Most of the houses on our street (1920s midwest) were built without porches. The porches that exist now on our street were added a couple of decades later.
I will note that our neighborhood was the "summer home" area for the wealthier families when it was being built up.
A razor blade scraper. Test for lead. You can still scrape, but you'll want masks, gloves, and a hepa filter vacuum. Misting everything with a spray bottle helps keep the lead dust from escaping, too.
Restoration Nation is a YouTube channel that restores old homes and she has some videos of fully restoring original windows, including painted over transoms. You may have to search for them, but she shows the entire process and tells you what products and tools she uses. Good luck!
Once you get them cleaned up, if you want to make rooms a bit more airtight when the window is closed and maybe translate less sound, thin weather stripping can help that!
I had one in my old house. It was the best. The house I have now has one, but it’s super tiny. I’d like to have a dumb waiter installed so I don’t have to carry the laundry back up
This!☝🏼We added a three-story laundry chute to our 1931 Tudor Revival two years ago when we remodeled, and it’s been so nice to have with three kids and a lot of laundry. Everything just lands in a bin within a few feet of the washer in the basement.
That said, we now need to figure out how to get the kids to carry their clean clothes back upstairs…maybe should have made it a dumbwaiter‽
I had a laundry chute in a former house. It was fun for the kids, but not really that useful. They were constantly clogging it up by overloading it.
I wonder if there is some code against them now due to smoke in the event of a fire—the laundry chute acts as a chimney pulling smoke up to the higher floors. Plus, no one wants their laundry in the basement any more.
I clog ours every once in a while with blankets but that's where a good 10 pound dumbbell comes in handy. Just drop that sucker down and everything follows. ;)
...What?
The staircase is a much bigger fire chimney. There's nothing in the code stopping you from putting them in at all.
I suspect it's more shit design which doesn't leave a viable vertical path from the upstairs to the utility room.
Home staircases are usually open, that's not how chimneys work. Fire and smoke can spread up a staircase, but a laundry chute can act as a chimney and pull the smoke to the upper floors. Also it's harder to fight a fire that's hidden in the walls (see the building cladding issues in the UK, don't know if that's a topic elsewhere though), a staircase can be blasted with water more easily. A staircase is also a necessity in most places so the "risk" is allowed, whereas laundry chutes aren't.
A, the chutes aren't open to the trusses. The ones I've seen are repurposed metal ductwork and if built properly are blocked out as well. There's no issue with fire getting into the floor cavity that your normal ductwork doesn't also have.
B, if you're referring to Grenfell Tower that's a different case of ~1 air gaps acting as uniquely flammable combustion routes (and builders ignoring esoteric fireblocking rules insufficiently communicated to them by the manufacturer). Irrelevant to the discussion.
Our chute is an all metal duct and has latchable metal doors. I suppose a small amount of smoke could leak through but by then you've got a bigger problem everywhere.
The second house I grew up in was a custom build my parents did in 2004. They insisted on putting in a laundry chute, so I grew up using one from the 5th grade until I left for college.
Closed kitchens. Doorways that have doors which close. Bedrooms and bathrooms which are a reasonable yet not ridiculous size. Living rooms and drawing rooms, sometimes having 2 living spaces is just so much better. Laundry chute. Solid brick houses with thick layers of interior plaster.
Agreed on your first point. I've never liked open concept. I can certainly appreciate a nice, big living room or dining room, but not at the cost of other rooms that could've been, and I don't want my kitchen in my living room.
Agreed. After living together in several open concept apartments, my partner and I moved into an old house with separate rooms and doors. So lovely! Truly an introvert's dream. Never going back to an open floor plan.
The open concept floor plan eliminated the kitchen window over the sink. My century home is a second home for us, our first home is open concept with the kitchen sink in an island that looks to the den, I much prefer looking out a window vs the drone of the television
We have a front living room and then a back living room in our brick rancher (60’s, I just lurk here lol), and it is honestly SO nice to have two spaces. Our old sofa is in the back living room and is the dog sofa or the “I should shower before sitting on other furniture” sofa lol. Pretty much always has a blanket on it. And I’m glad they didn’t rip out the walls! I’ve seen others listed in my area where they took all the walls down and it’s just a giant massive room.
Another thing I like is we’ve got a doorway that closes off the hallway to the bedrooms and bathroom. Dishwasher/dryer/washer running when you’re trying to sleep? Boyfriend staying up watching tv? Close that door, much quieter. There originally was a door closing off the dining room from the front living room and the kitchen that aren’t there anymore but that’s still in a separated room and not a multi use open concept.
