This month, New York House celebrates restoration and preservation of old and historic homes. When you think about it, renovating an older home is much greener than building a new one.

For some of us, living in an old house is a labor of love. The architecture, woodworking details, decorative glass, rough stone, and handiwork that went into these homes tell stories of the craftspeople who built them. Many of these houses have mysteries hidden under layers of paint and under floorboards, in dumbwaiters converted to bookshelves, in closed up fireplaces, and in other modifications made by previous occupants.

I grew up in an old Victorian with a big wrap around porch, sets of French doors everywhere, a crooked, narrow back staircase that led from the kitchen up to three of the six bedrooms, and a cavernous front foyer with wood banister and wide staircase. Never mind that the banister had been painted black, hiding the original wood finish; that the holes in the faded and stained carriage-house wallpaper in the living room disclosed layers of older, uglier paper underneath; that the plaster was crumbling from the ceilings, and that the dirt-floor cellar stayed damp and musty until heavy rains filled it like a wading pool.

As a teen, I cursed the intricate lattice work of that porch as I toiled with my paintbrush, and resented the original single-pane windows that leaked heat in winter.

Years later, when it came time to purchase a home of my own, I couldn’t resist the charm of a similar Victorian, albeit smaller and in better condition. But I’m learning just how much time, effort, and money must go into loving and properly caring for this historic jewel.

I’m finally coming to appreciate what my parents went through to maintain our family homestead.

But I wonder if my parents realized that what they were doing was actually a nod to the environment.

We at New York House salute homeowners like Sean and Julie Griffin, [profiled in our story, page 22] who work tirelessly to preserve the historic charm of their 1860 Federal house in Kingston, but try equally as hard to make it sustainable with modern green features.

See you in the neighborhood,

Nancy Meyer