Buy New, Vintage or Victorian Home?

[Chas]

Someday I will have my 1930's bungalow with a garden, workshop and garage.

But not here. Not in a million years.

 

[Foofoogal]

it takes 80+ years for Douglas Fir to begin to produce high quality timber. It only takes 40-60 years for it to produce 'marketable' timber.

like fine wine it seems.
What a wonderful post you added.
I did run across this site today on the strap issue and found it interesting.
http://www.ehow.com/how_4827825_that-can-withstand-tornado-winds.html

 

[PrettySquareGal]

Can we talk kitchens?

I've looked at over a thousand pictures on home interiors on the MLS and I have to say that aesthetically, interiors from 1970 on are not at all what I would call attractive.

There are generally two kitchens I keep seeing. The first are the ubiquitous Home Depot et al cabinets in either a light or dark finish, garish wallpaper borders and hum drum appliances. Usually these kitchens are from the 80's-90's. The second is the "I want to have my own Food Channel show" kitchen with industrial metallic oversized appliances and granite countertops. They might be great for chefs but to me they don't look homey at all.

 

[PrettySquareGal]

When it comes time to buy a home, I’m buyin’ an old home that has as many original fixtures as possible! I will probably pay a company to replace the galvanized pipes and replace them with copper, also go through the electrical and restore it to the correct period specs… I want to keep my fuse box!

That sounds lovely!

 

[PrettySquareGal]

Another thing-I looked at this cute brick ranch:

What the picture didn't show was that right smack next to it is a brand new towering colonial house with an unfriendly "No turning in driveway" sign on the street almost in front of the ranch. There was another large new colonial across the street, too. It had been a lovely wooded area only a year before and the ranch had been at the end of the cul de sac, nestled next to the greenery.

I wish that when people built homes they would consider the feel and look of the existing neighborhood.

 

[BinkieBaumont]

I once lived in a "Turn of the Century" cottage with My Art Deco stuff, and it just looked like a"dead persons house", as soon as I moved into a DECO apartment the whole scheme "Sang" and friends loved it ...." OH you have redecorated"

 

[goldwyn girl]

When it comes time to buy a home, I’m buyin’ an old home that has as many original fixtures as possible! I will probably pay a company to replace the galvanized pipes and replace them with copper, also go through the electrical and restore it to the correct period specs… I want to keep my fuse box!

My hair dryer and my fuse box hate each other but it's a small price to pay for period correct.

 

[Miss 1929]

Our 1901 house!

Ok, it's not my favorite era - I would much rather be in a Spanish-style stucco house. But this one was affordable, had large rooms, and a giant lot.

It needs earthquake retrofitting, when they moved it closer to the street and jacked it up in the 50s (why?) they just rested the mudsill on the foundation with no attachment whatsoever. Luckily, my new day job is as manager for a seismic retrofit firm, so as soon as we can get enough cash together, we willl do it for a great price.

Pros - huge rooms, high ceilings, pretty moldings and built-ins, full basement of storage space. Nice strong redwood construction too.
Cons - very drafty and cold in winter, hot in the summer, only one bathroom (horribly remuddled at that) and not much in the way of closets.

Our next house will not be this old, if I can avoid it! But new houses are A, boring, and B, too far out of town.

 

[bobalooba]

Yeah I have a 1910 house that's not updated like it should've been, the only place that has enough electrical outlets is the attic. The living room has one outlet, before I got there the dining room had zero.

 

[Miss 1929]

At least they added outlets and a circuit breaker box at one point!

I am grateful not to have a fuse box, it would never do with all our tech, plus the ironing/sewing, plus the washer/dryer, plus the odd kitchen appliance -

We had a party at a friends house to make waffles, with multiple vintage waffle irons, and blew her electrical completely.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I once lived in -- and helped manage -- an 1880s apartment building. There were plenty of outlets, mostly added in the '30s, but we literally had to buy fuses by the case. If you plugged the percolator and the toaster into the same socket, *pop* went the fuse every time. You learned, eventually, to have your coffee first and wait for the toast.

The real problem, though, was the heating system, which was always breaking down on the coldest winter night of the year. 2 am, 20 below outside, and six tenants banging on the radiators with wrenches -- the landlord didn't care because he lived in Connecticut, but it was a real pain for the rest of us. That's the one thing I would have upgraded in that building.

 

[PistolPete1969]

For me, I adore the Victorian style homes. They had so much character, style, and workmanship; woodwork, tile work, glass work, etc. However, I have also been shanghaied into helping a friend "update" her Victorian home. To my way of thinking, Victorian living is too much work.