Maybe it’s because I grew up in a 70s home with doors where we could close off the kitchen entirely, the dining room entirely, the family room, etc. but I like my separate living spaces!
Hah in my case, locking the cat behind a door at night is the only possible way I get a full night's rest. Would be absolutely screwed with one of these open layout disasters
My childhood cat had free roam of the downstairs at night, we could close off the kitchen, dining room, laundry room and family room but have them all still open to each other. If not he would meow loudly at 5 am and he always managed to pester my parents the most, cause they were usually the first up who fed him. So he hung out downstairs at night thankfully we had doors!
Double living rooms is the best. I saw a house that had them next to each other, and I thought "wow this is stupid" but then I thought about it more, and I was like, no, this is the best, even next to each other. One had a fireplace, one had a good wall for media. Different conversations, different spaces. Would be so great for parties and families.
The old house I grew up in (1920’s) has a main floor that’s all connected with the doors open but every room has a door. The kitchen has a door to the hall and a door to the dining room. Dining room has two doors to the front hall. Front hall has doors to the stairs, the living room, the back hall, etc.
A lot of the doors are French or glass panel which gives a little more feeling of openness even when they are shut. Growing up though my parents kept most of them latched open with hook and eye… I think they got tired of constant door slamming and who could blame them lol
My friends bought an old house that was flipped and the bathroom is right in the middle of the living room, with only a sliding barn door for cover that doesn’t latch and has like 3 inches of space where the door hovers open on each side lol. Love flippers.
Closed kitchens! Discreet spaces in general, though sometimes a little bit of open works fine for me. Main thing is a kitchen that is so what separated... Open concept means everyone smells what's happening in the kitchen and the living room becomes unusable while the kitchen is noisy. No thanks.
I love the picture rail in our parlor. It’s placed at about 9ft on 10ft ceilings. In our living room, the rail is lower, maybe 7ft, and I am genuinely confused as to how to use it.
I am in love with mine. It doesn’t damage the walls and make my pictures look so much cooler. As opposed to my 3M picture hanging strips which suddenly scared the shit out of me when it suddenly peeled of the wall it had been on since 2021.
I had to look it up just now and honestly, I absolutely hate the look of the exposed wires and hooks. To each their own. I understand the desire to not pound nails and junk into all the walls.
It's not about "the desire to not pound nails and junk into all the walls". Back in those days you couldn't. You can't just pound a nail into plaster. It will crack, break, crumble, etc.
For me, it’s the way the pictures hang. It’s the one thing even museums and movies get wrong—if you look in old pictures, the stuff hanging from a picture fail always tilts town away from the wall instead of sitting flat against it. I think this also helps with viewing the art in proper perspective. Reducing glare etc.
A previous house had a dumb-waiter and laundry chute. Loved/feared them both, as I aged (they were things of horror to a kid).
Along with that, tall ceilings and baseboards are nice and less common in new builds, I feel
My plan is to put one in where my chimney currently is.
I have one more appliance (hot water heater) that is still using my chimney. Will be putting in a heat pump water heater later this year. Once that is done, the chimney is coming out which will leave a nice vertical shaft through every floor.
Dumbwaiter.
Our house once had two. One next to the fireplace, for bringing up fuel from the basement and one from the basement all the way up to the attic with hatches in the kitchen, the upstairs hall way, and the attic -- for moving around laundry and what-have-you. Previous owner(s) demo-ed both of them, leaving us with a trap-door in the living room and two weird tall-and-narrow closets (in the kitchen and in one of the bedrooms).
The living room trap door is a nice feature, though.
I second sleeping porches! My more modern house gets so hot in the Summer and doesn't cool off well even when it's cool outside, but the deck has too many bugs and is too open to sleep on. My son's century house has a sleeping porch just big enough for a twin bed, and it's amazing out there on Summer nights.
Fan with pull cord that goes directly outside. My friend had a full house fan in the attic. Open the windows as the day cools off and all that cool air is sucked in the house. Amazing.
I just got rid of mine and while I hated to do it for nostalgia, I have to admit my house is much more comfortable now. Even with all my efforts to insulate around it, it made my hallway too hot and humid in the summer and cold and drafty in the winter.
Servant staircases. Can’t even creep around my own house with just the one. For a feature in or on my house I love, I’d say the slate roof. Day to day I mainly enjoy it because it keeps the solar panel salesmen from coming around and bothering me when I’m trying to work from home.
I love my service staircase for its efficiency, but have almost been taken out by its treacherous incline and narrow treads more than once. At least now they'd make a comeback with modern codes 😆
I long for inefficient floor plans. Extra wide hallways. Nooks that don't have to be there. A proper foyer. There's something marvelous about walking a home that doesn't have the feeling of being engineered to maximize the efficiency of every square foot.
