Old House Journal

[lowell holmes]

I received a mailer today advertising it. I already get "This Old House" magazine, but this is new to me. They wnt to send me a free issue, I think i will take them up on the offer.

[roger wiegand]

No comparison-- at least there didn't use to be. The OHJ has been around since Bob Vila was only a gleam in his father's eye. It started as a mimeographed newsletter you kept in three ring binders about real people doing real DIY salvage and rescue of old houses back when no one thought old houses were worth saving. Endless discussions of the best paint stripping techniques! But also a whole ton of information on how to tackle old house problems that wasn't available anywhere else. It got glossier and glossier over the years, and when the founder retired it was bought out by someone who thought TOH was a good model. I let my subscription lapse about then, and don't really know what it looks like today. It was an invaluable resource in the day-- I'm pretty sure I still have the three-ring binder editions.

My favorite article ever was called "The Mushroom Factor" about how one thing leads to another when working on an old house.

[Tom M King]

I remember looking at an issue once. I don't remember when it was, but the houses they were talking about weren't really that old, so there was little of interest to me, and I never looked at another issue.

[lowell holmes]

I don't plan on looking at another one either.