Ours is built int he '70s. We may need to change the windows - they’re fine for now. We have no interest in a marble kitchen, but we are putting a bathroom into our basically unfinished basement, and it will have a large soaker tub.
Totally agreed on the larger lots and older trees - our lot is about twice the size of the lots that new houses are being built on (maybe even more). A postage-stamp sized backyard is great if you don’t want to do any gardening, but I love to garden. We got a good start on fixing up our large, hilly front yard this year, and will continue to work on it for years to come. We also have room to do/build stuff in the yard if we choose.
I had one of my dream houses and still do sort of. It is a true circa 1760 Colonial with land that took 7 years to restore. It wouldn’t be for everyone but something that lasts over 250 years with little major upkeep has to be built well and it has a modern kitchen, plumbing, cable, and everything else. I never considered the hassles to be all that much and it was worth it.
I have a list of houses I want on top of that. I want a Southern plantation house like Oak Alley or Tara first and foremost but I could also go for a grand Victorian (not a wedding cake one) that is really spooky with an organ and a huge staircase plus some hidden rooms. An Addams family house would be ideal but I don’t know when I would find the time to furnish it.
New houses can be cool. I liked the one I grew up in because my mother designed it. It was a modified towering A-Frame with bedrooms and baths off both sides with 12 foot windows in the front but I don’t most cookie cutter ones. Ranch houses make me want to hurl especially if I think Frank Lloyd Wright inspired any aspect of the design. I hope that midget is burning in hell right now.
Our house is a Craftsman bungalow. It’s actually a Sears house, so I can be confident that it was built with all the care and skill you’d expect from someone who ordered his house through the mail and put it together himself. I will say, it promotes clean, wholesome living. I can no longer afford to drink and carouse.
My grandfather bought his house from Sears in 1923- a bungalow but a rather plain one. It was vacant for a couple of years after he died before a buyer was found but otherwise it’s been occupied since the day he moved in and the last time I was inside (15 years ago or so) it was the same bead board and same basic house so apparently they supplied good materials.
I’d say old, but only as long as you know what you’re getting into. If you get it in your head right off that any house older than 80 years or so is going to need insulation, electrical, and plumbing work. If you know that going in, and decide to just go ahead and replace all that stuff, then you’ll be fine. But if you don’t, it’ll nickle and dime you to death…a lot like an older car.
Our current house started out as a 1920’s farmhouse, we gutted the inside to bare studs, and added an addition. That way all the wiring, plumbing, insulation ect…was new, while preserving the solid frame craftsmanship of the original structure. I’ll also second what Voyager said, eved having a good builder with a decent reputation in the area, I was still on site twice a day, every day during construction finding things they hadn’t done quite right…and making them fix them. Even so there are still things I didn’t catch that we’ve had to fix after the fact.
I like the idea of old houses for all the reasons mentioned here - the character, the idea, etc. But when it comes right down to it, I prefer a well-built newer house. Completely agree with those who mention the cookie cutter McMansion thing, I wouldn’t want one of those.
But a well-built newer house wins over an old house for me everytime, with the exception of older homes that have been kept up well and modernized. The big thing for me is the kitchen/living area; older homes tend to have their kitchens stuck in a room by themselves, off in the back of the house. If I had a kitchen like that, I’d never see the rest of my family. I want an open kitchen/living room design, where I can be cooking while still interacting with everyone else.
Also, older homes (as well as many McMansions) tend to be really big on formal dining rooms. In my world, formal dining rooms are simply not used. Heck, the house I’m in now has a great room (combo living room/dining room open to the kitchen) and when we have guests over, 9 times out of 10 they want to eat at the bar that faces the kitchen, NOT at the really nice dining room table not 10 feet away.
Another point in favor of newer homes: newer bathrooms and closets. I want a master bedroom with a closet large enough for two people’s clothes. I want a bathroom large enough that we can both be getting ready for work and not tripping over each other.