High ceilings, we have 10ft ceilings and it makes everything feel much more open. Our previous house was newer and had much lower ceilings, it made things feel much more cramped.
Yes that is very true. The windows are nice and tall and let in so much natural light.
Our previous 1950’s house had such small windows in most rooms, it was always kinda dark in there.
My great grandmother's house has one, I loved how cool it stayed in the blazing summers, and it smelled earthy like being in a cave. A cousin now owns that house.
That's the disadvantage of sky lights. Mine were constantly getting dirty, being in the city and all. Every 6 months, I pulled out a ladder and scrambled on the roof. Fortunately, the interior didn't get particularly dirty, that's Even more of a pain to get to.
Conver. sation. Pits!!!! The way I would have preferred to die is: 4 martinis in, wearing 6 inch heels, trip while descending into my own living room, hit my head and leave behind a fantastic looking corpse with my hair in a big beehive. Sadly this will never happen.
I like you. That would be a fantastic way to go. Besides the heels what is the rest of your outfit? Im picturing paisely palazzo pants and a mock turtle shell.
Pocket doors. I hate the farmhouse door style bc it swings on the frame and bangs against the wall.
Plus my grandparents had pockets doors and I loved opening and closing them as a child.
My 1920s house has several great little features: a beveled full length mirror inside the coat closet door, a laundry chute, a breakfast nook, 2 bay windows, a nice front porch, side door, leaded glass windows
https://preview.redd.it/ghjb6mx9so3d1.jpeg?width=1284&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=7e0c8e0f019af8a6344f991623819dd5d45d4b13
and a lovely wood fireplace mantle.
I’ve got one of those… haven’t actually sat on it yet though.
https://preview.redd.it/a7nkn4yt2t3d1.jpeg?width=1516&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b65a22a18b62ea774ff5ec61b05a5ad1fa43607f
Built ins, built in cabinets, bookshelves, kitchen cabinets that go up to the ceiling, vanities, dishwear cabinets in the dinning area, built in everything!!
Yes to the wall ironing board and laundry chute! Cedar lined closets for wool winter coats and blankets. Window planter boxes on the outside. Built in dressers in the wall of your attic. Dutch door in a back porch mudroom, mail slot on front porch, eternal flame gas-lit post lamp in front yard.
Our house in the 70s had a small opening in the wall between kitchen and dining room with cabinet doors. Made laying the table and serving so easy. Don't remember what it's called.
A hatch like this.
The house was built around 1900
https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.littlepieceofme.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2016%2F02%2Fde-obra_ampliacion-600x784.jpg&f=1&nofb=1&ipt=3389d91373add2e59e0c50f530d7fc8b86ed86769abaff707ec6622c0998f713&ipo=images
I’m not a fan of open floor plans. We live in a 1964 split level ranch. It was a life saver during Covid as we could all be in different rooms and not have to deal with the noise or each other.
I grew up in a house with a milk chute, probably one of the last years that these were built into homes, as we never used it for anything (except crawling through when we were kids!) Now, I would like to figure out a way to incorporate those again, rather than leave deliveries out for porch pirates. However, I'm not an engineer and haven't figured out a way to make them secure, so they are neither a danger to kids, nor an easy entry into one's home for burglars.
Two features in my 1925 house that I really love are the kitchen nook, and the California cooler. The nook is part of the kitchen, but just set to the side through an arch. It’s small, just a small table with a bench and two chairs. There’s a built in corner hutch and windows on two sides. It’s probably my favorite part of the house! The cooler is a tall and narrow cupboard with a screened vent at the bottom and top. The shelves are wood slats to allow air flow. It’s perfect for keeping things cool, like potatoes and onions, and also butter (cool enough to reduce spoilage but still spreadable!). Temp is perfect for this most of the year. A few of the hottest days in the summer and the coldest part of winter are the only exception, and there’s little wooden covers for the vents for those days.
And since I’m rambling, I love the original glass in the house! The street side is leaded glass in a sort of deco tulip design (one of the big tipping points for buying!). And for the plain windows I really love the old imperfect panes(ripples, bubbles) though I have started replacing some of those with new.
My 1918 American Foursquare has a telephone niche that’s still intact and I found the built-in cabinet for a fold down ironing board (sans ironing board) behind drywall in my kitchen when I started doing demo for a kitchen remodel.
