and then put them back, which ends up being very expensive also, but we're still maintaining that character.
Nick: Yeah. Yeah. I think I can't think
Paul: of a home that we've done from this period of time where you're reusing anything beyond like the floor, some trim doors and maybe some wind. So like you said, if it's like some stained glass window or something that survives, that's about it. Yeah. I mean, Everything else is, is going in there new.
Paul: You're
Nick: right. The, but we are preserving the, the appearance of the exterior and the design of that era as well. So if we're replacing, you know, with like with like, or new materials that are going to perf performance materials that are going to look like those old materials, it's still getting that vintage look, which you're not going to necessarily find in a new development, um, you know, out here where you live.
Paul: Well, I mean, like, again, depending on the, um, The, uh, gosh, I'm losing my words here. Depending on the state, well, like how well the building has held up, you might be able to reuse sighting and other things to where you're like scraping off and repainting and whatever, but, um, you might not be putting material in like for like,
Nick: and that's why like old brick homes are exciting and fun to work with.
Nick: Cause you get to maintain that old brick.
Paul: Yeah. Yeah. Maybe you're tuck pointing or something like that, but for the most part, the integrity has, has been, you know, holding up over time a lot more than wood. Wood can definitely have a lot more issues with like shake, you know, shake or wood siding or whatever.
Nick: So I want to talk about some of the other challenges we run into when we're redesigning some of these older homes. Um, Um, obviously if we, the houses are a little smaller typically, you know, there's some big Victorians that we, that we get every now and then, but they're pretty rare. I would say they're rare and they're very expensive.
Paul: I think if your typical single family home is, you know, close to like 2000 plus square feet, Right. These are probably like 1, 800 16, 16, 14. I guess
Nick: mine was
Paul: 16, but then we did the addition somewhere in that range. Yeah. Maybe it's 15, maybe it's 17. Right. But I mean, like it's not over 2000, it's definitely a few hundred under 2000 for sure.
Nick: Yeah.
Paul: So, I mean, upstairs we didn't have primary suites. We even just did one, um, just recently that was, uh, over off of Whittier and on the auditor's website, it had like 2, 500 listed. This house is not that big. Where is that
Nick: coming from?
Paul: We're like, okay, we add everything up and I get 1, 900. Like that's it 1900 and
Nick: it had an addition on the back.
Nick: So what was the basement? Was it like 700 or something? Uh,
Paul: basement was like 800 or something like that. Did that
Nick: match up? Did they, were they counting the basement?
Paul: Well, if you added the basement in, it was close, but you were still like a couple hundred short. That's so weird.
Nick: Yeah.
Paul: So like, don't
Nick: trust the auditor site, I guess.
Nick: Have your architect check the numbers. Yeah. Well, in this particular case, we did them a big service because you're paying taxes based on the square footage of what's on record. Right? So now you can call the auditor site, say, Hey, I want a reevaluation. Yeah. We just, they did count the porch by the way. So on the auditor's
Paul: website, just for our listeners out there, they actually, if you go into like the sketch section, they should break down what the livable square footage is, and they'll list out the rooms and they'll list out their measurements.
Paul: They have, you know, if it's 20 by whatever for whatever footprint and I'll list stuff out. They actually, they had the porch listed as a livable and I'm like, what?
Nick: You know, I honestly, it doesn't even matter where you live now that real estate is and just Yeah. Yeah. Values are increasing everywhere, right?
Nick: Um, inflation in general is up. So we're getting, these larger cities are now getting audited for tax purposes more often. Like I think Columbus was like every two years now. Um, and you can challenge these, these estimates. Um, but if you've done, if you've redone the house and it's remodeled new, you know, I'm just keeping my mouth shut.
Nick: Cause they're probably undervaluing the property, which is good because you want to pay less taxes. If you haven't redone the property, if it's, if it's like, okay. Dated and kind of it's original maybe it's a rental that you have and they want to come back that we're doubling your taxes Well, it's it's really not easy to double your rents, right and you don't want this impact your bottom line so you can challenge these Evaluations and say hey look this is not Well,
Paul: and also depending on where you are, like there's different tax abatements that you can apply for.
Paul: If you're putting, you know, 000 into a house, you can, you know, certain places you can get abatement for 15 years, 15 years, 10 is very common, but there's 15 in some places. Yeah. Yeah. So, I mean, like by all means, like, yeah, square footage is very critical. To get right and then to apply for these abatements for sure.
Paul: But, you know, again, it was just funny to see that discrepancy, you know. But, um, yeah, so we get into the homes that are smaller square footage.
Nick: So, smaller bedrooms. Yeah. Smaller closets. Um, no primary suite. Smaller kitchens. Smaller dining. Smaller living. Well, not smaller dining. Bigger dining. Well, true, true.
