Or better yet, ‘vintage’. 
hehe, I know some people like that. Rich guy and his second wife, he’s not ashamed to spend boatloads of cash on what he wants. They had a house custom-built for them (in a little rathole of a town, no less). Close to 3000 square feet, one bedroom. Yep, one. And garage space for six cars. Sure hope they plan to die there, because they ain’t never gonna be able to sell it.
I have a vintage, retro house! Yay! 
I agree about the green idiocy we see; my vintage fixtures work just fine - I should throw them out and buy new ones just because? I’ll probably be replacing my toilets, but that’s because they’re not working right any longer.
When you throw out your brand new fiberglass tub because its outgassing, be sure to replace it with an old clawfooted tub that uses five times the water. Because recycle, that’s why.
I want an old clawfoot tub. I would soak myself up to my second nostril.
Feh! Home and Garden is so… pedestrian.
Remember the cowboy singer and his girlfriend (wife?) After they heard what the prices were, loped outta town quick!
Though the agent said they parted as friends, nary a discouraging word was ever heard from them again.. ~
Everybody says something about “entertaining.” Outside of these shows, does anyone actually say “entertaining”?
Maybe they put on a show of some kind like magic or juggling during happy hour.
and then an orgy. Gotta have lotsa room for those frisky guests.
I’m watching “Love It or List It” as I often do - 15 years in the same house, and they haven’t done ANYTHING. Who does that (or doesn’t do that)? We’ve been in our house almost two years now, and we did our first fix the day we moved in, I think (had to fix a wall where a door handle would hit - put the stopper on right away, and we don’t have to fix the hole in the wall later).
I haven’t caught that one – is it HGTV?
We did some stuff 10 years ago when we first moved in, but since then it’s just been maintenance. No painting or new furniture or remodeling-type stuff. And I don’t intend to, unless I win the lottery.
At all ends of the financial spectrum there are a large number of people who don’t do maintenance at all beyond grass clipping. Sinking foundations, crumbling patios, overgrown or nonexistant landscaping. You’re definitely way ahead of the curve.
Ahhh, the House Hunters thread! I forgot about this until today, when I went to do the final walk-through inspection and get the keys for our new house.
The whole time we were looking, I had to bite my tongue to avoid the House Hunters parody: whining about paint colors, lack of granite or stainless, “outdated” fixtures, etc. And poor us: we had to “settle” for a house without granite, with drab paint, and with “only” 2050 square feet, plus a 600 square foot heated and air conditioned outbuilding - heretofore known as the Man Cave. Not to mention that all three bathrooms were redone over two years ago, and the fixtures are so “dated!”(And I didn’t even go take a peek at the 7500 sq. ft. behemoth that I linked earlier in this thread!)
I guess we’ll just have to make do with that extra bedroom, bathroom and den that our current (1500 square foot) house lacks… But at least we have stainless, hardwood, a big yard, and a nice little patio for our entertaining! Not to mention our Man Cave. (Which is actually the future site of an in-law apartment, either for parent(s), should they need it someday, or for a college apartment for kids as they get older.
ETA: Oh, and to me, the ultimate luxuries: Plenty of closet space (especially relative to our current house, which would be workable if it had more than 11 linear feet of closets. And two water heaters - one for the kitchen, laundry, and The Boy’s bath; and the other for the master and The Girl’s bathroom.
Let’s see - it’s on W Network (and possibly on Viva/OWN in the US). Hilary (the bitchface designer) renovates the old house with a limited budget, while David (the real estate agent) tries to find them a new house at the same time. When they find a good house and Hilary is finished with the renovation, the couple have to decide to stick with their old house or put it on the market. Hilary usually discovers something terrible about the old house while renovating (bad roof, bad wiring, bad plumbing, etc.) that causes her to not be able to do the complete renovation, and drama ensues.
Not doing remodelling is fairly normal; this couple didn’t even do the maintenance, though, it seemed. I just find that terribly strange; it’s their house - why wouldn’t they look after it?
Nice stealth-bragging, Lacunae. 
We’re thinking of putting in a continuous water heater at some point here - maybe after we put in the downstairs large tub, when we’ll need more hot water at one time.
Money and or Interest.