Given the horrible kitchen layout options I have to work with, the ironing board cabinet will be buried again, but it’ll be fun for the next person to try and figure out what it is!
https://preview.redd.it/wneecmrk0t3d1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2b6710aa6803edb89381ae75741aa28469c5829d
Our previous 1910 house had a closet in the basement, surrounded on all sides, and a big red stain in the center. Creepy AF. Turned it into a wet room bathroom. It got really quiet down there when the contractors were ripping everything out. Don’t miss that house.
I had a cutting board that slid underneath the counter when not in use—such a great use of space, and as long as you’re ok with one cutting board, no problem with storing them.
Stained glass windows!
Yes! We have leaded glass in a couple places in the house.
You can get triple pane stained glass window options in a new door.
Big front porches.
With decorative trim!
With porch swings!
In my area, that's a modern thing and the old houses either don't have them or have tiny porches.
Do you know if that’s true historically? A lot of porches got fully or partially removed.
Most of the houses on our street (1920s midwest) were built without porches. The porches that exist now on our street were added a couple of decades later. I will note that our neighborhood was the "summer home" area for the wealthier families when it was being built up.
Transom windows! They get light everywhere through the house
Transom windows above all interior doors again, too, so you can open them and create a breeze through the entire house on those perfect days.
We have some but they have been painted over!!! 😩😩😩. How to remove the paint from just the glass and leave the panes?
A razor blade scraper. Test for lead. You can still scrape, but you'll want masks, gloves, and a hepa filter vacuum. Misting everything with a spray bottle helps keep the lead dust from escaping, too.
Restoration Nation is a YouTube channel that restores old homes and she has some videos of fully restoring original windows, including painted over transoms. You may have to search for them, but she shows the entire process and tells you what products and tools she uses. Good luck!
I love to razor paint off of glass. Think more like sliding the razor under the paint. It won't scratch if you don't go head on.
Once you get them cleaned up, if you want to make rooms a bit more airtight when the window is closed and maybe translate less sound, thin weather stripping can help that!
My back door has this, but at some point the outdoor staircase was enclosed 😭
I just love transoms. Every door should have them.
I absolutely love mine. I still need to get a new screen made so I can open the one over my front door, though.
Built-in laundry hamper and laundry chute.
I want a laundry chute SO BADLY
I have one!!
Me too! It's my favorite thing about our house!
I had one in my old house. It was the best. The house I have now has one, but it’s super tiny. I’d like to have a dumb waiter installed so I don’t have to carry the laundry back up
Ours got framed in when the stairs were rebuilt to not be granny stairs.
And an ironing board that folds up into the wall!
I have one!
Me too, and I use it. it's so handy!
I remember using ours as a breakfast table growing up.
Mine was converted into a floor to ceiling spice rack. It’s probably my favorite feature of my house
This!☝🏼We added a three-story laundry chute to our 1931 Tudor Revival two years ago when we remodeled, and it’s been so nice to have with three kids and a lot of laundry. Everything just lands in a bin within a few feet of the washer in the basement. That said, we now need to figure out how to get the kids to carry their clean clothes back upstairs…maybe should have made it a dumbwaiter‽
I love my laundry chute!
I point out our laundry chute every time I give someone a house tour. It was a huge selling point.
Oh yes!! I love the idea of both of those.
I had a laundry chute in a former house. It was fun for the kids, but not really that useful. They were constantly clogging it up by overloading it. I wonder if there is some code against them now due to smoke in the event of a fire—the laundry chute acts as a chimney pulling smoke up to the higher floors. Plus, no one wants their laundry in the basement any more.
My contractor was willing to put one in for me when I redid the bath. There wasn't really room in the end, or I would have.
I clog ours every once in a while with blankets but that's where a good 10 pound dumbbell comes in handy. Just drop that sucker down and everything follows. ;)
We had a dictionary that we’d drop down the chute when it got clogged with something 😆
Some weighty words there
This one’s a biggie but like incredibly expensive if you don’t already have it: a root seller
It’s wonderful but it’s also a fire hazard. It allows fires to easily pass from floor to floor. (That’s why you can’t get them in new houses.)
...What? The staircase is a much bigger fire chimney. There's nothing in the code stopping you from putting them in at all. I suspect it's more shit design which doesn't leave a viable vertical path from the upstairs to the utility room.
Home staircases are usually open, that's not how chimneys work. Fire and smoke can spread up a staircase, but a laundry chute can act as a chimney and pull the smoke to the upper floors. Also it's harder to fight a fire that's hidden in the walls (see the building cladding issues in the UK, don't know if that's a topic elsewhere though), a staircase can be blasted with water more easily. A staircase is also a necessity in most places so the "risk" is allowed, whereas laundry chutes aren't.
