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You have to be prepared to deal with an old home's quirks. It is not going to have all the amenities and features of a modern house. Yep, it will wiggle and squ
by skypanther 10y ago
You have to be prepared to deal with an old home's quirks. It is not going to have all the amenities and features of a modern house. Yep, it will wiggle and squeak and probably will need to have its electrical and plumbing checked out by a competent contractor.
It will have been "maintained" by people of varying skills, desires, tastes, budgets, etc over its lifetime. Many of the repairs I've had to do in my old house have involved undoing or fixing the previous owner's poor work.
The flip side, our house is over 100 years old and has most of its original windows. Other than some painting, glazing, and caulking they're fine & pretty weathertight. It has 12" wide floor joists ... I could park a car in the living room. And it has glorious architectural details not found in (or poorly imitated in) modern homes.
The inventory of old homes will never be larger than what we have now. Every year, old homes are lost to fire, flood, tear down, and insensitive remuddlings. If you're not willing to live in and love an old house for what it is, please, buy a new home.
- NegativeLatency 10y agoPoorly done reproductions of wood work make my skin crawl. You touch a railing or some mounding and realize it's mdf that's coated in some plastic. Just knowing all the skill that went into making the old features out of wood has been lost is sad/ disappointing.
- nommm-nommm 10y agoThen there's the fake columns made out of, strangely, foam(!) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MAT2-H8NESQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MAT2-H8NESQ Since they are fake and have no purpose other than being ornamental they are prone to being the wrong size and just look really, really off. If you're going to make them ornamental they should look like they could be functional. Fake shutters that are the wrong size/location really grind my gears as well.
- tsomctl 10y agoI feel obligated to to point out the blog McMansion Hell (http://www.mcmansionhell.com http://www.mcmansionhell.com) which ridicules and explains why these details are ugly.
- hkmurakami 10y ago>If you're not willing to live in and love an old house for what it is, please, buy a new home. Yup absolutely. Thankfully current owners of historic homes in the Bay Area often look for buyers who will appreciate the building and not want to tear it down. There's a house in Atherton which was the original ranch house in the early 20th century there. The owners refuse to sell it to anyone who wants to demolish it (buyers likely have to sign something), and it's been on the market for many many years now for that reason.