Hello!

We just purchased our first old house, a c.1918 craftsman-leaning bungalow. It has clearly been well loved and well lived in and it has multiple layers of renovations and add-ons. Some of these are lovely, for example a gorgeous bay window in the living room and a tastefully done second floor expansion. Others are...less great. my current challenge is peeling back these layers to get a sense of the original features of the house.

It's been very hard to determine what's original; most rooms have multiple kinds of trim (THREE chair rails in the living room!), and while some are obviously newer and cheap or the wrong style, some are just confusing. For example, the "dining room" (probably a bedroom originally) has two windows, each with a slightly different craftsman-style trim with approximately 10 layers of paint on each. We found the original wood floor (with a ghost of the old layout where it's been changed) under all the carpet, thankfully.

We're doing a significant amount of mostly cosmetic work on the house and I'd like it to reflect the first decades of the house's life (as opposed to the mid 90s, where it's currently stuck) by restoring what's left and re-doing the problem & newer areas to match. Does anyone have any advice for restoring "original character" to a house that's seen multiple waves of renovations? What have you done? Any tips?

As an aside, we found an old five panel door stashed in the eaves upstairs. I don't think we'll be able to rehang it, but would love to incorporate it into the house in some way...advice or thoughts appreciated!