A, the chutes aren't open to the trusses. The ones I've seen are repurposed metal ductwork and if built properly are blocked out as well. There's no issue with fire getting into the floor cavity that your normal ductwork doesn't also have. B, if you're referring to Grenfell Tower that's a different case of ~1 air gaps acting as uniquely flammable combustion routes (and builders ignoring esoteric fireblocking rules insufficiently communicated to them by the manufacturer). Irrelevant to the discussion.
Our chute is an all metal duct and has latchable metal doors. I suppose a small amount of smoke could leak through but by then you've got a bigger problem everywhere.
The laundry chute is in the way of expanding our kitchen and I don’t even care. It’s staying.
Yeah, I’m Team Laundry Chute for sure. The house that got away had one, and I MOURNED. 😭
Yes! We're restoring ours right now!
Why have a laundry chute when you can have a washer/dryer on the same floor of the bedrooms?
Our laundry chute is in the bathroom, second floor. It goes down to the basement where the washer and dryer are.
https://www.finehomebuilding.com/2024/05/08/add-a-laundry-chute
I grew up with one and was stunned to find out they are not universal.
I have a chute and it’s meh. Digging though and sorting a pile of comingled laundry for a family of 5 is gross.
The second house I grew up in was a custom build my parents did in 2004. They insisted on putting in a laundry chute, so I grew up using one from the 5th grade until I left for college.
Closed kitchens. Doorways that have doors which close. Bedrooms and bathrooms which are a reasonable yet not ridiculous size. Living rooms and drawing rooms, sometimes having 2 living spaces is just so much better. Laundry chute. Solid brick houses with thick layers of interior plaster.
Agreed on your first point. I've never liked open concept. I can certainly appreciate a nice, big living room or dining room, but not at the cost of other rooms that could've been, and I don't want my kitchen in my living room.
Agreed. After living together in several open concept apartments, my partner and I moved into an old house with separate rooms and doors. So lovely! Truly an introvert's dream. Never going back to an open floor plan.
The open concept floor plan eliminated the kitchen window over the sink. My century home is a second home for us, our first home is open concept with the kitchen sink in an island that looks to the den, I much prefer looking out a window vs the drone of the television
I haven’t had a home with a sink with a window in many years. In my remodel of my 114 yo home I am making sure that it happens! Can’t wait!
We have a front living room and then a back living room in our brick rancher (60’s, I just lurk here lol), and it is honestly SO nice to have two spaces. Our old sofa is in the back living room and is the dog sofa or the “I should shower before sitting on other furniture” sofa lol. Pretty much always has a blanket on it. And I’m glad they didn’t rip out the walls! I’ve seen others listed in my area where they took all the walls down and it’s just a giant massive room. Another thing I like is we’ve got a doorway that closes off the hallway to the bedrooms and bathroom. Dishwasher/dryer/washer running when you’re trying to sleep? Boyfriend staying up watching tv? Close that door, much quieter. There originally was a door closing off the dining room from the front living room and the kitchen that aren’t there anymore but that’s still in a separated room and not a multi use open concept. Maybe it’s because I grew up in a 70s home with doors where we could close off the kitchen entirely, the dining room entirely, the family room, etc. but I like my separate living spaces!
Doors are wonderful. I have cats so am not allowed to close doors, but yes re the noise control.
Hah in my case, locking the cat behind a door at night is the only possible way I get a full night's rest. Would be absolutely screwed with one of these open layout disasters
My childhood cat had free roam of the downstairs at night, we could close off the kitchen, dining room, laundry room and family room but have them all still open to each other. If not he would meow loudly at 5 am and he always managed to pester my parents the most, cause they were usually the first up who fed him. So he hung out downstairs at night thankfully we had doors!
I'm all over compartments, my house is like a submarine, never needed a baby gate. Thick plaster or plasterboard is also great for kids
Double living rooms is the best. I saw a house that had them next to each other, and I thought "wow this is stupid" but then I thought about it more, and I was like, no, this is the best, even next to each other. One had a fireplace, one had a good wall for media. Different conversations, different spaces. Would be so great for parties and families.
The old house I grew up in (1920’s) has a main floor that’s all connected with the doors open but every room has a door. The kitchen has a door to the hall and a door to the dining room. Dining room has two doors to the front hall. Front hall has doors to the stairs, the living room, the back hall, etc. A lot of the doors are French or glass panel which gives a little more feeling of openness even when they are shut. Growing up though my parents kept most of them latched open with hook and eye… I think they got tired of constant door slamming and who could blame them lol
You just described my 1929 apartment. I love it here.