My ex-wife’s house was a falling-down shithole that I was so incredibly happy to be rid of when we divorced. Parts of the basement floor breaking up and the ground beneath sinking away in a sea of sand, water heater on its last legs, outside sidewalks decaying, needing not only a new roof but serious repair to the roof structure and outside walls, floors desperately in need of refinishing. Hell, the free shit we got as part of the airport neighborhood soundproofing program (new windows, new furnace and AC, attic insulation) were the best part of the house after that was done!
My ex had not done a lick of any of that stuff in over 20 years of owning it, and likely hasn’t done a lick of it since. Half of that would be the lack of funds, but I know that since her parents held the mortgage, they would likely have kicked in the money to repair things if she could only have bothered to have half an iota of interest in keeping up the place.
You can do an entire spinoff thread around the idea of buying reality versus dreams. I have always been a bit of a minimalist and becoming moreso over time. Most people with swimming pools don’t even use them that much despite the cost and time of maintenance. It gets worse when you move into the realm of private tennis courts, workout rooms, and other such things but most people are guilty of it on some level. Even apartment dwellers have their cabinets stuffed with supplies for a party that will never happen. Old people have formal living rooms in case the president or queen just happens to drop by one day. The ratio of things people own versus regularly use is quite skewed but the idea that it COULD persists. House sales are often made on selling a dream rather than a real and sustainable lifestyle.
People don’t seem to understand that they almost always have access to things they don’t actually own and have to maintain. There are swimming pools nearby for most people and tennis and golf courses all around for free or for a fee. You can rent party supplies or borrow them if you need them. You don’t have to own everything you could conceivably ever use outright.
But it is the same with vacation homes.
Not that I can afford one, but since it is my hobby to look at properties, I have run the numbers to own various vacation homes many times. You’re often looking at $10-15k per year to own a condo or lake home costing $300-500k. Bare bones minimum and NOT including things like a new roof that you will at least once if you own it any length of time. Now compare that to the use you’d get out of it.
A lake home in Minnesota can realistically be used about 22 weeks a year. If all you do is go up there on the weekend and you get there every other weekend, you’re only looking at about the same number, 22 days per year. If you also spend a week or two of vacation up there and then go up a couple of other times a year, you may spend 40 days a year maximum up at the lake. If your costs are only $12k per year to own, you’re still looking at an average of $300 per occupancy night cost of ownership. And at that, you’re occupying all your free time going to the same place every time.
Likely you could instead stay at some nice resorts in different places each time and come out ahead.
We bought our first house almost 5 years ago and so far we’ve replaced the boiler, all gutters, one window, THREE dang shower heads and all the pipes under the kitchen sink. That was all maintenance. We have not done one whit to upgrade this 70 year old house. We had plans though!
One day we will have the floors sanded-- a lot, stained and re-polyed. And when we do they will be the kind of floors that a House Hunter will walk in and say, “Wow, nice original wood floors!”
Try telling that to my mother… (please. I’ll pay for the phone call.)
But yes, I totally agree with your point. For example, my husband is just absolutely jonesing for an RV/travel trailer sort of thing. He’s researching all sorts of portable accommodations that we could use for family camping jaunts. Nothing that sleeps five people and a dog is very affordable, but some prices aren’t terrible.
However (and this is a big however,) the odds of me voluntarily spending multiple days camping, over the course of my lifetime are (approximately) 1:several hundred gazillion. I can camp, I have camped, and if circumstances dictated that I needed to camp again? Sure, I could and would. But my idea of fun? No. I go to work and pay my housing and utility bills primarily because I vehemently do not want to sleep outdoors, with no a/c nor toilet. I like modern conveniences. I do not pine for “getting away from it all” in the “great outdoors.”
So, I’ve mentioned renting an RV, if we absolutely positively must go on one freakin’ camping trip just to get this asinine idea out of my husband’s head. His response: “But that’s so EXPENSIVE.” Yeah, because owning one would cost so much less!
(Oh, and did I mention that the in-laws have a perfectly nice, new travel trailer that they would happily let us borrow if we wanted to? For free?)
To me, that’s right up there with spending tens of thousands of extra dollars on a house with an extra bedroom for guests. In my part of the world, we have these things called “hotels.” A room at one can be had for a comparative pittance, versus the cost of paying for that extra housing space!
There is something fundamentally wrong with the statement “four blacks is too long a walk to the fitness center”, but I can’t quite put my finger on it.
Regards,
Shodan
Well, seeing four blacks, and even a few Asians and Hispanics on your way to the gym, is not unheard of in an urban setting.
What’s seabreeze do?