Restoration | From Times Past Blog

Don’t Hide that Front Door

April 5, 2012 By Johanne

Antique doors should be seen, not hidden!

Each spring the City of Edmonton holds a series of educational workshops that are designed to help owners of heritage properties learn how to restore and preserve their heritage homes. Last night we discussed floors and mill work. Both of these are extremely important aspects of the charm of a heritage home interior. Mill work especially is what links one room to another and it's important to ensure that their visual treatment is consistent. Many old houses also have beautiful exterior doors but often they are hidden behind ugly aluminum screen doors. Now I … [Read more...]

Filed Under: My Old House, Restoration Tagged With: Antique doors, decorating an old house, front doors on old houses, Johanne Yakula, old house decor, old house millwork, Victorian decor

Edifice Magazine for Old House Owners

November 29, 2011 By Johanne

In a previous post I was lamenting the changes made to This Old House Magazine. Now I'm sure they are doing what they have to do to maintain readership but I'm disappointed that what was previously a good magazine for old house owners has dissolved into a "one size fits all" format. Apparently this Old House is not the only magazine doing this: Here are a couple of emails I received: Dear Johanne: I can't speak about "This Old House" magazine since I've only ever seen a few old issues, but I am experiencing the same feeling with "Victorian Homes" magazine. I am so disapointed! … [Read more...]

Filed Under: My Old House, Restoration Tagged With: decorating an old house, Johanne Yakula, old house restoration, old houses, THis Old House Magazine, Victorian decor, Victorian Homes magazine

Restoring Antique Trunks

November 28, 2011 By Johanne

There is rarely a basement that I go into when doing appraisals that does not have one or more antique trunks. Some are pressed into service as storage receptacles while others simply sit there as a gentle reminder of an ancestral family member's first trip to America or Canada. Many trunks still bear the original hand written names and passenger ship's markings or labels. Such was the case on the trunk in the picture on the left. A client brought me this trunk to restore but she wanted all the markings to be preserved as much as possible. First of all - when is a trunk worth … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Antiques, Appraisals, Restoration Tagged With: antique, antique appraisals, antique trunks, buying antiques, how to restore antique trunks, Johanne Yakula, mothballs in trunks, selling antiques, Victorian decor

This Old House Magazine Disappoints

October 21, 2011 By Johanne

I have been a long time buyer followed by subscriber of This Old House Magazine. When I first started buying this magazine it was at a time that there was very little information on anything to do with older homes. This Old House had pages full of relevant information for the problems and issues that owners of heritage homes face. Recently I have noticed a change. Although the magazine is clearly geared to DIY (do it yourself) types of which I am one, the examples they are using in the magazine are moving further and further away from old houses and into DIY territory. Perhaps they … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Decoration, My Old House, Restoration Tagged With: decorating an old house, Decoration, Johanne Yakula, old house, old house decor, old house restoration, old houses, Victorian decor, Victorian homes

Designing a Heritage Style Kitchen

October 14, 2011 By Johanne 2 Comments

I have received many emails from readers asking me questions about the design of our new kitchen pictured at left. It seems like a good idea to answer some of these queries and give you a few tips along the way in case you are thinking of "updating" your old house kitchen. First of all my disclaimer. I am not a restoration purist. Although I applaud the efforts of those of you who meticulously search to replace old with old it just is not as important to me. What I care most about is preserving what there is if it works and recreating the feeling of the original if it … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Decoration, My Old House, Restoration Tagged With: decorating an old house, Decoration, designing a kitchen for an old house, Johanne Yakula, kitchens in old houses, old house decor, old house kitchens, old house restoration

My Old House and Garden – The great unveiling

September 16, 2011 By Johanne 3 Comments

When I was preparing the images on my web site for this blog entry I have to admit I was impressed. Impressed by how much my husband and I managed to do in five years of living in this 1912 house. A new basement reno, new garage, kitchen and addition and landscaping plus more. It took time and a lot of effort to do - and more money than I like to think of. But when you look at the pictures I am giving you a link to I hope you will understand why I feel good about what we've accomplished. That's the beauty of before and after pictures. They remind you how far you have … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Decoration, My Old House, Restoration Tagged With: 1912 house, decorating an old house, Decoration, designing a kitchen for an old house, designing backyards, designing decks, Edwardian house, Johanne Yakula, Lattice on decks, old house decor, old house floors, Old House gardens, old house kitchens, old house restoration, old houses

Our Renos are almost done!!

September 8, 2011 By Johanne 2 Comments

I"m waiting for everything to be completed before I post indoor pictures of our new kitchen and hopefully that means this weekend. The last bit to do is the back splash in subway tile - by now a cliche but still very suitable for a 1912 house. One thing I am very glad we did was to build the outside deck even though it wasn't in the budget. It made it possible to have our meals outside and gave the trades people someplace to put their saws while they worked on the house. It also made the difference between putting cedar clapboard siding with a 6 foot ladder instead of a 10 foot … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Decoration, My Old House, Restoration