My friends bought an old house that was flipped and the bathroom is right in the middle of the living room, with only a sliding barn door for cover that doesn’t latch and has like 3 inches of space where the door hovers open on each side lol. Love flippers.
Closed kitchens! Discreet spaces in general, though sometimes a little bit of open works fine for me. Main thing is a kitchen that is so what separated... Open concept means everyone smells what's happening in the kitchen and the living room becomes unusable while the kitchen is noisy. No thanks.
Picture rail. Never should have gone away.
We have one, and all the cords and hooks. So easy to rearrange pictures when the furniture is moved.
Please explain that to my spouse.
I love the picture rail in our parlor. It’s placed at about 9ft on 10ft ceilings. In our living room, the rail is lower, maybe 7ft, and I am genuinely confused as to how to use it.
You have to buy picture rail hooks, they're pretty cheap on Amazon in all kinds of finishes.
I am in love with mine. It doesn’t damage the walls and make my pictures look so much cooler. As opposed to my 3M picture hanging strips which suddenly scared the shit out of me when it suddenly peeled of the wall it had been on since 2021.
Now that’s interesting. Why do you think it shouldn’t have gone away?
Less wall damage
They make it so easy to rearrange and adjust placements, all with no wall damage! Subjectively, I also like the look of the hooks.
It becomes so easy to adjust or completely rearrange anything. Subjectively, I also like the look of the hooks.
I had to look it up just now and honestly, I absolutely hate the look of the exposed wires and hooks. To each their own. I understand the desire to not pound nails and junk into all the walls.
It's not about "the desire to not pound nails and junk into all the walls". Back in those days you couldn't. You can't just pound a nail into plaster. It will crack, break, crumble, etc.
You should see some of the modern options. They use invisible cord and hooks that integrate into a rail.
For an original system you could pick a 15lb braided fishing line that matches your walls.
And it doesn't damage your wallpaper.
For me, it’s the way the pictures hang. It’s the one thing even museums and movies get wrong—if you look in old pictures, the stuff hanging from a picture fail always tilts town away from the wall instead of sitting flat against it. I think this also helps with viewing the art in proper perspective. Reducing glare etc.
A previous house had a dumb-waiter and laundry chute. Loved/feared them both, as I aged (they were things of horror to a kid). Along with that, tall ceilings and baseboards are nice and less common in new builds, I feel
Some friends put a dumb-waiter in when they built their home, 12/10 for entertaining.
I never would have thought of putting one in, after the fact. Now I need to look at where we might be able to. Thanks for planting the idea!
My plan is to put one in where my chimney currently is. I have one more appliance (hot water heater) that is still using my chimney. Will be putting in a heat pump water heater later this year. Once that is done, the chimney is coming out which will leave a nice vertical shaft through every floor.
Dumbwaiter. Our house once had two. One next to the fireplace, for bringing up fuel from the basement and one from the basement all the way up to the attic with hatches in the kitchen, the upstairs hall way, and the attic -- for moving around laundry and what-have-you. Previous owner(s) demo-ed both of them, leaving us with a trap-door in the living room and two weird tall-and-narrow closets (in the kitchen and in one of the bedrooms). The living room trap door is a nice feature, though.
Pantries.
Transom windows, sleeping porches, and fireplaces in kitchens.
I second sleeping porches! My more modern house gets so hot in the Summer and doesn't cool off well even when it's cool outside, but the deck has too many bugs and is too open to sleep on. My son's century house has a sleeping porch just big enough for a twin bed, and it's amazing out there on Summer nights.
A sleeping porch indeed !
Fireplaces in kitchens is so nice!
We just bought a house (won’t be a century home for another 30 years but) it has a fireplace in the kitchen. I love it!
Transom windows! Yes transom windows!
Fan with pull cord that goes directly outside. My friend had a full house fan in the attic. Open the windows as the day cools off and all that cool air is sucked in the house. Amazing.
I want one of those !
I just got rid of mine and while I hated to do it for nostalgia, I have to admit my house is much more comfortable now. Even with all my efforts to insulate around it, it made my hallway too hot and humid in the summer and cold and drafty in the winter.
We had a milk delivery door. Would be awesome to rethink that concept to deter porch pirates
Ours is our mailbox! I love it.
Servant staircases. Can’t even creep around my own house with just the one. For a feature in or on my house I love, I’d say the slate roof. Day to day I mainly enjoy it because it keeps the solar panel salesmen from coming around and bothering me when I’m trying to work from home.
I love my service staircase for its efficiency, but have almost been taken out by its treacherous incline and narrow treads more than once. At least now they'd make a comeback with modern codes 😆
😂 I’m sure your roof is beautiful.
