links

This is our guidebook to some of the resources we use regularly in our renovation process. You'll notice that we lean heavily towards forums and message boards! We have our favorite information sites, and yes, even a few of our favorite e-commerce retailers, but we find that, far and away, the best information comes from people talking to each other.

Here are the best forums we've found on line so far (if we haven't linked directly to the forums, just look on the menu bar to the left or the top of the main page and click on the forums):

The Old House List
http://list.lovemyoldhome.com

This old house list is the replacement for the Old House-L that crashed and died earlier this year when the list owner went MIA. The sheer amount of information the list members keep in their heads is staggering-- these people love working on old sticks n' bricks, and love learning about how to work on them. Then again, maybe they're just high on wood stripper fumes... At any rate, don't miss it if you're a serious old house lover or renovator. Those with a more casual interest may want to take a pass.

As a note of explanation, the Old House List is a "listserv"-- a community of people online who share a common interest, and discuss it via email. When you post a question or comment to the list, it will go out via broadcast email to all the members of the list, and all responses will as well. You'll get all these discussions via posts in your email box. Sound complicated? It really isn't, all you have to do is subscribe by clicking the link above. A warning though, the community is small, but prolific-- sign up for the digest version if you don't want to get inundated with fifty or more emails a day. The digest consolidates the emails into one or two a day, which you can browse through for the discussions that interest you. The listowner is an old house owner herself, a tech wiz, and an all-around nice person who will cheerfully help you with any questions or problems you have with the list.

 

Taunton Press' Fine Homebuilding (scroll down the Fine Home Building page for the link to the Breaktime Forum!)
http://www.taunton.com/finehomebuilding/index.asp

Whatever you think of Fine Homebuilding (personally, our jury's still out after that article on vinyl siding, and we're waiting for Taunton to prostrate itself on the altar of natural products and beg forgiveness-- Taunton, HOW COULD YOU?!?! Ok... deep breath... we're better now) the Breaktime Forum is an utter font of entertainment and information. Don't go unless you plan to order pizza for delivery and ignore your family for five hours.

 

Walls and Ceilings message board
http://www.i-boards.com/bnp/wc

These guys are plasterheads, and we mean that in the best possible way. The forum is for posting by professionals only, so don't be rude and butt in on the discourse. If you lay low and lurk, though, you'll come away with invaluable information on finishing your own plaster and drywall, as well as get the heads up on new products on the market.

 

The Old House Web
http://www.oldhouseweb.com

We love the Old House Web forums. It's a great mix of regulars with experience and knowledge, and newbies that bring some really dumb questions for entertainment! Aww, come on, admit it... the deafening silence when some new poster asks which brand of vinyl replacement window is best is delicious. Anyway, check out the posters on the forums and the links in the posts to their houses. It's where we discovered the link to Enon Hall, an incredible website chronicling the renovation of an ancestral home in Virginia. Our website shamelessly steals inspiration from Enon Hall's, but we're kinda the low-rent version. Enon Hall was a grand Virginia farm that traces its roots through many generations, and its provenance is celebrated by holiday parades in colonial attire. Our house probably housed tax evaders and rum runners, and the only parade on holidays is the parade of demolition debris out the door to the dumpster. Ah well, we raise a glass to Enon Hall-- even if their champagne flutes are filled with Perrier Jouet and ours are filled with Andre Cold Duck, they're all covered with sawdust-- cheers!

 

That Home Site message boards
http://www.thathomesite.com

One wonders how, or why, any little slice of cyberspace manages to get so many people talking about so many topics relating to houses at one time. We dunno, but That Home Site does, and does it well. There's not a forum on the site that doesn't have great information, but for sheer entertainment value, you've gotta go to the Kitchens and Baths Forum. There's a whole cadre of "granite snobs" over there that personally visit quarrys to pick out their granite slabs, and discuss the "movement" of the particular granite pattern that they've chosen for their kitchen countertops. Hey, even if your self-esteem isn't dependent on your choice of kitchen countertop material, or you couldn't care less about kitchens or counters, there's fireplaces, organizing, plumbing, cooking, you name it. . . just go.

As an aside, as we well know, servers and webservices can be expensive, and That Home Site and Garden Web have been providing a forum to exchange valuable information for years. Recently, they've been requiring membership fees to post on certain forums. The $15 per year membership fee is worth every penny, and supports a great web community and a stable place for information exchange. It's a real bargain if you find the forums as consistently valuable as we do, so if you're so inclined, you can become a member by going to the Membership Page.

