anecdoter's Full Review: Old House Journal Magazine
Anyone who purchases an older home should be given this magazine as a gift. Each issue brings many informative and helpful issues and varieties of problems that will creep up on those of us who own an older home. While this magazine mainly focuses on homes older than fifty years, many basic tips and techniques discussed can be easily applied to those who live in a newer home; also, people with an interest in period architecture will find some very informative articles as well.
Everything from the basement to the attic is covered, with a wide range of information that spans the couple hundred years of home building in America. Feature articles include tips on how to weatherize an older home, tips on fire safety, the history of kitchen cabinets, and how to repair sash windows and replace bathroom tile. The feature articles are usually several pages long and are plentifully illustrated with diagrams to depict important concepts.
For example, the recent article about sash windows was very helpful and covered everything from loosening an old window stuck with paint from a careless owner to how to replace the weights and pulleys. Each section of the article included clear illustrations that showed the typical parts of sash windows, sites of common problems, and the easiest ways to access the internals of these windows. The writer also included many hints from his own experience to help beginners along.
The writes in Old House Journal are very informed about their subjects, in fact, they are often the ones in the pictures doing the work. Having actually done the work they describe, the writers often tell of many helpful secrets and can warn of common problem areas that may not be reported by someone who is summarizing someone else's notes. Even the common sense, fire safety article was written by a presumable expert in the field - a chief engineer at the National Fire Protection Institute.
The fire safety article brings me to my primary complaint against the magazine, some of the bigger issues that deserve much space get relatively little coverage. One would think that the Old House Journal could have done an entire issue on fire safety, one that would cover many different aspects. Instead of a four page article summarizing the common problems owners of old houses face when trying to upgrade their fire protection, we could have been given separate articles on how to improve an old house's electric system to prevent against fire-inducing arcing or a hands-on article that illustrates how to install an automatic sprinkler system or hardwired smoke alarms or create fire blocks within attics and crawl spaces, etc.
My least favorite part of the magazine is the tours of old homes around the country. While sometimes interesting, I usually skip these as I usually have a very limited time to read. However, those who have an interest in architecture or old homes would probably be fascinated by the stories and pictures of homes across the country that were built in times very different than our own.
Old House Journal also include articles that just discuss old houses or aspects there of. For example, recently there was an article about old kitchen cabinets that I found to be very interesting because I am just finishing restoring my eighty-five year old cabinets. Another issue had an article dealing with complete remodellings of various homes that included many very interesting before and after pictures; the homes in this article were reconstructed from one style to another, such as from Queen Anne to Colonial.
There are many departments that will probably be of interest to most old house owners. There is an interesting column called "Old House Mechanic" which discusses various tools and strategies to use them. The Journal provides a widely assorted collection of tidbits that provide information about houses that have been saved from the wrecking ball, hints from readers, and other miscellaneous pieces of information. The Letters section also provides some useful hints and nuggets of knowledge from readers across the country. In the back of each issue is a classified section full of products and services that can turn any money pit into a work of art. The Remuddlings page is a portrayal of good intentions gone bad; these reader-provided house show how little taste and respect for historic buildings, people can have. These pictures are very funny, to say the least.
I strongly recommend this magazine to anyone who owns of lives in an older house. You never know when you will need to fix a stuck window, or when that better way to strip paint from wood will come in handy. Of course, you could always buy a general book about the subject, but these hints from the front lines of restoration are priceless - especially when they warn you of pitfalls you would have otherwise learned of the hard way.
6 issues - Old House Journal, the original restoration magazine, is for people passionate about restoring old houses. This magazine includes stories o...More at SuperMagDeals.com
6 issues - Old House Journal, the original restoration magazine, is for people passionate about restoring old houses. This magazine includes stories o...More at Subscription Addiction
6 issues - Old House Journal, the original restoration magazine, is for people passionate about restoring old houses. This magazine includes stories o...More at SpeedyMags.com
Epinions.com periodically updates pricing and product information from third-party sources, so some information may be slightly out-of-date. You should confirm all information before relying on it.
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.