We had a lot of work to do, we did it and I love my house. We have wainscoting topped with a plate shelving all around the dining room, built in buffet (minus the doors), wood cornice trim in both living and dining room, built in shelving on one side of fireplace, and built in storage on the right side like a bench with a lid, probably for wood. It was all painted white and we (mostly me) stripped all the wood, stained it colonial walnut which matched perfectly with the few inches of wood that never got painted. We restored it to it's 1920 original look. My husband took a cabinet making class and built our kitchen cabinets, also built all the missing doors to the builtin in shelves in the DR and LR. In the kitchen, we could actually see on the flooring where cabinets were, so we tried to recreate a 1920's kitchen with room for a dishwasher and a frig. I think we had 10 rooms
We still have original windows with wavy glass. On our street there are at least one house with a double staircase, and 4 with maid quarters. There are no Victorian/Queen Anne houses. Our street was recently completely replaced, the forum asked us how old the house were, we told them when we moved in, the corner concrete was stamped with the street name and 1912. He replied I knew it, because the crushed rock base was so different from more modern streets.
It is like living in a museum, kind of. Whenever someone sees it for the first time, they always say, "Wow, these old houses are great." There is also a house built by the Hearst Castle architect Julia Morgan, (certified) 3 doors away. But a couple bought it and modernized it, moved walls, replaced the clinker brick fireplace and painted everything white. Its just awful.
I love old homes too.
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