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Cosmic's opinion speaks a lot for me. Old vs New is not cut and dried.
Our old house in Denver was built in 1916. It was a little Mission-style bungalow, 1900 square feet. We were only the third owners, and even met a nice older gentleman who had been born in that house.
When we could finally afford to, we re-did the kitchen and added about 800 square feet out the back rather than popping the top.The newer part of the house was much better insulated.
But oh, plumbing issues. During construction we found out that our ancient sewer was broken and we had been pumping **** into our garden for years.
No wonder our raspberry patch did so well!
I loved the wavy glazing of the old windows, but we were basically heating the outdoors. Ah well, the crown molding and oak floors made up for it.
I am not sure what our future house will be, but I am leaning towards new.
heehee--I had typed p-o-o-p which apparently is a no-no
Yes my original intent was that "old vs new" is not cut and dried even though lots of people assume new is better -- I was just trying to say that there are lots of things to consider when you are talking about an area like Atlanta with sprawl and traffic and house prices all over the place and new construction, with some not such good quality, and considering things like quality of life, time with family, expense etc. And yes that is pertinent anywhere but I was originally trying to address things in the Atlanta forum because there were tons of quesitons on where to live, cost of houses, old vs new, suburban vs urban and so forth and since I have moved all over the country and bought, built and sold old houses and new houses, I thought I might bring these topics up -- since I'm thinking about them with my planned move to Atlanta. Hope this makes sense. :-)
Of course, LLD--no criticism from me! It's definitely wise to think of the trade-offs; it is oh-so-true that bigger and newer is not necessarily better.
Thanks!
I see myself as "caretaker" of the old gal.
Nea1 that means a lot coming from you. I know you're in the biz. Personally, I would love to see homebuilding go back to the "arts and crafts" aesthetic.
jkmewright...got pics? I'm nosy and can never get enough of old house photos.
Homes of today just are not worth it too me, I would much rather invest in something such as yours. I help people design their renovations on their home, mostly Historical homes, but I do all. My husband built new homes, but now has left that and is and PM and estimator for commercial. he just couldnt deal with the crap being built today. He is much happier and I LOVE working on the old homes. And I totally agree on it going to the arts and crafts era again.
I think older houses are nice but you must be careful about not paying too much for them. Lots of ways to get snookered.
These newer houses have some drawbacks a lot of people never figure. Many of the designs are going to be a bear to ever change or rehab at some point in their lives. Things like just figuring out what internal walls are load bearing, it is not what it seems in many cases. One real nasty thing is many upper floor walls are not directly over a lower floor wall. Can be so difficult to rewire or get plumbing or whatever without ripping up the World. Many have "Distributed" baths unlike the older houses where all the plumbing was in a "Tower Design" directly back to back or over top each other for rooms that required it.
One big thing that ires me, are houses built without local plumbing shutoff valves for each fixture. Or access panels to get at the plumbing if you need too. They build it where the tile work must be destroyed to replace something in the plumbing. It will happen. Should be designed with the back toward a closet or whatever and an removable access panel provided. Same with new houses.
I don't think people look for the right things in previewing houses of any age. I always was amazed by them inspection reports and how much they really missed.
My motto was "Look very carefully at the core stuff, you can always may it pretty. Never pay for pretty."
I grew up in an area full of old houses. I spent 10 years in a house that was built in 1916. They may have "character," but they also have many downsides, like inadequate wiring (I blew fuses every time I used the microwave), drafty windows, lead paint, and lead pipes. When it comes to wall repair, I'll take well-insulated drywall over plaster any day.
I have to agree that some older homes are much better built than newer homes. The house we sold in Denver is exactly 100 years older (1885) than the house we just bought. I am amazed at how sound travels in this newer house-gotta love those plaster walls!
I grew up in an area full of old houses. I spent 10 years in a house that was built in 1916. They may have "character," but they also have many downsides, like inadequate wiring (I blew fuses every time I used the microwave), drafty windows, lead paint, and lead pipes. When it comes to wall repair, I'll take well-insulated drywall over plaster any day.
it's called renovation......... yes you have to do it.
tallrick--I am impressed! I didn't think any houses had been built with anything but drywall since the 1940s.
Speaking of that, anyone know when drywall was first used in home construction? I had thought it was post-WWII, but my current house, built in 1939, has walls that appear to be made of two layers of some sort of primitive drywall, over which a coat of plaster was applied and textured. The living and dining rooms are really cool looking: broad, deep, texture that looks like stone. The other rooms are more conventional pebble finish. Unfortunately, this finish does crack sometimes. (BTW, the best solution I've found is a rubberized latex spray that you just paint over.)
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