American Rehab Charleston



DIY
Series Premiere
Thursday, August 28, 2014 @ 11pm

    Are you ready for some football? I am. But, Thursday is not just the kickoff of the college season on the gridiron; it’s also the series premiere of American Rehab and they’re starting the series in South Carolina with my current project just outside of Charleston in Summerville. It's on the DIY network on Thursday @ 11pm in the middle of a block of Rehab Addict. I was on TV once while I was standing in the front row of a college basketball game, but I'm not counting that because my mom didn't get to see it and everyone wants their mom to see them on TV. Thursday is my day. No spoilers here, but the transformation was dramatic plus the entire experience was amazing fun.     

    Charleston’s oldest building, Pink House, dates back to 1712 (right there with Harvard’s Massachusetts Hall). Okay, someone has an idea that it wasn’t really finished until 1745, but I don’t want to get hung up on a difference of 33 years to detract from my point.  Like Mass. Hall, Pink House is older than the country. Wow! Charleston reveres its old buildings and it's one of the major draws for people visiting our city year after year. So because of that, I can’t think of a better place to start a new series about renovating old homes in America than The Holy City which undoubtedly loves its old buildings.

    So tune into American Rehab tomorrow and watch me get started on the Country Victorian.

American Rehab: Charleston on Facebook

American Rehab Charleston 2.015 -  August 13, 2015

The Social Network and Harvard's Special Old Building

I caught a few minutes of The Social Network last night.  The film about Facebook has nothing to do with renovating old houses or anything closely related to construction, but something grabbed my attention enough that I'm still thinking about it this morning.

There's a scene in the movie where the Winklevoss Twins (played solely by actor Armie Hammer) are waiting to meet with Larry Summers, the President of Harvard.  The receptionist says, "This building is a hundred years older than the country it's in. So do be careful."  Her warning is not connected with Cameron and Tyler's meeting about Facebook or their dispute with Mark Zuckerberg, but it's part of the attitude that the people of Harvard had throughout the film.  However, it's more than attitude, it's an underlying impression that the folks that make up the Harvard community know more than those outside their circle.  In this example, the people that preceded them were wise to build Massachusetts Hall to last and mindful to leave it as it's stood for all these years.  (To be accurate, Mass. Hall of Harvard Yard is not "335 years old."  A little fact checking confirms that it's been standing since 1720, making it's age closer to 292.)

The receptionist represented in the film presumably had nothing to do with any of the decisions to save that old building, but she seemed to hold some pride about working there none-the-less (and I would too.)  To people like me, a building that's almost 300 years old is pretty cool and something to boast about.  The people of Harvard sure aren't concerned about what's cool, but they know having that old building in the middle of campus is something worthy of attention.  It is cool and I think that's why that little line was popped into the movie like it was. 

Going to the trouble of saving an old building or a run-down house is not the easiest path, but there's wisdom in this course.  In the end, having something that's been around for multiple decades (or centuries) is special, unique, and oftentimes better than an equivalent structure that's brand new.  I believe that it's worth the effort to save a decrepit building and the snooty administrative assistant of The Social Network helps make this point for me as she proudly delivers her only line of the film.

If you can save an old home, I'm here to encourage you.  It won't be simple, but if you push forward and do it right, it'll be worth your effort and diligence.  In the end, you'll be proud of yourself and what you have when your finished.