Keeps telling you not to wait...

Now or Never? Maintaining a historic house on a surface level--and on a planned, rotational basis--also means that you should be able to avoid wholesale "restoration campaigns." If something has to be replaced, it generally means someone waited too long to repair it. And failure to repair one area, such as a simple downspout, affects larger areas, such as wood siding. What you don't want is a disreputable, broken-down exterior as a result of neglect--or a brand new exterior as a result of having to replace almost everything! Graceful aging is what your house really wants from you in within a long-term relationship! Photo: ŠJohn Leeke.