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I love architecture and always dreamed of an old home. Most of our houses at that point had been built between the 40's and 50's. So we were thrilled to buy a home built in the early 1900's. It was a small place, only 800 sft. A 2 bedroom, 2 story colonial with soo much charm! It was what we could afford at the time in that particular neighborhood. It had an adorable sunroom that was full of windows and opened inward. Original woodwork, oak staircase and hardwood floors. The original furnace was coal burning but when bought the house it had been changed to forced air. The layout of the house definitely did not meet a more modern lifestyle. I had what they called a worker's kitchen. The kitchen was only 9 x 7. Pretty much you worked in there and got out.
Choosing appliance was pretty tough because fridges now are much deeper. I paid extra for a counter depth and even then you couldnt open the fridge and the stove at the same time. Even the door to the fridge couldnt open all the way because the door hit the counter on the other side, so the one crisper at the bottom was never used. Due to the layout of the house there was no way of ever rearranging the kitchen. We had to live with it. We had a good sized dining room so eating meals wasn't a problem but preparing those meals could be. Thanksgiving dinner was a task with only a 3 foot prep space. The house was either freezing cold or super hot. The upstairs bedrooms were so stifling in the summer we broke down and bought window air conditioners even though we had central air. I had a HVAC guy come out and he basically said due to the age of the house it would be pretty hard to fix the HVAC issues unless we wanted to tear out walls and so forth. So we had to live with it. Our heating bills were around 200 a month in the winter and it was pretty tough paying that when we were freezing all the time.
We moved out of state and I live in a newer home that is 2000 sft. I was worried about affordability but honestly our heating and cooling bills are less here. I miss the charm of that old place but I feel more comfortable in our new house.
The house I live in now, the original part of it was built in 1932 and that amounts to only 1/3 of the house now due to add ons, some done before us and some we did. The original structure was nothing grand, but a small square box and when redoing the kitchen we found out the house was made of used and salvaged building materials. It was once a farmhouse with nothing around it but land. 30's during the depression, and they built it with what they could get I guess. Every room has a different heat source and one original bedroom has no heat and uses a plug in heater. We stay warm enough, but after having central heat in previous houses it does take some getting used to. The floor plan is odd and quirky, due to the way previous owners added on, but I love it.
While there are certainly countless challenges of living in an old house, the character is priceless and I wouldn't bat an eye if I had to choose between an older house and a new, cookie-cutter one.
Very large, long, beautiful stained glass windows, high ceilings! (no, not 2-story ceilings, good old high ceilings), old looking real hardwood floors, heavy doors, beautiful doorknobs, unique woodwork on a staircase, etc. No amount of walk-in closets or stainless steel appliances can beat that.
I wouldn't trade my sweet 1928 Spanish Revival for a newer house 3x the size ever. The architecture is as detailed as if it were a mansion and it just makes people point and smile when ever they walk or drive by.
You can update an older house without ruining it but you have to be very careful. We originally had 3 bedrooms (one in a lower, partially finished level) and 1 1/2 baths and managed to carve out a den from the lower level bedroom, finish off the rest of the level for another small bedroom and bath and now have a 3br/3ba +Den house that still looks like a tiny cottage from the front and the architectural integrity is intact in and out. Living in a older neighborhood with mature landscaping is icing on the cake and the house values here are very stable, actually still expensive at $500 to $600/s.f.
Location: When you take flak it means you are on target
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I'm at the opposite end of the spectrum. I avoid buying any property older than the mid 1980's. It avoids lead and asbestos issues and the systems in place are still current and easy to replace if necessary. Not saying I won't buy older but it has to be a give away. LOL
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