Through hundreds of inspiring photos and engaging text, the author describes what gives traditional homes their enduring appeal, and illustrates the creative work of builders who are forging the movement toward building new homes that capture old-home sensibility.

Offers advice on selecting contractors and home builders, as well as discussing mortgages, site selection, environmental concerns, consumer rights, and contracts, and identifies unethical practices.

A profusely illustrated guide to every aspect of decorating provides ideas and techniques for increasing the beauty and comfort of homes of all styles and sizes

A fictional youngster takes the reader on a voyage of discovery as his family moves into a run-down Victorian house and he learns all about restoring houses and how home styles have developed over the past 400 years in America. Lavish illustrations help to tell this fascinating tale. An aunt's townhouse in Chicago and the homes of cousins in the south and in the country are some of the other architectural journeys in this book, which introduces children to a whole new vocabulary and way of looking at architecture in houses.

The New Old House presents 18 private historic homes, from North America to Europe, and traces the ingenious ways architects have revitalized and refreshed them for a new generation. Most of the renovations occurred in the last decade, but all of the homes have origins reaching back into the past, in some cases hundreds of years. Projects and firms featured include Greenwich House, Allan Greenberg; Longbranch, Jim Olson; Astley Castle, Witherford Watson Mann; Hunsett Mill, Acme; Cotswolds House, Richard Found; plus more than a dozen others. These projects address such timely factors as sustainability, multiculturalism, preservation, and style, and demonstrate the unique beauty and elegance that comes from the interweaving of modernity and history.