Life in the Old-House Lane

By Kathleen Fisher

Old-House Living has touched on a lot of the ups and downs of the restoration experience, as well as many shared insights and personal revelations, such as balancing house and spouse (above), re-restoring one's own work (top), and keeping chin up and goals clear (left). If you have an idea for an OHL, send a brief outline to Old-House Living Editor, 1000 Potomac Street, NW, Suite 102, Washington, DC 20007.

Nearly as old as Old-House Journal is one of its most popular departments, Old-House Living. In the very first installment in October 1973, founder Clem Labine shared some of the trials and tribulations he'd faced in his own Brooklyn brownstone. As if to quickly prove that the joys and pains of working on, and residing in, a vintage building aren't limited to New York City or even the East Coast, the very next OHL, as they quickly came to be called by the staff, focused on an adapted schoolhouse in Kentucky.

For three decades now readers have enjoyed Old-House Living because it reflects the heart and soul of its nameÑthe nuances of refinishing woodwork or the niceties of mending a rotted porch, but the classic old-house love story. Though people and places always change, they share a remarkably similar scenario: from the initial connection of house and owner (Boy Gets Girl?), to their inevitable disillusionment (the equivalent of Boy Loses Girl), to triumph over obstacles and naysayers (Boy Rewins Girl). Invariably these tales tend not to end on a surreal note of living happily ever after, since we all know better, but a list of the next projects: (Boy Takes Out Girl's Stripped Wallpaper and Other Garbage for a Lifetime). And of courseÑdon't we women know itÑvice versa.

The first generation of OHLs were largely reader-written and, like the rest of those earliest magazines, reflected the passionate zeal of a new and somewhat fringe movement: the converted talking to the rest of the highly suspect converted. Eventually though, they came as often from third parties and the OHJ editors themselves, bringing a broader geographic perspective to the stories, while striving to keep them from sounding too much alike (all the things that could possibly go wrong in an old house and how we solved them). Over the years OHL has featured the unremuddling of tiny bungalows, beginners' experiences with rehabilitating Victorian-era mansions, the moving and restoration of old Texas farmhouses, the rehabbing of log cabins in West Virginia, a band of restorers in northern California, a Mediterranean Revival in Florida, the creation of B&Bs here and there, and, at one point, the total reconstruction of a Maine mansion from the original blueprints.

Want to make your own house an OHL? Send a brief letter with a story idea that gives us something unique to focus on, something about the interface of people and buildingÑwhether it's your neighborhood, one particular project, something you learned from your house, or the lifestyle it embraces, as in this issue's OHL. After all, when you put down the tools at the end of the day, an old house is a way of life.


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