Who else lives in a really old house?

[doneat54]

Our (current) primary home was built in 1996. Not old.



But in 2019, we bought a second lake home, actually a farm a bit over an hour away, built in 1900. It's on a fieldstone foundation, there are no right angles in the house anywhere. The 3 level, 24' x 55' barn is really cool. DW and I are having lots of discussion as to whether it is a "long" term home or not. Sadly, the interior of the house has been renovated so many times (there are 5 layers of flooring on the main level) that there is very little character left. (the interior fireplace has been drywalled in). We have wide pine floors in our bedroom with some square head nails in them, but that is about it for old house character.

DW talks about "knocking it down" (leaving the barn) and building a new house, but I am not on board with that yet, and she knows this. As a retired engineer who wants to make everything "right", this is a struggle. But it is a very unique, and private, piece of water front property, so for now, it is a lot of fun.

 

[harllee]

Our (current) primary home was built in 1996. Not old.



But in 2019, we bought a second lake home, actually a farm a bit over an hour away, built in 1900. It's on a fieldstone foundation, there are no right angles in the house anywhere. The 3 level, 24' x 55' barn is really cool. DW and I are having lots of discussion as to whether it is a "long" term home or not. Sadly, the interior of the house has been renovated so many times (there are 5 layers of flooring on the main level) that there is very little character left. (the interior fireplace has been drywalled in). We have wide pine floors in our bedroom with some square head nails in them, but that is about it for old house character.

DW talks about "knocking it down" (leaving the barn) and building a new house, but I am not on board with that yet, and she knows this. As a retired engineer who wants to make everything "right", this is a struggle. But it is a very unique, and private, piece of water front property, so for now, it is a lot of fun.

Oh don't knock it down--it is the same age as my house--these old houses have character. Keep it for the floors at least! Can you dig back down to its bones in some of the rooms?

 

[calmloki]

We bought our house from my neighbor's son in 1994 after my neighbor died. It needed .. everything. First part of the house was erected in 1880 or so. It then had two additions and a room dragged up and attached at later dates.

We gutted it and relocated stairs, walls, and doors, replaced all windows, added foundation, insulation,and new sheetrock, new sewer and water and electricity, had a cabinet maker make cabinets for us, had a mason do tile work and build a new fireplace from bricks we salvaged and cleaned. Had a very talented carpenter working on the trim (and building a garage from the barn we tore down on the property). Took us till 2000 before we moved in, and we used up most of the architectural salvage we had squirreled away (transom doors and 8" baseboard from a 1912 hotel, schoolhouse lights, real tongue and groove flooring we pulled up from an old house, beadboard, a carefully chosen clawfoot tub - that sort of thing).

Been very happy there the last 21 years - the look says old but the running gear is kickass.

 

[Accidental Retiree]

My husband and I look with admiration and some longing at the “antique” houses in RI and CT.

We see so much to like about them but figure there’s so much we don’t know about what we’d be getting into—but I’m pretty sure it would be costly—so we just admire from afar.

 

[Gumby]

My husband and I look with admiration and some longing at the “antique” houses in RI and CT.

We see so much to like about them but figure there’s so much we don’t know about what we’d be getting into—but I’m pretty sure it would be costly—so we just admire from afar.

Very wise. We have spent more money restoring and renovating our house than we did to buy it in the first place. But we do love it. There is a character that cannot be duplicated in a modern house. (Well, maybe it could, but it would be even more expensive.) And we get to look out over the harbor every day.

 

[Bamaman]

I never have lived in a very old home, but my college roommate grew up in essentially a museum. The house sits on 600 acres, and the front yard was over 100 acres of manicured grass and white wood fences. Ring his doorbell, and a butler answered dressed in a white jacket. The home is a place to truly impress a date.

RATTLEANDSNAPMANSION.COM

 

[Out-to-Lunch]

That was a couple of hundred years after the Thatch Inn was established.
https://www.thethatchnantwich.co.uk/#Home

We had dinner there when we visited our family nearby. They lived in a 300 year old house when they were younger. It is amazing the difference between the new and old worlds. (emphasis added)

Well, the Thatch was evidently established a couple of hundred years after the Mesa Verde Cliff Dwellings in the "New World." (https://www.nps.gov/meve/learn/historyculture/cliff_dwellings_home.htm) However, they are obviously no longer in use, unlike your example.

 

[Sunset]

My 101 yr old cabin turns out is just a young thing..

I agree with the idea that an old historic place can be expensive.

I'm putting in a septic system because the local gov't decided I needed one.

 

[harllee]

I never have lived in a very old home, but my college roommate grew up in essentially a museum. The house sits on 600 acres, and the front yard was over 100 acres of manicured grass and white wood fences. Ring his doorbell, and a butler answered dressed in a white jacket. The home is a place to truly impress a date.

RATTLEANDSNAPMANSION.COM

I had not heard of this mansion so I looked it up, located in TN and still privately owned and opened for tours by appointment, very impressive mansion. But I would hate to live in a museum and have the public walking through. I don't even like to open my home for the charity tours. By the way, the name Rattle and Snap is from a dice game--the land was won in a game of Rattle and Snap from the NC Governor

 

[Surewhitey]

Our 1952 ranch home is small but very livable. The prior owner who passed owned it since 1960. It was in a time warp. We refinished the original oak floors (never been before) and added central ac (he used 2 window units).

The best part is the likely 1952 pecan tree in the back; one of the prettiest in the neighborhood that has survived many a storm here... It's 4-5 times as tall as the home...

 

[braumeister]

That was a couple of hundred years after the Thatch Inn was established.
https://www.thethatchnantwich.co.uk/#Home

We had dinner there when we visited our family nearby. They lived in a 300 year old house when they were younger. It is amazing the difference between the new and old worlds.