Nick: Smaller kitchens. Yeah. Smaller living room. Uh, less bathrooms. Porches are pretty common. There's some outside character. There's some areas outside to hang out. Covered areas. Usually front though, nothing in the back of the property. Back porches too.
Paul: Yeah. Front more so than back. Or stoops.
Nick: I guess we can call them stoops.
Nick: They're smaller. Yeah. Yeah. Um, but typically they're covered, which I like. Um, we, we see less like actual porch covered porches on modern houses, unless you're going on the higher end of, of things. And I, and whenever I'm outside, I like to have these zones where we have patio and sunlight, we have covered area, perhaps some screened in porches.
Nick: So, and these are all things you can modify, you know, on these older homes. If you know, if you have the budget.
Paul: Yeah, well, it's, it's like, again, stuff like that, sure. But you're still dealing with your footprint, whatever it is. So you can't really, again, you kind of got creative with how you guys approached your house when you did the renovation.
Paul: Cause all, a lot of your, it wasn't an addition. You did you kept the same footprint, right? No, we did an addition. Did you, I thought you
Nick: only modified the upstairs. So we did two additions. Technically we did the big dormer upstairs, which allowed it to be, but with over the same footprint, right? No. Well, yeah, that addition, but then we also added addition in the back.
Paul: Okay. So I didn't realize you extended back to,
Nick: we had a porch that went all the way across the back, the whole length. And what we did is we bumped it out a little bit because the basement actually extended to have a little coal where they had the coal furnace way back in the day. Yeah. So this little coal room.
Nick: So we extended the footprint of the house over that. That's why I didn't have to dig a new foundation or anything like that. And then we just did kind of an, uh, a covered area porch on a, on half of the house. And then we did this big deck that spanned off of it. And then a patio space after that.
Paul: Yeah.
Paul: And so you, what was your square footage you gained like 200, 300?
Nick: Yeah, about, it was about 200. Yeah. Honestly, it's, it's funny too. Cause the big dorm where we added up top, we didn't really, we gained like 50 square feet up there, but now. But you have head clearance. And so now like three or 400 square foot is actually functional.
Nick: So we gained a lot of function out of that. Whereas, you know, this house before was upstairs was like this big closet. Right. A bathroom and this big room, one room, and now it's two bed, two baths. So we have two primary suites upstairs. So we just gained a lot of function up there. Um, so we didn't add a whole lot of square footage, believe it or not.
Nick: But then the back extension, we had about 150 or so,
Paul: I mean, but anytime you're dealing with attic stuff, you know, there's, there's head clearance always that you always have to take into account, even if it's as simple as where you come up in the stairway, if you just modify and add a dormer there. Right.
Paul: Right. Again, like a lot of times we'll go into these existing houses and you're, you're like trying to squeeze up into the attic, like literally hunched over, you know, it's, it's like, it's like a four foot head clearance.
Nick: So that's why we do our dormers. We do our dormers for a number of reasons on the attic conversion checklist.
Nick: We have to have at least 50 percent of the space over seven feet. So unless we want to really shrink that space. Base and bring in those knee walls, which I don't like to do because then it feels claustrophobic. We need to add a dormer or something that's going to bring that height. And then we don't even have a flat ceiling.
Nick: We keep everything cathedral. So now we're, we have to do spray foam for energy efficiency. There's a lot of things that go into it, but at this point it's worth it because we're getting so much value for square footage. I don't want to put it in the basement. And it's still cheaper, it's still cheaper than adding an addition in a lot of cases because you're not doing foundation.
Paul: Your basement, you cannot add, well you can, but the level of difficulty compared to the attic space, you cannot add head space the same way. So whatever head clearance, by adding a dormer, like you said, the functionality of, you know, majority of your space, a few hundred square feet. Is because you have that larger head clearance there in your basement.
Paul: You could do it too. You'd have to underpin and dig down. And it's, I mean, like, it's not a nightmare. It's not easy. It'd be a fortune. And it'd be, yeah, it'd be four or five times more. The cost of you basically took your whole roof off almost. And, and it's like the cost was
Nick: four times less than trying to go down in the basement.
Nick: And the value of the square footage above ground is still going to be more than the value of square footage in your basement. Unless you have like some 10 foot ceilings and it's like this old speakeasy in downtown and you like, you know, that would be cool. Then I'd spend the money. Let's go
Paul: make a wine cave situation or something.
Paul: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But yeah, the majority of properties are not going to have something like that. So,
Nick: yeah. Or without. Not without significant investment and we need to be mindful of what we're spending unless this is your forever home and you don't care.
Paul: Yeah. Well, again, a lot of times it's investors, right?
Paul: Looking to either turn it into a rental property or flip it or just
Nick: savvy young homeowners who are like, we love the city. We love to walk to bars and restaurants. We love to have neighbors and we get the value here. And, and by, and by. surviving this renovation, if they can make it through it, they're adding significant equity to their house without having to pay for it.
