A Realty Times reader and Realtor has asked for more about old houses, specifically something about distinguishing between renovation and restoration.

The short answer is that restoration usually costs much more than renovation, involves considerable and time-consuming research and can be fruitless and often frustrating.

It is often easier to remove rather than restore plaster, for example. On the other hand, restoring plaster gives your house a quality that drywall will never equal.

My first house was built in 1848, but by the time I bought it, nothing other than the brick facade was left of the original house.

It was a perfect opportunity to restore and renovate. I restored the facade to what it looked like when it was built, based on houses in the neighborhood built at the same time.

This meant cleaning and painting the brick, replacing the 1970s aluminum windows with wood-clad ones and changing a 1950s wooden and glass front door and aluminum storm for one that looked as if it had been produced in the mid-19th century.

Because the completed facade looked original, I had, in effect, restored it.

Behind that facade, however, I had little to work with. In addition, houses built for the working class in the mid-19th century had minimal comforts, even for those who lived at that time.

The best I could hope for inside was a house that could comfortably accommodate three people and the modern appliances and conveniences that the late 20th century afforded.

So I renovated but made absolutely sure not to disturb the bones of the original house by retaining the floor plan.

If I had wanted to the restore the interior, I could have immediately forgotten about indoor plumbing. The 19th century kitchen had been in the basement, which until a few years before we bought it had a dirt floor.

The original house, which was 11.5 feet wide, only went back about 25 feet instead of the 53 that the L-shaped, early 1900s addition afforded. Most of all, there was nothing historic about it once you got past the front door.

Restoring a house requires much more of a commitment than renovating one.

My friend Matt Schultz bought a Queen Anne-style house in the mid-1980s and spent the better part of 20 years restoring it. I remember him telling me that he tried to do something to it each day -- scraping a piece of trim or baseboard, for example -- just to keep up the rhythm.

He painted the exterior himself, renting scaffolding and working through the heat of summer. When he was finished, the house looked very much as it did when it was completed in the 1890s.

Fortunately, there was indoor plumbing, so Schultz was able to restore at least one bathroom to its original look.

Schultz has finally reached the point where he's down to maintenance, coming home from work on a summer's evening and pulling weeds along the sidewalk as he heads to the front porch.

Most people who restore do much of the work themselves, primarily because it often is difficult to get across to contractors exactly what you want. In addition, many of the skills necessary for a restoration job are no longer in the repertoire of the typical contractor.

There are, of course, people who specialize in restoration, but they are often booked months in advance. That gives you the choice of waiting or trying to learn the skills to do it yourself.

One friend wanted a metal ceiling in the family room of his 1904 house, and when he could find no one willing to do the job, he and his wife did it themselves.

They simply followed the step-by-step instructions from the manufacturer, and for about two months, used every bit of free time they had to do it.

When they were finished, members of their families were asking them to install metal ceilings in their houses. They declined, and moved on to another project.

Although it may be costlier and time-consuming, restoration is usually much more satisfying than renovation. Most of us can paint a ceiling, but few can install a metal ceiling and make it look good as well.

Jim Colberg has been restoring his Federal-era townhouse (built about 1805) since the 1970s. His advice to would-be buyers and restorers of historic homes: Read everything you can get your hands on and make use of every resource available.

"Go fairly slowly until you know what direction your work is going to take," Colberg said. "Do a lot of study, especially if you have a house that is in pretty rough shape; then decide what you want to change and what you want to keep."