Good points, perhaps why the 300 year old house in the woods in New England I have stayed in occasionally has withstood the elements. Foot thick beams helped. A

Good points, perhaps why the 300 year old house in the woods in New England I have stayed in occasionally has withstood the elements. Foot thick beams helped. And maybe there is some type of preservative in all the bat and mouse crap. A recent stay in England has shown me you can have plenty of air circulation with no water intrusion, they have these wonderful skylights that you can keep cracked open even during a storm and no water gets in, I was pretty amazed. I made the list not to condemn old houses, but to consider when building a new house. However, if you go to the downtown areas in old towns, the old commercial properties can tend to hit almost everything on the list. Apparently these things were known, just not applied to residential construction, probably because of cost.