I suppose all this could be found in an older house that’s been updated, but it seems a lot easier to find newer homes that fit the bill.
i’ve lived in both. the house i grew up with was 50 years old when we moved in. the newest was ten. my current housing is about 24 years old and in good shape. i’d say i prefer the new simply because it’s less upkeep in the long run.
I grew up in new construction and currently live in a 110 to 120 year old row house.
The new house was nice in that there were no big surprises although you have to perform maintenance on things.
Since we bought our house, we’ve replaced the roof, the furnace and AC, and redone the tile in a bathroom. We’ve had minor plumbing and electrical issues as well. We had to install insulation, and we’ve had to replace the windows and doors. These are things you wouldn’t have to do in a new house, but at least for better or for worse, I know what quality the items are and that I haven’t cut costs too much.
I wonder if the presence of a master bath could be the dividing line between new and old homes. The house I grew up in did not have one. Our current house was not built with one, but had one added when they build an extension with 2.5 new rooms. I’m not sure I could stand a house without one, especially as I get older and make up to a dozen trips a night there.
This is where I live! I hate hate hate hate it. Moved there 2 years ago and we live in a glorified cracker box with ZERO privacy and ZERO character. The entire town is just a giant cookie cutter dorm room. I can not WAIT to move. It’s beyond me why we decided on this house, I’ve always loved older (1940-1970’s) homes and well extablished neighborhoods have some soul and history to them.
That was another “must have” for us - we have two cats who are shut out of the bedroom at night, and when we had to go out of the bedroom to use the bathroom, the cats: A. took that as the signal it was time to get up and start bugging us, and 2. snuck back into the bedroom. I don’t think we’ll ever have a house without one again - it’s just too damned convenient.
We live in a house that’s less than 20 years old; we’ve been there for 12 years now. However, there’s woods behind the house, and each lot along our street has 100 feet of street frontage, which enabled the developer to leave a band of established trees between houses. So we’ve got big trees on three sides, which is one thing it’s hard to find in a relatively new house.
And despite all the crapping on recent construction, the house is solidly built. The kid and I have put it to the test, and it’s passed with flying colors.
I’ve also lived in some older houses along the way that were pretty drafty. Don’t want to put up with that. So I’d have to say newer is better, as long as I can have some decent trees.
There’s a saying: “In the US, a hundred years is a long time, and in England, a hundred miles is a long way.”
On the home question: I like the idea of an older house, but the reality never quite measures up to the imagination. Sure, they’re full of nice wood and stonework, but they’re also full of outdated, possibly dangerous wiring and ad hoc ducting from an era long before air conditioning. I like “solid” and “character”, but I like “safe” and “comfortable” more. So, I think I’ll stick with newer houses.
One thing older houses do have going for them, though: big, old trees. Can’t get those gorgeous old trees in a new subdivision.
There’s a saying in the building business: “They don’t build 'em like they used to, and thank God for that.”
Building techniques are much better now than they were 50 or 100 years ago. It isn’t even close. That doesn’t mean that there aren’t builders out there now who cut corners, but that’s true of any product and any time period.
Some of the posts above are pretty funny. If you don’t want a tract house, then build a custom home. If you don’t like crappy floor-plans, then don’t design a house with crappy floor-plans.
I have lived in houses that I built, and I’ve lived in old houses. They both have their ups and downs, but some of the objections I’ve seen above don’t make a lot of sense. You don’t hate all modern cars because the Yugo was a POS.
Ideally, I’d live in an old house, with “good bones” but modernized and current. New wiring. New insulation. New non-drafty windows. A functional modern kitchen. Good plumbing…etc.
I prefer the architecture and character of older houses (I like Craftsman, too) - but I am NOT handy. I prefer the low upkeep of a newer home.
Unfortunately, to get an old but modernized home is out of our reach at present. To build a new home with character is also out of our reach. (Or perhaps, not where we choose to put our money - we think college for the kids and travel for the family is a better idea). So we live in a newish home, very grateful that its much less drafty, that the wiring doesn’t actually scare us, and that the drain tiles don’t have 80 years of tree roots in them like our last house, but a little disappointed that I don’t have a beautiful built in buffet or leaded glass windows like my old house.