 

GardenWeb message boards
http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/

Garden Web is run from the same site as That Home Site and is the same type of one stop shop for lawn and garden information as That Home Site is for information about the home. There are regional forums, specialty forums, even forums for temporary regional climactic conditions, like the Drought Forum. It's an incredible source for information and dialogue, and if you find yourself back there again and again, become a member. The same fifteen bucks supports Garden Web and That Home Site for a year, and it's worth every penny!

 

Better Homes and Gardens website
http://www.bhg.com

Hey, Better Homes and Gardens makes its money by being what it is-- every middle American housewife's dream of the perfect home. The site itself has some fun articles on decorating, cooking, and family life, but like all our recommendations, the pot of gold is to be found on the forums. All the House and Home forums are great, but we stand in awe of the posters on the Colors forum, who sit by their computers ready with several generations of Benjamin Moore and Sherwin Williams paint color fan decks, always ready to pitch in with suggestions for the perfect red, perfect neutral, or the holy grail of home interior design, the perfect yellow. This is the group, that, when the apocalypse hits and all is reduced to smoldering ash, will have made Benjamin Moore's Windham Cream an enduring icon of this society.

 

MSN's Great Impressions
http://groups.msn.com/greatimpressions

Apparently, back in the Dark Ages before Better Homes and Gardens allowed a poster to easily post pictures on its forum, Great Impressions was born. Well, even though BH&G allows pics now, Great Impressions remains as the hallowed halls of all things chic for the home in jpg form. Great Impressions contains all the photo albums for the regulars on the BH&G forums, but also contains its own amazingly active message board for decorating advice. You want the hands-down decorating divas of the net? Go to Great Impressions.

 

Pool Forum message board
http://www.poolforum.com

Bleach, borax and baking soda. Stuff you get at the grocery store to keep your laundry and fridge smelling great, right? Wrong-- it's what we used to keep our pool crystal clear and clean for the entire summer, and all for about five bucks a week. Before we start sounding too much like an info-mercial, we'll just say that if you've got a pool, just go to Pool Forums. Do not pass go, do not collect $200, and for goodness sakes, do not go to the pool store! Your pool, your sanity and your wallet will thank us.

 

The few sites we recommend for information, not for the forums (though they may have some):

The Family Handyman site (don't miss the Home Improvement Library)
http://www.familyhandyman.com

Family Handyman has some great, basic articles for easy home improvement projects. Lots of them still require serious infusions of practice, common sense, design sense, or all of the above, but at least the articles tell you how to do something, accompanied by good pictures, though it may take some added elements to do it well.

 

And finally, the few retailers to make our hot list thus far...

The Utilikilt
http://www.utilikilts.com

By popular demand, we're including the link to Utilikilts. We've had an absolute flood of emails asking "and just what, pray tell is he wearing in those pictures?" It's a Utilikilt. Why a kilt? Well:

(1) Kilts are extremely comfortable;
(2) Utilikilts have hammer loops and nail pockets;
(3) Utilikilts have pockets which can accomodate six different sizes
of nails and screws, ALONG WITH an entire six pack of locally brewed
amber beer, and
(4) He's a 6'7", 250 lb. former Marine, which means he can
carry a variety of nails, screws, hammers and beer IN A SKIRT all at
the same time and noone will say anything to him other than
"Good Morning, Sir."

Those without the requisite attitude to pull it off need not apply.

In The Swim pool supplies
http://www.intheswim.com

We don't generally recommend e-commerce sites, because the ones we frequent usually carry stuff so obscure and limited in interest that noone else cares. I mean really, how many people do you know that are just dying for a source for porcelain doorknobs with a medallion in an antique brass finish? And the people that even give a @#$^& about the porcelain doorknobs already know where to find them, anyway. But if you need pool supplies, these guys are great-- cheaper than anywhere else we know, reasonable shipping costs, and they're fast, too. What more could you ask for?

 

Sigh. Now must come the mandatory disclaimer, for those of you who don't know us well enough to know that any suggestion that we're able to be bought is laughable, and further, that we're waaaaaaay too expensive for mere mortals. We have no affiliation with any of the sites above, we just like hanging out on them. 'Nough said, ya?

 

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