Paul: Well, and then they also have their tax abatement for however long, you know? So yeah, I mean like, and usually
Nick: taxes are going to be a little bit less, right? So if you're a young couple and maybe your kids aren't in school yet, or maybe you're not having kids or whatever the case may be, you don't necessarily be need to be an expensive school district.
Nick: So there's these, there's these zones in Columbus that have some beautiful housing, German village, um, where, you know, you might be Columbus schools, but these houses are amazing. Yeah. Even
Paul: spaces adjacent to German village, like Schumacher places. Marion. Yeah. Marion is, is not bad either. Yeah. Yeah. So, um, yeah.
Paul: So what are some of the other typical square footage changes? I think what, um, the thing we always do dining and kitchen, right? Swap those. Yeah. Bigger
Nick: kitchen. I think that's a given. We don't even swap them. We basically just open it up now just to, depending on the clients, how their family is, how they function and what they need in the space.
Paul: It gets flipped. Or like you said, we open it up and then the kitchen bleeds a lot more into the dining into where the dining is, is much more, you know, compact basically.
Nick: And that honestly, that's what we did in my house. Like we, we took that kitchen space and we made it a, another, a downstairs primary suite.
Nick: And we use it as an office, but it's a primary suite. And then we took the kitchen, made that bigger and then worked in a dining nook, but it's just me and my wife. So it works perfect for us.
Paul: Yeah. It's not, I mean, like it's, it's a very efficient use of space. It's very compact, but it's not claustrophobic, you know.
Paul: So I think, yeah, again, you were very thoughtful and careful about the design choices that you made there and it functions a hundred times better than it did before. I remember when you first bought the place and I came over, uh, for a job interview and crashed at your place the night before. And it was like, my word, Nick, like you, you got yourself into something.
Paul: Got a lot of work Yeah. Yeah. It
Nick: was a 250, 000 renovation, but yeah, I'd love it.
Paul: Do you have, do you have a picture by the way of the, like the original Do you have like a perspective? What I'm saying is like same, same point in the house. You took a picture here before you did anything and then you have the finished image from the same vantage point.
Paul: Do you have
Nick: something like that? Yeah, we'll do like a kitchen shot. I mean, we did open it up some, but we'll do a now and before.
Paul: That's what I want to. Yeah. So I say, Danny, if we can post that on, on a link here, if Nick can find a photo exact same point, Vantage point. Here's the, before we touched anything and here's the finished space.
Paul: I mean like it's mind blowing, you know, the difference. So
Nick: what else would these houses,
Paul: um, repurposing? So that's on my list here. We touched on it before a little bit, but I think some of the things that you repurposed, you did in a very clever way to keep some of that character. And it wasn't even necessarily like from the house, but it's from that period.
Paul: Things were,
Nick: some things were, so we had, we had this big chimney, obviously. The old school furnace was vented out of the chimney and we had to take it down because it was right in the middle of the space. And that allowed us now to move our stairs, um, open up the living room and just have, uh, you know, a little bit more function in terms of space planning.
Nick: And we took that brick and we used it to do, um, our front porch. Because our front porch was just a wooden porch before we tore that off. And we did a con, uh, we use the brick on the foundation wall. And
Paul: so you actually demoed it, you know, and then you took those bricks and then built your, built your porch up using those bricks, concrete,
Nick: uh, stamped concrete, Slab on over the brick detail.
Nick: And we enlarge the footprint just a smidge.
Paul: I know. I know a lot of times when you get into a home that has a brick facade, you try not to touch the openings because obviously it's like, again, how are you going to match color match exactly? And the brick has been outside for a hundred years.
Nick: So this, we didn't, we didn't, we have a brick base, but we don't have a brick facade.
Nick: Yeah. Yeah. I'm talking about just brick in general. Sure. Yeah. If it's an al brick house, we wanna try to not mess with the openings. 'cause I mean, we can, if we're gonna do it, if, if the, if it's a big payout in terms of space planning, we'll do it. But if we can avoid it, we'd wanna try to do that.
Paul: Well, well either that, or again, to your repurposing story that you just told there.
Paul: Um, if you can take the brick from somewhere else on the project Yep. And get rid of something with that brick, and then use it to infill or do whatever modification you need to do so that the brick can be similar in matching. Yep. Because it's. I will say it's very difficult to infill brick and have it match without it.
Paul: Again, you're going to be able to tell.
Nick: And I know painting brick is a little more popular these days. Um, I like it in some cases just depends, but I prefer to paint first. And then if you have the budget, I would want to, um, Uh, re mortar everything as
Paul: well. The only, the only way I think I would paint brick is if, um, there's no way to match it.