One of the greatest thing for Americans visiting Europe is to see how preservation can be a way of life. Just one example: we loved visiting a wonderful pub in Ireland a couple of years ago, operating more or less the same since 1324.
Kyteler's Inn

 

[folivier]

My son lives in a 100+ year old home in Baton Rouge, he loves it and doesn't mind the maintenance. But he's young and is an architect.
Years ago we bought some acreage for hunting and put a camper trailer on it for use while we were up there. Then the lady we bought it from offered a fantastic deal on the front half of the property which included a 4 bedroom ranch house + a barn and 1500 sf building built in 1860. Turns out there was a plantation house that burned down, the building was the original cook house. The barn was unique since it had a floor. During the Civil War there was a yellow fever outbreak at Camp Moore which was a Confederate training camp a few miles north. They moved the healthy soldiers to the plantation for training and used the camp for a makeshift hospital. The barn was build out of heart of pine. I tried drilling into one of the beams and burnt 2 bits. The cuttings still smelled strongly of resin.

 

[donheff]

124 years old in a historic district. New kitchen, bathroom, basement renovation but the original wood floors and trim. I like the ten foot ceilings and old feel but they didn't build big closets and bathrooms back in the day. For us the attraction is the location.

 

[ivinsfan]

124 years old in a historic district. New kitchen, bathroom, basement renovation but the original wood floors and trim. I like the ten foot ceilings and old feel but they didn't build big closets and bathrooms back in the day. For us the attraction is the location.

The lack of closets which we have an issue with too, just shows us how few material things people had back in the day...

 

[harllee]

I actually like the fact that our old house has very small closets. If I buy anything new I have to get rid of something. On the other hand we have a basement and junk seems to accumulate there.

 

[Gumby]

The lack of closets which we have an issue with too, just shows us how few material things people had back in the day...

After living in our house for 15 years or so, we discovered a closet that had been closed up sometime in the distant past. It is quite small and has no hanging rod for clothes. Rather, it has a row of hooks on the walls.

 

[livingalmostlarge]

1880s victorian for a number of years. Figured out we had no insulation, had to blow it in. Had horsehair plaster and lead in walls probably. Hate old homes though they are charming. We bought it as a condo conversion multifamily that was poorly done.

 

[finnski1]

One of the greatest thing for Americans visiting Europe is to see how preservation can be a way of life. Just one example: we loved visiting a wonderful pub in Ireland a couple of years ago, operating more or less the same since 1324.
Kyteler's Inn

That looks like a great place to hang out on a cool Irish evening!
I visited this place in Nottingham England a few times while I was there. Had some great cask brewed ale.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ye_Olde_Trip_to_Jerusalem

 

[freedomatlast]

Been there, done that (1890 Vintage), not doing it again. Much prefer open concept layout, big closets, convenient layout and low maintenance and low utility bills of well insulated newer homes.

 

[ncbill]

Been there, done that (1890 Vintage), not doing it again. Much prefer open concept layout, big closets, convenient layout and low maintenance and low utility bills of well insulated newer homes.

Yep, my poor Mom nearly went broke after her divorce trying to keep the large 1920s house where we grew up.

One thing I didn't realize until going through her records after she died was that the boiler for the steam radiators (coal-fired, then converted to natural gas) never had a holding tank added, so Mom was running the boiler whenever she needed hot water...which meant even summertime natural gas bills of $100+/month...back in the 1980s!

My tank water heater consumes less than $10/month worth of natural gas.

 

[Markola]

1913 bungalow. We think maintaining it will keep us occupied until we don’t want to work on it anymore.

 

[Koolau]

Yep, my poor Mom nearly went broke after her divorce trying to keep the large 1920s house where we grew up.

One thing I didn't realize until going through her records after she died was that the boiler for the steam radiators (coal-fired, then converted to natural gas) never had a holding tank added, so Mom was running the boiler whenever she needed hot water...which meant even summertime natural gas bills of $100+/month...back in the 1980s!

My tank water heater consumes less than $10/month worth of natural gas.

One of the big advantages of the rehab we did on the old homestead was that we were able to make the living space extremely efficient to heat and cool. The upstairs is now only used as an "attic" for storage and thus is not heated/cooled. Essentially, the upstairs has become an additional dead air-space above the (now) well insulated first floor ceilings. All the walls were originally built with "real" 2X4s (insulation space was actually 4 inches.) Additionally, all the windows on the north side were eliminated. Any remaining windows were resized (down sized) and replaced with energy efficient units. The shed-roofed (1900) addition was taken down to the studs and ceiling joists and insulated with more than typical blown in insulation. The original chimney (huge double brick) was removed and only a small triple wall vent was installed for the water heater. The furnace/AC was located outside (claimed 94% efficiency gas/electric).

We estimate the energy cost was reduced by 2/3 by the reno. The reno wasn't cheap, but we now have exactly what we want in a house that should be good for another 75 years. YMMV

 

[6miths]

120-year-old farm house but was gutted by fire in 1980 so the guts are only 40 years old. And two additions in the late 80s.

 

[levindb]

House built in 1865...old farm house. We have been redoing things slowly (15 years) with our own hands. There were two additions added before we purchased, and our biggest change was to convert the large living room into the master bedroom and a study. Our old bedroom became a walk-in (walk-through) closet.
Currently working on 2 bedrooms, and then must deal with a bathroom between them. Maybe another 3 years...then we will sell it.

 

[jeffmete]

After the 1893 Chicago worlds fair they tore down the buildings and shipped a portion of the wood across Lake Michigan and built a series of lake cottages on paw paw lake. Our family ones one, no air or heat, but we do have water in the summer! Driving a nail in a stud takes a heroic effort and doing any work is tough as the 2x4’s appear to be 2x4!