The Old- House Journal Compendium- The Exterior

The Old- House Journal Compendium  is quite the book.  It's almost 400 pages of information on how to repair an old house in the face of any situation.  If I was physically restoring this house, this book would be invaluable.  The topics in this book are buying an old house, evaluating the house, roof and window restoration, masonry and energy efficiency, wiring and pluming, staircase and floor repair, painting, fireplaces and stoves, moulding, wood work, decorative styles, kitchen, bathrooms, stenciling, and exterior design.  Needless to say its a little overwhelming, there are hand drawing pictures next to the little 10 point or smaller text.  I was a little overwhelmed, but I have now read all the information it has on exterior repair and it has awesome information. This is what I found that I want to add to my exterior plan.

• I will for all the plans try to stay as true to the original style as possible, because this is not the place to get modern.
• Doors and windows were fitted to each room, which is why there are so many, it makes it hard to replace them with a wall.  So for the windows I won't be talking any out, but just replacing the replacement.  If it's the original window (like in the fount of the house), I'm leaving it alone.  
• I was going to cut down some walls but this book makes a good point in saying there is a reason why the rooms were so closed, rather than the "open concept" we see today.  It was because its hard to heat a room with 9-12 foot ceilings, so closing off rooms not in use saves money.  
• Try to duplicate joint size, mortuary, but repair stucco, it's fine to replace decorative pieces like shutters
• Don't mess with porches and steps if you don't have to, because they are one of the most important part of retaining historic character. 
• Nails during 1910 were wile nails, get a sample of the original nail and try to match it.
• Try to see how many coats of paint there have been by scraping it off.  If there are more than 10 layers than use two applications of chemical stripper.  Just painting on top of the old paint will only increase the change of sooner chipping.
• The paint stripper can't dry but has to be left on for a few hours, so spray it gently with before it does.  Then after a few hours use a hard jet of water to remove the paint, if it does not come off leave the stripper on for longer.  
• After the paint is removed you should wash it with acid to neutralize any remaining caustic.  Don't get carried away with this because you can damage the house, but after it's clean you can paint it.  

There is more but these are the main points I wanted to add

This is a list I like of what the book thinks you should do first when restoring an old house

Another thing I want to go later on is a post on what if this happened in the house that was unexpected, and I think this book would be great when doing that.