Paul: And there's quite a bit of repair work that has to be done to where you have a lot of dissimilar brick. And it's like, okay. It really
Nick: depends. The only brick we've painted would be on our four plex. And that was built, it was built post, like, and it was, I think it's mid to late forties. Yeah. Um, and just for me, it wasn't the prettiest of brick either.
Nick: So it just depends on the rick also.
Nick: Yeah, there are also multiple units that were looked exactly the same and we wanted to stand out on the street and be its own Unique thing. Yeah, absolutely. Oh, I see. So
Paul: there's a lot of similar home five same ones right in a row Right. And so then yours, because it was a white color compared to the other ones that were the natural brick.
Paul: Now it's the most beautiful on the street. Right. It stands out.
Nick: Yeah. And, and honestly, it's a, it's a nice street that has houses and multi families mixed in with it. So it's not just apartment complexes.
Paul: Yeah. I'm not completely against it. I just, I don't know something about me. If it's, if it's a decent brick, like.
Paul: I 100 percent just like it not painted. Sure. I agree.
Nick: That's most of the cases for sure. I also took, we had an old patio. I, we took all that brick and we built a big composite deck over that footprint. And we, then we reused that patio brick to do walkways around the garage, my backyard, stuff like that.
Paul: Yeah.
Nick: So you got quite a bit of use out of the brick that
Paul: you basically
Nick: took
Paul: from your house. Sure.
Nick: Yeah. And then, and then we did like when we furnished the place, we also brought in those elements. So we got like these 18th century dressers that we then converted to vanities.
Paul: Yeah. I think this is the favorite, favorite touch because you actually basically put It's something that you would never think to purpose, you know, and you basically, okay, great.
Paul: We're going to take a dresser and turn it into a bathroom vanity.
Nick: Yeah. And, and not everybody has a budget to do that. It turned out great. So it just depends on like,
Paul: but I mean, really, was it that expensive? I mean, yeah, it's, it's maybe cost a little bit more, maybe
Nick: not. Yeah. Because I don't know, I think our big double vanity piece, it was probably five grand
Paul: no matter what you have plumbing, right.
Paul: Yeah. That you have to you bought your basin. Which maybe is a little bit more unique, but then you just set that on top of the dresser, even if you had the dresser still
Nick: probably twice as much, to be honest. Cause you can buy a nice vanity for a couple of grand. Yeah.
Paul: Okay. So your, the cost of the dresser was quite a bit to source that.
Paul: Yeah.
Nick: Yeah. Yeah. And then we, of course we did wall mounted faucets and their waterworks. And so, I mean, it, it really depends on your finishes. You can go, you can go as high as you want these days. Yeah. So, um,
Paul: What else? Um, the only other thing I think we have not touched on is structural differences. So they're typically better as long as they weren't neglected.
Paul: Well, yeah. I mean, again, like we talked about a two by four is actually a two by four. You have like hearty, beefy pieces of lumber.
Nick: Yeah, the wood they use to build those houses were from. Trees that were hundreds of years old, super dense. And the members were bigger on top of that. The pine that we're buying in the stores today, it's more sustainable.
Nick: It grows very fast, but it's just not as strong. I mean, it's, I would say it's like, well, even moisture
Paul: content. So over time, you know, wood tends to dry out. And again, as long as you don't have like massive water intrusion and termites and other issues with the wood. As time goes on, these houses are actually getting stronger and stronger because the wood is drying out more and just becoming more rigid and more robust.
Paul: Um, you know, a lot of the modern lumber, it's kiln drying to a certain point to where it's good enough and then they put it on the shelf to sell it. So, yeah, I mean like, again, you get into situations where you have load bearing stuff. Um, that you maybe have to rework, right? Cause they weren't, they didn't have like big open spans necessarily back then.
Paul: They had a lot of load bearing balls. So there's like some LVLs that you'll have to add into your project. Well,
Nick: we, we added, we even like braced an entire. Section of our upstairs with LVLs because we have heated floors and tile. We did this big bathroom suite. Well,
Paul: and at a conversions particularly, yeah, like whatever's there is usually like a two by six or two by four.
Paul: And, you know, if, if you want that to be habitable, then yeah, usually you have to either like reframe it all or you. You brace everything with a member right next to the other member. And it's a big, beefy, you know, engineered member. And I will tell you this,
Nick: it's, there's so much more value than just being up to code.
Nick: I'm doing air quotes because you're, you're getting more rigidity out of your floors. If you're, if you're bracing these LVLs, I didn't have to tear out the whole floor and then reframe Bigger members, which means I have 10 foot ceilings on my second floor, nine foot ceilings on my first floor. I didn't want to sacrifice that.
Nick: I also, I don't like flex. If I'm, if, you know, if there's a couple of people walking across a larger span, your floors can flex and there's sometimes they do it within safety, you know, it's, it's not necessarily a date, a hazard, but there's
Paul: actually code. It's like, um, L over three 60 or whatever. So depending on the length, you divide it by a number and then there's a certain amount of deflection that's.
