Living in a historic home comes with many benefits — the quality of craftsmanship, unique character, and a connection to the past are all things that draw people to older homes. But historic homeowners face a specific set of maintenance challenges. And for anyone looking to purchase a fixer-upper, the challenges for restoring a house are even greater. Thankfully, there are many resources available no matter where you are in your old home journey!  

We’ve compiled a few handy links to help you get started, from grant programs to tax credits. And if you need help making sense of it all, you can always reach out to us directly — we would love to hear from you.

Books to have on hand:

• A Field Guide to American Houses: The Definitive Guide to Identifying and Understanding America's Domestic Architecture by Virginia Savage McAlester

• The Window Sash Bible: A Guide to Maintaining and Restoring Old Wood Windows by Steve Jordan

• Get Your House Right: Architectural Elements to Use & Avoid by Marianne Cusato, Ben Pentreath, and Richard Sammons

USDA Rural Development’s Single Family Housing Programs give families and individuals the opportunity to buy, build, or repair affordable homes located in rural America. Eligibility for these loans, loan guarantees, and grants is based on income and varies according to the average median income for each area.

• Single Family Housing Direct Loans

• Single Family Housing Guaranteed Loan Program

• Home Repair Loans and Grants

For rehabilitating historic homes, New York State offers the Homeowner Historic Tax Credit program. This program is administered by the Office of Parks, Recreation & Historic Preservation (OPRHP).

• Within OPRHP, the State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) offers technical resources on their website.

Repair, don’t replace, wood windows! Here are a few resources to help you make sense of why wood windows are worth preserving:

• The Craftsman Blog: Are Historic Windows Energy Efficient? (tl;dr the answer is yes) + DIY Window Restoration

• Landmark Consulting: Restoring Our Appreciation of Historic Wood Windows & Making a Case for Restoration Versus Replacement

• Technical Talks: Historic Windows

To learn more about the National Register of Historic Places and what it means for historic homeowners, please visit SHPO's website.

The National Parks Service has a series of Preservation Briefs, short articles filled with technical advice for maintaining historic buildings.

To better understand the kinds of repairs and updates that are appropriate for a historic house, the Secretary of the Interior's Standards can help guide your work.

Looking for a community of historic homeowners and old house enthusiasts? You are likely to find lots of great connections and inspiration via Instagram. @cheapoldhouses is a great place to start.

If you live in the City of Buffalo, Preservation Buffalo Niagara’s Historic Home Loan Fund (HHLF) provides financing for the preservation, improvement, restoration, and/or rehabilitation of locally designated homes to low income homeowners. In addition to providing needed capital, the HHLF provides technical assistance to low income property owners in local historic districts.