Floors, walls, trim and paint in Glenside

Glenside grew up around its train station. The stop opened in 1855 as Tacony Station, the post office arrived in 1888 under the Glenside name, and by the early 1900s Easton Road was a busy shopping street. The Keswick Theatre, designed by Horace Trumbauer, opened in 1928, and Keswick Village farther up Easton Road is the town's Tudor-style second downtown. Glenside sits in two townships, Cheltenham south of the tracks and Abington north of them, and much of its housing dates from those early decades: bungalows, twins with big yards, and larger houses with the generous original woodwork of the period.

Glenside's older houses reward matching rather than replacing. Original door casings, window stools and baseboards here are often deeper and more detailed than anything sold by the foot, so when part of a room changes we work to match the existing profile so new and old read as one. Walls are usually plaster, which takes paint beautifully once it is sound but needs a skim coat before wallpaper or a dark color will look smooth. Floors in houses this age are often oak strip over board subfloors, sometimes uneven after a century of settling, so we check flatness before recommending anything that clicks together. Most of this housing predates 1978, so we confirm the year before any painted surface is disturbed. In a twin, the shared wall and a single front door also decide how materials come in and where the cutting station goes.