Awesome. Someone who is not using new materials and is restoring the old. Good for you!
Try stopping at your local wood siding distributor, which may be a bit hard to find. I know you are not buying wood siding, you just want someone they would recommend for your type of work.
Another way would be to check with a restoration or painting company. They should have experience with the repair and lead abatement.

Good luck!

hi,

we did the same thing last year. we have a very charming 1890 small victorian located in the historic district of a nice small town outside of philadelphia.

it was a real learning curve for us. we had a fantastic experience with our painter who was meticulous in every capacity. we also had an on-site carpenter (let me tell you, i loved that part. he was fixing all sorts of odds and ends on our house) who was repairing stuff and hanging new wooden doors and refurbishing our lovely little old wooden shed which is also historic. our painter removed every bit of lead paint off our house. it's a massive job and the guy you use should be certified in lead paint remediation.

one caveat, prepare to exercise extreme patience. our guy started in early may. we left for a three week trip on memorial day and assumed (insert laugh track here) that he'd be done upon our return. he actually finished in mid october, but his work was amazing. he took off thirty pairs of original shutters and restored them. he didn't miss one detail. it was a masterful job. we bought this palce six years ago and even though its bones were amazing, it was a forlorn looking mess. now, it's the showstopper of the street!

our town is full of old homes that are well kept. i basically polled everyone i could, including the local benjamin moore dealer and this guy's name kept popping up. too bad you aren't down on this end of jersey!!!

here's a before:

here's a few in progress pics -

and here's a few finished pics.

i think it's wonderful that you are going to honor your old home by restoring it. good luck and please post pics!!!!

jane

Thanks Jane! LOVE the transformation! This makes me hopeful that all the money we're about to shell out will be equally worth it!

Honestly, if my husband and I weren't both committed old-house lovers, we probably would have joined the masses in replacing the original siding by this point. Especially when we found out that a complete restoration project would be subject to sales tax simply because we weren't replacing the siding!?!?! Nothing like encouraging people to create waste.

We never did manage to find another painting company that could do the whole project, and since we were able to negotiate the price down a bit w/ the first contractor who has an in-house carpentry division (and comes highly recommended by everyone), we've decided to forgo the second quote. Here's to hoping he can fit us in before Fall!!

We'll definitely post photos once the project is underway.

Thanks again for reaffirming that there are others out there who value old over new!

Any update here? I would love to see finished pics!