Paul: Permissible right in the coach. So to Nick's point, this will minimize that, which is great. You're going to have, but you can have a brand new house and you start walking on the floor and you actually feel it bouncing a little bit because it's deflecting
Nick: down a certain amount. And that also causes creaks and stuff.
Nick: And on older homes it might even be more profound when you're walking across the floor. So by bracing those floors, we get rid of that sound. We screw everything together tight. And then if I'm doing like, um, heated floors like we have in our bathrooms and then tile, like we have marble floors. So I don't want that cracking.
Nick: Right. So if we make that as rigid as possible, it's going to minimize cracking with your grout. It's just going to, it's going to prolong the life of your product. So if you're spending more money, obviously you want it to last longer, right?
Paul: Oh yeah. Yeah. You don't want to, you know, dump 50, 000 into a bathroom area that you need to have your tiles cracking because stuff is shifting around
Nick: and then live with those cracks cause you don't want to replace it right away and then have to redo the whole thing in 20 years anyways.
Paul: Yeah. Or, or five years. Yeah. Um, What was the project we did where they had, we started this one recently. Um, it's the multi unit building the floors. How, how long did the, before the floor started to sag and actually like the joints were popping a year, it was only a year. Yeah. So after a year, because the conversion really wasn't done properly, the work wasn't done properly, there wasn't thought put into the structural components that, you know, we're, we're supporting all the stuff they were
Nick: putting in the space.
Nick: You know what it was though? You know what, what the straw that broke the camel's back? There's an Island in the middle of the, Well, yeah kitchen kitchens and cabinets way more and then we have Four people sitting at the island and all our appliances and it's it just it didn't handle it And it think even think about
Paul: the storage all the storage you put inside, you know stuff inside the cabinets and all that adds up
Nick: Yeah, yeah,
Paul: so that was the thing that really And
Nick: it wasn't a full fail, but the floor sunk, what, two to three inches?
Paul: Uh, yeah, maybe more. I think it may be like four inches. Because you had boards that literally completely popped and disjointed to where they were basically separated. Yeah. The flooring, the flooring separated. Yeah. Yeah. Crazy. So, well, into your point a year, a year. So if you're putting money into an investment, you want to make sure the structure is sound so that you don't have issues of, of things creeping and creaking and popping and cracking and sagging, you know,
Nick: the, the sad part of it is really on, on this particular one is the rest of the house was already done.
Nick: So now to have to go back in and redo this, you're disrupting everything else. You're disrupting everything else, your business, um, not only that, but it's. Things are more expensive now. Code's more stringent now. Um, it's a nightmare. It's a nightmare for a homeowner.
Paul: Yeah. So it's like, yeah, if you're going to do it, get your team on board, right.
Paul: That knows what they're doing. Get people who've had hundreds of houses under their belt, whatever. Right. And make sure that you're doing it right and taking care of it so that you don't have an issue in a year where it's, like you said, it's an absolute nightmare. So I'd say that's like the number one thing that I would advise.
Paul: Just make sure you get somebody that knows what they're doing. Yeah. Right. . So, um, yeah, that's, I think that's a good place to wrap up. I don't know, unless you got something else, Nick.
Nick: No, well, I, I think, I just wanna press that people will pay more for these vintage homes, like, because there's limited stock like Columbus for the size of the city.
Nick: It is, doesn't have, we have some beautiful homes, obviously, but Yeah. When they're, when they're finished and, and beautiful basically. I mean, I mean, yeah. Victorian village and the short North and, you know, old town East and German village, Marianne, like there's, we have stock, but if you look at it per capita, it's not that much, right?
Nick: So it's kind of limited on how much you actually have into replicate something like that as a new build is very expensive.
Paul: Oh yeah. I, I don't, I don't think of. I can't think of an example where, um, somebody is replicating like, like for like what was done back then. I, I don't, it just, people don't do it. I mean, even though, even to refabricate the look of it, it's still expensive.
Paul: If they will. Yeah. If they want that, they're buying a house that already has it and they're restoring it. Nobody is, is building it from scratch.
Nick: Yeah. I mean, I
Paul: think,
Nick: so like, it just, it
Paul: doesn't make sense
Nick: now that we got this rezoning and like the short North and some of these corridors. They still want to keep that same type of look and feel.
Nick: So they're designing some modern apartment buildings with some of these elements, but it's still, it is, it's the modern spin
Paul: on it. Yeah. It's like, I don't know. It's sometimes it can be kitschy, you know, like not really appropriate or just doesn't look quite right.
Nick: What's the, what's the Dodge charger. You know how they, they, it's that the new Dodge chargers is boxy, sexy, but like, Old school.
