Wouldn't it be cheaper to simply bulldoze that hulking old Victorian and build a new home following the latest building codes?

Perhaps, but when an old home is rescued from the wrecking ball, a tangible element from a community's past is preserved for the future.

That helps maintain a community's time line and helps keep the neighborhood's identity intact. It also helps preserve hands-on craftsmanship sorely missing from today's mass-produced homes.

And, well, as many families discover, living in an old home can be cool and set a new benchmark for Keeping Up With The Joneses.

It's just that it's not easy to transform a money pit into a landmark.

When it comes to truly historic homes, that could be destined for official local, state or federal landmark status, it may be protected by certain tedious guidelines that necessitate the need to meld conventional building codes with reconstruction designed for historical properties.

As a starting point, contractors guided by historical conservationists often look to the labyrinth of overlapping federal standards known as "The Secretary of the Interior's Standards For the Treatment of Historic Properties."

If a property is destined for the national register or some other preservation status, adhering to the standards could be mandated.

Making sure a historic building's new use will comply with federal standards and local preservation requirements are also often a prerequisite for the final plans to pass muster before the local planning, building and permits office.

Even if your home isn't destined for landmark status, the standards provide a wealth of information, techniques and tips for the specialized hands-on approach to the work ahead.

The federal standards vary depending upon why new life is being breathed back into an old building and the standards may be applied not just to the building itself but the air around it -- "spatial relationships."

In any event, based on the federal guidelines, here's a synopsis of what you could face to rebuild history.

Preservation -- If the building is being preserved as a historic artifact, it must be used as it was historically, say as a home, or given a use that maximizes opportunities to restore and retain those original features, materials, spaces and spatial relationships. California's missions, for example, were preserved for continued use as churches and museums that historically depict life at the mission. The same applies to the Alamo in San Antonio.

Rehabilitation -- More leeway is available to builders rehabilitating historic structures, often because a structure has deteriorated beyond the possibility of a full preservation effort. A variety of new, non-historic uses may be allowed so long as the new use only minimally changes distinctive materials, features, spaces and spatial relationships. Transforming, a 1950s era office building into apartment homes with retail space below is an example of meeting rehabilitation standards. Turning an old home into apartments, is another example.

Restoration -- Restored properties often come with improvements that are not of the building's original time period. The reconstruction effort is designed to remove work from other periods and restore as much of the building as possible to its original period. New uses can be the same as or reflect the uses of the building during the period to which the building is being restored. An old movie theater transformed into an opera house or repertory theater are examples. An old home with unpermitted improvements that must be torn out, is another.

Reconstruction -- Reconstruction allows developers to recreate with new materials non-surviving properties or portions of properties often on the original site.

A contractor isn't restricted to using one set of standards and seldom does, but that can make the job more complex. A building's facade, for example may get preservation work, while the interior is so dilapidated reconstruction is necessary. Preservation, rehabilitation and restoration projects of structures 100 years old or more almost always include some reconstruction efforts.

Rebuilding a historic home requires a special contractor or developer who is licensed and experienced in the work, both hands-on experience and experience working with your local planning, building and permits office.

Ask friends, family, co-workers and others you trust for referrals to licensed contractor with experience in historical properties and then check him or her out as you would any contractor.

Published: November 28, 2003

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Broderick Perkins parlayed a career in old-school journalism into a contemporary digital news service that really hits home. The award-winning consumer journalist, originally from Wilmington, DE, is founder, publisher and executive editor of the bootstrap DeadlineNews Group, a Silicon Valley-based editorial content and consulting service specializing in residential real estate, consumer news and related editorial consulting services. The DeadlineNews Group includes the website, DeadlineNews.com, offering real estate editorial content and consulting services, and its back shop, the Deadline Newsroom, an open house on news that really hits home. Perkins obtained his formal journalism education from University of Delaware and a journalism boot camp, the Institute of Journalism Education at the University of California-Berkeley. He went on to 20 years of service as a daily newspaper journalist at the Wilmington, DE News Journal and San Jose, CA Mercury News. Perkins covered housing on the San Jose Mercury News reporting team which earned a General News Reporting Pulitzer Prize in 1989 for coverage of the Loma Prieta earthquake. He has also produced real estate, consumer and small business content for the Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, RealtyTimes.com, Nolo.com, Better Homes and Gardens, the National Association of Realtors, Homestore/Move and Intuit/Quicken among more than three dozen publications. In addition to managing the DeadlineNews Group, Perkins most recently served as chief editorial consultant for Nolo's Essential Guide To Buying Your First Home, Nolo, and writes real estate television scripts for RealtyTimes.com.