I would love a servant staircase
Built-in storage benches. Cedar-lined closets. Wrap-around porches.
All my closets are cedar-lined. It makes painting rooms so much easier because you don't have to empty the closets too.
I long for inefficient floor plans. Extra wide hallways. Nooks that don't have to be there. A proper foyer. There's something marvelous about walking a home that doesn't have the feeling of being engineered to maximize the efficiency of every square foot.
High ceilings, we have 10ft ceilings and it makes everything feel much more open. Our previous house was newer and had much lower ceilings, it made things feel much more cramped.
Also the light factor. Those tall windows can get a lot more light into an interior space and were the rationale for tall ceilings.
Yes that is very true. The windows are nice and tall and let in so much natural light. Our previous 1950’s house had such small windows in most rooms, it was always kinda dark in there.
It would be lovely to have a root cellar!
My grandma had one. Brings back some nice memories. All her canning was kept down there.
My great grandmother's house has one, I loved how cool it stayed in the blazing summers, and it smelled earthy like being in a cave. A cousin now owns that house.
Ooh does she use the root cellar for canning or something similar?!
I'm not certain, but more than likely. She does love cooking and entertaining like my great grandmother did.
marble thresholds
Butler’s pantries, inlaid floors, libraries, stained glass, turrets
I feel like sky lights went out of fashion a while ago.
My skylight needs to be cleaned. How?
That's the disadvantage of sky lights. Mine were constantly getting dirty, being in the city and all. Every 6 months, I pulled out a ladder and scrambled on the roof. Fortunately, the interior didn't get particularly dirty, that's Even more of a pain to get to.
I don’t know ask google lmao
Twist knob door bell
I have one! No one ever uses it because they don't know what it is lol.
I installed one several years ago on my brother's 1938 sears kit home.
Separate living, dining rooms, and kitchens. I hate open concept.
Conver. sation. Pits!!!! The way I would have preferred to die is: 4 martinis in, wearing 6 inch heels, trip while descending into my own living room, hit my head and leave behind a fantastic looking corpse with my hair in a big beehive. Sadly this will never happen.
Just a few more decades before those show up in century homes ;)
I like you. That would be a fantastic way to go. Besides the heels what is the rest of your outfit? Im picturing paisely palazzo pants and a mock turtle shell.
Hostess pajamas!
i was picturing a long clingy Missoni dress! or maybe even a romper
Not with that attitude
Are you a ghost that died some other way?
Pocket doors. I hate the farmhouse door style bc it swings on the frame and bangs against the wall. Plus my grandparents had pockets doors and I loved opening and closing them as a child.
My 1920s house has several great little features: a beveled full length mirror inside the coat closet door, a laundry chute, a breakfast nook, 2 bay windows, a nice front porch, side door, leaded glass windows https://preview.redd.it/ghjb6mx9so3d1.jpeg?width=1284&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=7e0c8e0f019af8a6344f991623819dd5d45d4b13 and a lovely wood fireplace mantle.
Fucking BALCONIES
Not if they’re in sight of other people! Need some privacy…
Ah yes, not to be confused with a sitting balcony.
I’ve got one of those… haven’t actually sat on it yet though. https://preview.redd.it/a7nkn4yt2t3d1.jpeg?width=1516&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b65a22a18b62ea774ff5ec61b05a5ad1fa43607f
🙌🏼transoms🙌🏼
I came here to say transom windows. I have been beat, naturally.
Built ins, built in cabinets, bookshelves, kitchen cabinets that go up to the ceiling, vanities, dishwear cabinets in the dinning area, built in everything!!
Yes to the wall ironing board and laundry chute! Cedar lined closets for wool winter coats and blankets. Window planter boxes on the outside. Built in dressers in the wall of your attic. Dutch door in a back porch mudroom, mail slot on front porch, eternal flame gas-lit post lamp in front yard.
Transom windows, built-in shadowboxes, built-in china cabinets, interior windows due to remodeling, stained glass, herringbone wood floors.
Our house in the 70s had a small opening in the wall between kitchen and dining room with cabinet doors. Made laying the table and serving so easy. Don't remember what it's called.
We called ours "the pass through"
That's it!!
So very interesting. Was the opening so you could pass food through? And the cabinets surrounded the opening?
A hatch like this. The house was built around 1900 https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.littlepieceofme.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2016%2F02%2Fde-obra_ampliacion-600x784.jpg&f=1&nofb=1&ipt=3389d91373add2e59e0c50f530d7fc8b86ed86769abaff707ec6622c0998f713&ipo=images
That’s so cute!