Nick: It's like a nod to the old model. They'll do that. It still looks like a new car. It's still awesome, but it has some of the older elements that they did, you know, in the fifties or whatever. It's like the
Paul: Mustang did it too, right? Like they had their vintage rebirth and then same thing. They had the Thunderbird.
Paul: They did that with, and yeah, the dodge might see
Nick: more of that because that's still desirable to a lot of people. Yeah.
Paul: Dodge and Chrysler did it too. So, I mean, like, yeah, there's even Volkswagen did it with their beetle, you know, the modern beetle. So
Nick: I'm excited for like this rev, like if things are all changing on the commercial side and we have to follow these new code standards, et cetera, I'm excited to start seeing changes in the residential world on how we build houses, like putting this technology into it and still getting some of these old looks or some of these architectural elements that bring us joy.
Nick: Right? Um, instead of just having a box, I think we're starting to move in the right direction, but housing is really expensive. So I think we've reached a, it may be a sweet spot where housing's expensive anyways. So for spending this kind of money, let's make it meaningful, right? Let's do something that's, it's not just this boring box.
Nick: That's repeated over and over again.
Paul: Yeah. Well, I think that's part of the draw. Like you said, the people that are willing to pay a certain amount of money for these properties is because they have that, I don't know, like warmth of material and, you know, character that's just with, within the building already.
Paul: You know, you don't get that in a new build development where your neighbor is five feet from you and you're a lot so tiny that you throw a bar, a ball to your kid and it's like three houses down, you know, because that's how close the houses are.
Nick: A lot of those lots were definitely small, but some were narrow and long.
Nick: Yeah. So, you know, you,
Paul: yeah, but that's the thing. Like, so then again, like you can play catch, but you know, whatever, it's the long ways in the yard. Sure. So even if it's an older development like that, um, you know, with an older house,
Nick: well, obviously we know that you chose the burbs cause you were out here in this big, beautiful home.
Nick: Um, Danny also made the same decision. Um, yeah. I'm, I'm probably not leaving the city.
Paul: Yeah. I, I don't mind, like, again, like if I didn't have certain constraints, like I probably would be within like the downtown area as well. But um, again, like we didn't have the hassle of going through the renovation, all that stuff.
Paul: Um, it was a lot easier for us to have a turnkey, just move in and of course, right. Not deal with that. Yeah. So, but yeah, I don't know. I think if I had, if it was just me, you know, yeah, I'd probably be in a downtown area of something with care again, like Cincinnati when I was in those houses, loved it, loved living there.
Paul: So just, yeah, the character alone is worth it. So even if you have to put up with renovation work and whatever, so it's, they're beautiful homes. I
Nick: think no matter what route you go, you're going to be paying a price, right? So if you do a new build, you're going to be waiting a year plus for that project to be completed.
Nick: And there's probably going to be delays with that, just like anything else. If you're renovating a space, you might have to move out of your house. You might have to find other, you know, means. So
Paul: yeah, cost wise, it's like similar. You're not, it's just different things you're dealing with. Yeah. I, the only, the only way it'd probably be a lot more is if you come into an unforeseen circumstance where all of a sudden you open something up and it's like, Oh boy, you know, now we've got to deal with whatever.
Nick: And I might be, I might be biased on this, but I prefer if I'm going to spend about the same amount of money, you're still going to be, you're still probably going to get more house if you're out in the burbs just because of, you know, The cost of the land, um, is going to be a little bit less. Um, and, and probably like, especially if you do a, like a large builder, they're probably not going to use, like, they're going to use.
Nick: They're going to build it to code in most cases, but it's not going to be like super high end finishes, stuff like that. So I think you got a little bit more control on these older houses. You can really make it your own. Um, but at the same time, yeah, it's, it's a ton of work, regardless of what route you take.
Nick: I think it's more work, honestly, if you do a rehab.
Danny: Yeah. Um, because there could be
Nick: surprises. It's not, every project is different. Whereas if you're a developer, you're like, this is the house, this is the house, this house, these are the upgrades. Choose the ones you want. Whereas every older home is different and unique in most cases.
Nick: Yeah.
Paul: Well, it's like, again, if you're going the, the more modern burb approach, you know, you're just working your job, you show up and you buy the place and there's not really much you put into it. And you can do the same with the, An older home, if somebody does, somebody does the work, right? But if like you did it, you did the work yourself and you were managing the project.
Paul: And so it's like, what was your timeline? Like overall? Oh my goodness. Should we even
Nick: get into it? No, let's not. I'm sorry
Paul: to make you relive it.
Nick: Three contractors later. Um, no, it was, you
Paul: were, you were managing it project. So again, it's not at
Nick: first. And then I, I had to, I was kind of forced to because yeah.
Paul: But also like, again, like money wise too, like that saved you some money to step into it more. Sure. So yeah, it's like, again, for me, it's just, I couldn't, so that's why I ended up where I ended up, you know, because I couldn't afford to put that much time and effort into it.
