Something about that old house

Are you in an older home? Are you about to buy, but not even thinking about an older home? Over the next few weeks I hope to write about some of my thoughts about the good and not so good things on buying old verses buying new. Many families are out house hunting for that perfect home. I've met many home buyers trying to decide between old and new. I have lived in a new house, a five year old house, and a house built in the mid 60's-- our final and forever home. All houses have their good points and their bad points but it really depends on what you-- the buyer, home maker and dreamer-- are looking for.

After a third move, we settled down with an older house in 1999 when our daughter was barely two years old. It was built in 1967 and it needed so much work! Many people get scared off by old homes like the one we bought, but my dad went along with me on the first look and he told us if we bought in the right neighborhood and got a good price the blood, sweat, and tears would all pay off in the end. Dad new a lot about property as he managed a finance company, and he also knew a lot about renovating. My granddad ,his father, was a contractor. While looking at this old house, dad started telling me stories I had never heard before. Like about how he used to go with his dad during the summers and help him when he would build not only homes and businesses but wine cellars for people. He would use knotty pine and dad recalled one with a captain's wheel in it. As dad told the story, he put his hand on the old den wall while we looked at the room. He told me NEVER paint over this wood-- it is something you just don't find anymore. Another den area was made from Solid oak panels. I did think that was really pretty and in a way masculine. Dad repeated that we should never touch the walls with paint. As we went through this old house, dad seemed to light up. He was pointing out how well built the house was. He pointed out the huge metal beams in the basement. The floors were all oak and it would take some sanding to get them back to their original beauty. He pointed out the marble entrance flooring and how much that would cost to reproduce today. There was a huge screened porch that needed work but dad told me right away how nice that would be and he noted the brick flooring. He talked about how it could be easily finished into living space some day. As we walked through he was talking about what a great house it was. All brick but the added closing of the screen porch.  Dad loved EVERYTHING he saw. It was kind of funny how my first impressions of the old house changed. What I saw in the ugly wall paper suddenly became an image of painted walls and plenty of space to have a REAL living room area for all my collections. Or maybe future music room. The ugly, unfinished fireplace  could be finished and those built in bookcases of solid oak could hold old books or anything else I wanted. The kitchen only needed new flooring and those old olive appliances could be painted till they needed to be replaced. I mean heck, dad said that was the Rolls-Royce of double ovens in the day. Those old bathrooms of 60's colors were not so bad when I realized they were all not too small, held solid marble counters,double vanities and had heated flooring. The wall hung toilets were something I had never seen and. I mean, think how easy it is to clean around them! Lighting hanging from chains were that cool vintage look. Every closet was of cedar! Huge bedrooms!  I never would have thought it, but this old house was the home of my dreams!

Something else to consider when you get into an old house is the neighborhood. Usually they have plenty of trees that are already beautiful and mature. They have established shrubs and yards already happy with green grass. They may need some fertilizing, but hey you should do that either way, right?

These are just a few of the good qualities I love about an older home. I am not saying it is for everyone and my friends all thought we were nuts leaving our perfectly nice newer home in the lovely area we were in. But adding on would be costly and we could not see it as our forever home.