Quote:
Originally Posted by CaptainNJ
my thoughts are that you let other people do what they want to their homes and you do what you want. why do you feel that your preferences are any better than theirs?
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Captain, no one is suggesting that people are not permitted to do what they wish with their own homes.
However, there are so many new homes with no character. They are building these blank slate homes every day. I think that we would all agree that if a person bought a colonial home that was built in the 1700s and proceeded to "blow out the kitchen", rid the house of uneven wide plank floors, get rid of those small windows, raise the roof and put sky lights and a Jacuzzi in a bathroom and vinyl siding on the clapboard that there would be public outrage.
Many of those old 1600 - early 1800s homes that are colonial are protected either by local historical societies or they find themselves on the National register of historical places and are legally protected.
Victorian era homes and buildings also find themselves under similar protection.
My home town of Oyster Bay NY is a place steeped in history. I give my home town as an example because it is the place that I know best. Founded in the 1600s, it was involved in the Revolutionary war and is the home to Raynham Hall, home of the Townsend family, as well as several other 18th century homesteads that are now preserved as museums.
At the turn of the last century, President Theodore Roosevelt chose Oyster Bay as the site of his Summer White house, building Sagamore Hill, his Victorian summer "cottage".
The Presbyterian Church is a carpenter Gothic structure that is still used as a house of worship and is registered in the National Registry of Historic Places.
Oyster Bay did not experience most of it's growth in Colonial or Victorian times though.
Like most American towns, it boomed and blossomed in size and architectural character at two other times - the 1920s and the decades before and after that, and in the post war period.
When I return to that pretty little hamlet, it breaks my heart to see a stately three story structure turned into a bastardised contemporary. WHY? There are plenty of mid century ranches in the area that are modern.
But those woodsy mid century ranches with the glass walls and central fireplaces are being turned into ersatz Victorians adding idiotic turrets and Victorian era flourishes.
In an area filled with many real Victorians why ruin a mid century modern home?
Just because someone has the money to make a mess out of a beautiful home, doesn't mean he should.
There are also brand new Victorians, contemporaries and neo colonials. Buy or build them and get creative all you want! Hey go crazy!
We are a young country. A seventy year old home in the United States is an old home. As is a One hundred and thirty year old home and a fifty year old home. We, as Americans have varied tastes and there is no law that forces the lovers of granite "griege" tile kitchens and baths to live in a kitchen with subway tiles or a bathroom with a black and white tiled Moorish arch surrounding it's bathroom.
There is a difference though. Every time someone destroys a 1930s bathroom, it's gone for good.
Those brownish grey Italian tile baths and granite kitchens are still being built!
In fact, one can hire a builder and have a home like that built now! Put remote control fireplaces in each room and top them all with flat screen TVs! Go crazy!
But would it be too much to ask to leave alone older homes? There are those of us who would live no where else and have never met a brand new house that they wanted to call home.
I do not think that this is too much to ask.
Some of these homes will soon be one hundred years old.
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This is the first farmhouse sink we've owned so it has been a learning experience. Yep, no stains, no rust. Thanks for sharing your story. 