Nick: And your specific development ended up blowing up and it was a really smart investment for you.
Paul: Yeah. Yeah. I don't, like I said, I don't regret it. If, if I had my choice and it was just me, I'd probably be somewhere else, but it is what it is.
Nick: So, and you can always make a decision to move down the road should you choose.
Paul: I could also just buy something.
Nick: Just,
Paul: yeah,
Nick: I'll have to talk to Ina about that.
Nick: Well, I think that's a good stopping point. Um, if you guys have any questions about old housing stock, um, or you want to redesign your old house, um, give us a call. Or
Paul: looking
Nick: to
Paul: invest. Yeah. Like, like I said, in the future, maybe I'll buy an investment property. Yeah,
Nick: I hope so.
Paul: Yeah. What do you mean maybe?
Paul: Stop saying maybe. You're definitely going to do that. Well, an old, sorry. An older investment property. How's that? Okay, fair enough. Like specifically the housing that we just talked about. Right. Perfect. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Not just in general. I'll definitely buy a house. Well, that's an investment.
Nick: Might we might actually buy an old house together and make it our office.
Danny: Yeah.
Nick: All
Paul: right. That works. But this, I wanna buy something myself. Okay. All right.
Nick: You can do that too. Yeah, that's what I'm saying, like I gotta talk to Ina about that. Alright, well I think this was a fun conversation ina. I think this is a fun conversation. Um, we're going to stop there. We will see you guys in two weeks and enjoy the rest of your day.
Paul: This has been the ARC Fluence podcasts. Please subscribe on the platform of your choice and leave us a review. We'd love to hear from you as always. You can get more information and additional content on ArcFluence. com.
Preserving Ohio’s Charm: A Guide to Vintage Home Renovations in Columbus, Cincinnati, and Cleveland
Ohio boasts a rich history, and it’s reflected in the charm of vintage homes found throughout Columbus, Cincinnati, and Cleveland. These homes, often built in the early 20th century or earlier, are an architectural marvel, blending character with unique design elements not commonly found in modern builds. However, renovating these homes can come with its own set of challenges and costs. If you’re considering buying or restoring a vintage property in Ohio, this guide offers expert insights and practical advice for transforming historic homes while preserving their timeless appeal.
What Defines a Vintage Home in Ohio?
In the real estate market, “vintage” typically refers to homes built in the early to mid-1900s. Each of Ohio’s major cities has its own historic flavor:
- Columbus: Known for its neighborhoods like German Village and Victorian Village, Columbus has a variety of vintage homes with intricate woodwork, brick facades, and unique layouts.
- Cincinnati: A city with one of the largest collections of pre-1900s homes, Cincinnati’s Over-the-Rhine area and East Walnut Hills are filled with homes that reflect the city's heyday as a manufacturing and transportation hub.
- Cleveland: With its ties to the steel industry, Cleveland’s vintage homes, particularly in neighborhoods like Ohio City and Tremont, often feature sturdy structures, designed to withstand the test of time.
Vintage homes are defined not only by their era but also by the building methods and materials used. True two-by-fours, plaster walls, original hardwood floors, and occasionally stunning stained-glass windows give these homes their unique aesthetic, but they also present significant challenges during renovation.
The Benefits of Vintage Homes in Ohio
Buying and renovating a vintage home offers numerous benefits. Here’s what draws Ohio homeowners and investors to these historic properties:
- Unique Architectural Character: From intricate woodwork and grand fireplaces to original stained glass, Ohio’s vintage homes carry a sense of history that modern homes often lack.
- Walkable Neighborhoods: Many of these homes are located in older, established neighborhoods, offering a walkable lifestyle with easy access to shops, restaurants, and public transportation.
- Potential for Value Appreciation: Vintage homes in cities like Columbus, Cincinnati, and Cleveland tend to hold their value well, especially when well-maintained. Buyers are often willing to pay a premium for character and uniqueness, making these homes potentially great investments.
That said, renovating a vintage home is no easy feat and requires careful planning, especially given the historic preservation rules in some Ohio neighborhoods.
Challenges of Renovating Vintage Homes in Columbus, Cincinnati, and Cleveland
Vintage homes, while charming, often come with various challenges. Here’s what you should be prepared for:
1. Structural Issues
Older homes may have structural issues due to aging materials and different building standards. For example, it’s common to find inconsistent stair heights, undersized joists, or even evidence of past termite damage in vintage homes across Ohio.
In Cleveland, many vintage homes built during the steel industry boom were crafted with sturdy materials, yet homeowners may find termite damage or wood rot that’s gone unnoticed for years. In Columbus and Cincinnati, older homes in popular historic neighborhoods may also face these structural hurdles, requiring extra reinforcement or even the replacement of entire support beams.
