My Houzz: Family Efforts Pay Off for a 1915 Home

For Peggy Tupper: Thank you. We get cold winters here in Montreal and heavy snow loads. The attic is insulated with fiberglass batts behind the sloped walls just behibd the sheetrock. The flat portion which is tge exposed wood portion in the center is insulated on the other side of the wood with Styrofoam sandwiched
between that wood and the exterior plywood that is covered with tar and gravel. The windows you see are just the interior ones. Above them are pyramid shaped skylights at the roof level.

For zweiback. Thanks. Not sure which mouldings you are referring to but I will try to clear up any confusion. On the main floor the trim mouldings are mahogany while the ceiling mouldings are plaster. When the house was built a century ago this was the type of treatment they were designed to receive - plaster gets painted and fine hard woods get stained. They are not the same materials and therefore were not meant for the same treatment. I know that there are many who paint hard woods to achieve uniformity and brightness and it looks good too but is a personal preference and philiosophy. We tried to achieve more unity by matching the floor color to the existing moulding colors to get the visual harmony you mention be cause there was no way that I was going topaint out my mahogany! I had no trouble painting all trim on 2nd floor white as that trim was in the same ptofiles as those on the lower floor but was a paint grade soft wood. To each his own.

Kathy - I was mainly addressing the moulding/trim around doors - not the ceiling mouldings, which it's understood would not be treated with anything but paint. I specifically made mention of photos 10 & 11 because of the warm feeling the wood stairs, window moulding, bookshelf unit and floors evoke, side-by-side with the photo of the bathroom, which is quite stark in contrast. (I'm very happy to see the mahogany in its unpainted, stained glory, as will many readers of this piece.) I'm wondering if you had considered color on the walls in both the bath and the kitchen as a way to unify. The mahogany warms things up downstairs, and you can see from your daughter's bedroom what color does to modify the white trim… But as you say - to each his (or her) own, and I still stand in awe of the work you've done here! (BTW, I think its helpful to hear what goes through DIYers' minds on a project, and really appreciate your commenting.)