1920-1930's I can do. Craftsman houses are wonderfully modern, but with an old-fashioned feel. They have some of the architectural elements I like and are still livable in today's world.

I grew up in a ranch-style house and see absolutely nothing wrong with it.


The views expressed are my own and must be taken with a grain of salt. Feel free to disagree with me if you wish


Pete

 

[SamMarlowPI]

i would say 80% or more of all the buildings here were built 1890-1950 give or take a few...mine is 1900 or 1910 but rebuilt because it burned down...
new skin on old bones...no photos...dispiace...

 

[tuppence]

Yeah I have a 1910 house that's not updated like it should've been, the only place that has enough electrical outlets is the attic. The living room has one outlet, before I got there the dining room had zero.

I had that same problem, I rented a 3 bedroom house from the same period and the whole house only contained 3 electrical outlets. We had extension cords running every-where.

 

[SamMarlowPI]

I had that same problem, I rented a 3 bedroom house from the same period and the whole house only contained 3 electrical outlets. We had extension cords running every-where.

you can have some of mine...i swear when the guy rebuilt the house he put an outlet every couple of feet...the kitchen has about 5 or 6...

 

[Haversack]

SamMarlowPI wrote: "...put an outlet every couple of feet...the kitchen has about 5 or 6..."

That is actually pretty standard for new house construction. Because of all the appliances people now have/use, kitchens run about one outlet for every 2-3 feet of counter space. Bedrooms have a minimum of two outlets on each wall. Etc.

Haversack.

 

[Matt Crunk]

Having grown up in a 1960's Ranch style house and then owning and living in a 100+ year old post-Victorian four-square as an adult, I can say I've experienced the best of both worlds.

Both have their advantages and their problems. My father built our family home and even bricked it himself (he was a brick mason by trade), so it was probably better constructed than the average developer or contractor-built homes from the 50 and 60s.
Early 20th century houses are great and usually well constructed, but that in itself can make them more difficult to repair and remodel. Sagging floors can be very difficult to deal with, especially on upper floors. 100 year old studs and joists are hard as a rock, which can make cutting, nailing or screwing into them a nightmare. Plaster walls are rarely flat and even. You may also have to deal with previous plumbing and wiring updates that are sub-par.

If given a choice and an adequate budget, I'd opt to build a new home (as in self-contract it) in a classic vintage style.

 

[bburtner@moran]

I own a 160 year old house,it has it`s charm mind you,but you never stop working on a house of that age.If I had the means I would build a home to my spec`s.

 

[tonyb]

SamMarlowPI wrote: "...put an outlet every couple of feet...the kitchen has about 5 or 6..."

That is actually pretty standard for new house construction. Because of all the appliances people now have/use, kitchens run about one outlet for every 2-3 feet of counter space. Bedrooms have a minimum of two outlets on each wall. Etc.

Haversack.

My current place, built in 1993, has eight double-plug outlets in the kitchen. I have yet to throw a circuit breaker, and I've been here going on four years.

While we were out house shopping, we looked at one place built in 1880-something, which is about as old a house as exists around here, and another built around 1900. Whatever charm the older one may have once had was all but completely remuddled out of it over the decades. The turn-of-the-century house was in much nicer condition, and retained its original look and character, so I was intrigued. But then I had to take an unblinking assessment of my own skills (or lack thereof) and ambitions (or lack thereof) and came to the only reasonable conclusion, which was that a house of that age is a fine thing for someone other than me.

 

[Baron Kurtz]

While I love my Victorian (1877) home, as someone said above, it's a constant rotation of jobs to be done.

Mostly, I find myself doing (or paying to be done) jobs that are fixes of jobs that were done badly by previous owners. There is nothing worse than a necessary job done sloppily. Just as an example, the plumbing in our kitchen was remodelled maybe 15 years ago, long before we had the house. Now, they ran the cold water supply along the interior exposed brick wall of the rear extension; nothing wrong with that. Then we discover that it has no lagging! So the first real cold day, the pipes froze. Such simple little things that cowboy builders/plumbers do badly that are incredibly irritating.

Or replacing a window and taking out, but not replacing, the lintel! What kind of moron builder would do that? A cheap one, is the answer, one who really doesn't know what he's doing. So now we have a window on its last legs, sagging under the weight of the brickwork above, and the un-necessary cost of re-replacing a perfectly good otherwise window, with the associated building work. Just do the bloody job properly!

Still, I would strongly advise buying a Victorian house. Put simply, they are built better than modern ones. not a breeze block in sight.