So you are trying to achieve a more period look in your old house kitchen. At some point you will need to make the decision between using actual vintage appliances or reproduction appliances. When consulting with clients on their kitchen restoration projects, I carefully assess what their needs are and then advise accordingly. Big Chill replica refrigerator sports a 1950s vintage personality outside, but has modern functionality inside. The best of both worlds. Heartland vintage six burner... more

When my husband and I bought our 1925 English Tudor house eight years ago, the sellers had just remodeled the kitchen. Or should I say “remuddled” the kitchen. We could see right away that there were many corners cut and that it would eventually need to be remodeled again. I was disappointed because I wanted to design the kitchen for myself. Other than that, it was a great house, on a large corner lot, in a nice neighborhood with a two-car garage. The house needed a lot of work but had the proverbial... more

Historic preservation consulting is a multifaceted area. There are professionals who specialize in nominations to the National Register of Historic Places, historic tax credits, research of historical records, and policy administration relevant to historic properties. There are also preservation consultants who specialize in traditional building crafts, architectural plans and drawings, historic landscapes, period lighting, plumbing, tile, paint colors, wallpapers, and other... more

By Robin Rigby Fisher What I love about designing is the challenge of creating function where it didn’t previously exist. When I first entered this home, the kitchen was generic: oak cabinets with white Corian countertops. The island was small — not enough counter space where it was needed, and too much where it wasn’t. The home, which was built in the mid-1980s, featured three eating areas (eating bar for four, breakfast table, and formal dining) all within 20 feet of each other — standard... more

Why wait for HGTV’s reality show “Takeover My Makeover” or TLC’s “While You Were Out” home remodeling surprise to call you? Now the new paradigm in home remodeling is here in the Portland/Vancouver area. It is Harvest Construction’s WOW or Week of Wonder. This system provides its clients with a complete floor-to-ceiling professional design and renovation, completed in a week or less, using any finish materials that clients might select. How do they do that, you ask? Northwest Renovation... more

The reality is that most of us live in relatively modest houses where space is limited. If your house was built around the turn of the 20th Century you have probably inherited an outdated and inefficient kitchen along with the period charm. Kitchens were designed differently a hundred years ago, and without retrofits, they rarely fit the needs of the modern homeowner. The trick to remodeling a period kitchen is doing it in a way that is respectful of the architectural details of the house while adding... more

Are you in need or in the market for a new floor? How do you sort through the growing sea of choices and know that you are getting a floor that meets your needs for quality and style? Flooring is an integral part of every home’s décor and functionality. It adds to its esthetics and ambiance and can help with resale values. However, it can be a daunting task to sort through the pros and cons of each style of flooring available as well as researching how they’re constructed, installed, and maintained.... more

There are few things in a home that get beaten, scraped, and chopped at as much as the kitchen sink. Though we all appreciate the kitchen sink, we don’t think about it much until the day we decide we need a new one or we are selecting fixtures for a new home or kitchen remodel. The best sink is the one that lasts a lifetime and the one you don’t have to spend much time worrying about. Only when it needs a good cleaning do we really focus on it and then we either appreciate its features or hate... more