Pictures would be helpful.

Thanks for responding! No pictures available, unfortunately. I'm not looking for specific advice, just general experiences or things to be aware of.

We have an old house, insulated by a previous owner with blown in insulation and no vapor barrier. We have plaster walls which retain heat in the winter and cold in the summer . Our heating and cooling bills are actually no more than our previous, custom built by us, house with six inches of insulation and the vapor barrier. Most new owners of historic house rip out the plaster and install drywall. Nonsense! I personally will come back to haunt anyone who rips out my two hundred year old house. The other BIG sin is ripping out old windows and replacing them with vinyl. My wood frames and wavy glass make me so happy. The sunrise enhanced by the variations in each pane of glass is better than my first cup of coffee. We have an efficient gas fired boiler for our wonderful steam heat radiators. They make furniture arrangement a challenge but the heat is even and constant. We certainly don’t have open concept! We had semi open in our custom house, but sound travels and bounces. We love the separation of rooms in this house and and I will be a violent ghost if any new owner tries to take out the walls between the library and the dining rooms or smashes the brick walls between the kitchen and dining room to add a beam. . If you don’t think you are up to being the conservators to the task of loving and preserving 200 years of history, I beg you to find a more recent house. One of the fun things has been researching the genealogy of the house. Through Newspapers.com, I learned of the many parties held here in the 1930s, 2040s, and 50s. I discovered that funerals were held here with burials at the little church down the road. I found this house had history and character that new house will not have for 100 years. You don’t need to take all the siding off to install a vapor barrier.

Old plaster is an excellent vapor barrier, since its at least 1-2 inches thick and has been painted multiple times over the years. All you need to do is ensure its sealed around receptacle boxes, windows and any other penetrations. Old windows might need storms added (often an ugly solution), or you may want to have them rebuilt with double pane glass and insulation in the surrounding cavities. Then go to the outside of the house and seal up areas where air can infiltrate through the siding and you will have relatively airtight house.

We have a 1940 brick, frame and plaster house and about 2/3rds of our walls do not have any insulation in the 2x4 cavity. You can't feel any noticeable heat/cold difference in a newly insulated room and an old room with no insulation. However, we did have the attic fully sealed and insulated with spray foam. We chose to go with a conditioned attic because our HVAC system and ducts are in the attic.

Bruce