2. Outdated or Hazardous Materials
Renovating a vintage home in Ohio can often reveal outdated or hazardous materials like lead paint and asbestos, which were common in mid-century renovations. In German Village in Columbus or Over-the-Rhine in Cincinnati, many homes were built before current building codes existed, so these materials may need professional removal for health and safety reasons.
3. Insulation and Energy Efficiency
Many older homes lack sufficient insulation, making them less energy efficient. In Cleveland, where winters are particularly harsh, poorly insulated homes can lead to high heating bills. Upgrading insulation and installing energy-efficient windows can help maintain the home’s original charm while reducing energy costs.
4. Zoning and Preservation Commissions
Renovating a vintage home in Ohio often means dealing with zoning laws and historic preservation commissions, especially in areas like Victorian Village in Columbus and East Walnut Hills in Cincinnati. These commissions have strict guidelines to preserve the look and feel of historic neighborhoods, affecting everything from window materials to roof replacements. Working with a contractor who understands local regulations can save time and headaches.
Popular Vintage Home Renovation Projects in Ohio
Depending on your home’s age and style, the renovation needs may vary. Here are some popular renovation projects for Ohio’s vintage homes:
1. Restoring Original Wood Floors
Many Ohio vintage homes feature original hardwood floors made from dense, high-quality wood. While sanding and refinishing may be required, restoring original wood floors can add significant value to your home. For homes in Cincinnati’s historic Over-the-Rhine district, maintaining the floor’s natural look adds to the property’s allure.
2. Adding Modern Kitchens
In vintage homes, kitchens were often smaller with less storage and counter space. Expanding the kitchen or integrating an open floor plan can add functionality and appeal to your property, especially in Columbus where many homeowners seek open kitchen-dining spaces that fit a modern lifestyle. Be cautious with any structural walls that may need to be removed, as this can require significant reinforcement.
3. Updating Electrical and Plumbing Systems
Electrical and plumbing systems in older homes can be outdated and even dangerous. Homes built in the early 20th century in Cleveland or Cincinnati may still have knob-and-tube wiring, which should be replaced for safety. Similarly, older plumbing may need updates to handle modern water pressure demands.
4. Preserving Stained Glass Windows
Some of Ohio’s vintage homes, especially in upscale areas of Cleveland and Cincinnati, contain beautiful stained glass windows. These can be a unique selling point for your property. Hiring a professional to clean, restore, or even replace damaged sections can help maintain this feature’s aesthetic and financial value.
Estimating the Cost of Vintage Home Renovations in Ohio
Cost is one of the biggest factors in vintage home renovations. Here’s a breakdown of typical expenses:
- Structural Repairs: $5,000–$50,000 depending on the scale of damage.
- Electrical and Plumbing Updates: Rewiring can cost around $4,000–$15,000, and plumbing updates start at about $3,000.
- Kitchen Remodel: A basic vintage kitchen remodel starts around $20,000, but it can exceed $50,000 if you're creating an open floor plan or adding high-end appliances.
- Bathroom Renovations: Redoing a vintage bathroom, including adding modern plumbing and fixtures, usually ranges between $10,000 and $25,000.
- Insulation and Energy Efficiency: Depending on the age and size of the home, insulation upgrades typically cost $2,000–$5,000, with energy-efficient window replacements adding another $8,000–$15,000.
These are general estimates, but actual costs will depend on the extent of the work, the location, and the contractors you choose. Always add a 10-15% buffer for unexpected expenses.
Top Tips for Vintage Home Renovation in Ohio
For homeowners interested in restoring a vintage property in Columbus, Cincinnati, or Cleveland, here are some expert tips:
- Work with Experienced Contractors: Vintage home renovations require contractors familiar with historic preservation and local building codes.
- Research Local Zoning Regulations: Columbus and Cincinnati both have historic preservation areas where you’ll need to follow specific design guidelines.
- Focus on Energy Efficiency: Updating insulation, windows, and HVAC systems can reduce energy costs, which can be higher in poorly insulated vintage homes.
- Consider Reusing Original Materials: Reusing items like bricks or doors can help maintain the character of your vintage home and reduce material costs.
- Set Aside a Contingency Budget: Vintage homes often have hidden issues. A contingency fund will help cover unexpected costs that may arise during renovation.
Final Thoughts on Renovating Ohio’s Vintage Homes
Vintage homes in Ohio cities like Columbus, Cincinnati, and Cleveland offer a unique combination of charm and investment potential. However, they also come with challenges that require careful planning and skilled contractors. Whether you’re buying an Over-the-Rhine Victorian or a cozy craftsman bungalow in German Village, preserving your home’s character while updating it for modern needs can be a rewarding process that increases both property value and personal enjoyment.
If you’re ready to take on a vintage home renovation, consult local professionals who understand Ohio’s historic homes. With the right approach, you can preserve the past while enjoying the best of modern living.