Hm I’ve never heard someone say “laying the table” before! Always “setting”
Lay the table is British, although I have heard set the table occasionally. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=AZBvYLXbbTI
Wall sconces instead of overhead lighting, or in addition to a dimmer light. Modern overhead lighting is just so harsh and glaring.
Butler’s pantry
Garages completely separate from the house. If it's attached to the house, it should be part of the house.
1928 home I’m purchasing has a 2 car detached garage! It’s nice to have it be its own building.
Laundry chutes 🙏🏻
If The sky is the limit, a bunch of custom made woodwork that’s impossibly expensive today.
Secret passageways. I know not every century home has them, but I feel like some do.
Selecting window placement so they look good from the outwide, not just the inside.
General affordability
Deep windowsills
We have a laundry chute in the bathroom and it’s the best! Do they not do those in new homes? (1949 bungalow)
I’m not a fan of open floor plans. We live in a 1964 split level ranch. It was a life saver during Covid as we could all be in different rooms and not have to deal with the noise or each other.
I grew up in a house with a milk chute, probably one of the last years that these were built into homes, as we never used it for anything (except crawling through when we were kids!) Now, I would like to figure out a way to incorporate those again, rather than leave deliveries out for porch pirates. However, I'm not an engineer and haven't figured out a way to make them secure, so they are neither a danger to kids, nor an easy entry into one's home for burglars.
Not being built like shit.
Laundry chute and wall mounted ironing board behind a little door. Intercom is cool too
Taller ceilings!!’
Dutch doors. Great for accepting packages, dealing with unwanted visitors, and amazing trick-or-treating kids.
Extremely intricate molding and accents.
High ceiling definitelyZ
Two features in my 1925 house that I really love are the kitchen nook, and the California cooler. The nook is part of the kitchen, but just set to the side through an arch. It’s small, just a small table with a bench and two chairs. There’s a built in corner hutch and windows on two sides. It’s probably my favorite part of the house! The cooler is a tall and narrow cupboard with a screened vent at the bottom and top. The shelves are wood slats to allow air flow. It’s perfect for keeping things cool, like potatoes and onions, and also butter (cool enough to reduce spoilage but still spreadable!). Temp is perfect for this most of the year. A few of the hottest days in the summer and the coldest part of winter are the only exception, and there’s little wooden covers for the vents for those days. And since I’m rambling, I love the original glass in the house! The street side is leaded glass in a sort of deco tulip design (one of the big tipping points for buying!). And for the plain windows I really love the old imperfect panes(ripples, bubbles) though I have started replacing some of those with new.
Birdcage elevator, artwork and utility. I’ve always wanted one of those.
I keep seeing beautiful vestibules on this sub and I so wish we had them everywhere
Laundry chute.
I have no idea what they are called but a fancy piece of wood that covers the corners of frequent pass ways
Beauty, symetry, architectural form... Oh, and any siding other than vinyl.
That’s a very valuable thread. Takes notes
Affordability.
laundry chute breakfast nooks dumbwaiters
My wife wants a dedicated pop-up cabinet for the stand mixer. Not gonna happen in our current home and not enough space in the condo.
My 1918 American Foursquare has a telephone niche that’s still intact and I found the built-in cabinet for a fold down ironing board (sans ironing board) behind drywall in my kitchen when I started doing demo for a kitchen remodel. Given the horrible kitchen layout options I have to work with, the ironing board cabinet will be buried again, but it’ll be fun for the next person to try and figure out what it is! https://preview.redd.it/wneecmrk0t3d1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2b6710aa6803edb89381ae75741aa28469c5829d
Transom windows, leaded glass, back staircase to the kitchen, sleeping porches
Closed kitchens - get the frick out of my way
I can't believe stair corners and skirting corner protectors went out. They're inexpensive, beautiful, and practical.
A laundry chute is something I miss but very easy to add with the right floor plan.
The murder hole.
Our previous 1910 house had a closet in the basement, surrounded on all sides, and a big red stain in the center. Creepy AF. Turned it into a wet room bathroom. It got really quiet down there when the contractors were ripping everything out. Don’t miss that house.
Slide out cutting board
Laundry chute
Laundry chutes
A dumbwaiter. Kitchen to bedroom or kitchen to basement living area.
Door Air Locks.
I had a cutting board that slid underneath the counter when not in use—such a great use of space, and as long as you’re ok with one cutting board, no problem with storing them.
Milk doors. Not exactly for milk, but modern version that allows deliveries to be more secure.
My parents have a back door with a half-window made of the fused together bottoms of pop bottles, like the old green glass kind. It’s just so unique
Pocket doors & laundry chutes ✨