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When we moved our house we had to build a new kitchen. To avoid a goofy looking modern kitchen stuck onto a 182 year old house, we built the kitchen almost entirely out of salvaged materials. When we sought out materials, some people refused to allow us to take things they were tearing out, even when we offered to pay a little bit for them. They preferred to toss them in the dumpster (which they had to pay for). Other people were very glad to have the 150 year old materials recycled and some refused to take any payment for them.
I think the open concept and exposed beam fads is ruining a good many historic homes. It's going to be hard to put that material back when actual rooms are popular again, and of course by then all the 250 yr old hand planed paneling and plaster is long gone.
Contingent on its historic value...I tend to weigh out the safety of the renovation. Termites, old pipes, poor wiring or drainage concerns in older homes.
When 'this old house' aired, they worked to retain or refurbished the existing era. It comes down to cost vs investment. Our historic home had a meager kitchen. No more then 9 ft by 8 ft. When deciding to bump out we had to weigh out the beautiful dining wall or the porch that had some landmarkings. We salvaged the land markers and opted to keep the dining room in tact. The kitchen became longer and tbh, wasn't the best rehab. The old window and creaky side door had to be tossed..it was warped. To get that exact style though was too costly. Ergo the cost vs the investment.
Yes some tear downs do become necessary...most though are on aesthetic reasons....
Yes, lots of perfectly good materials get wasted. I do wince. I'd rather see it sold or given to people who could salvage it.
Habitat for Humanity is one organization the sells repurposed materials. The wastefulness mentioned is one reason why I no longer watch some of these renovation shows. I can't remember the name of the show but know there was one on HGTV where they are just smashing and destroying perfectly good materials with a sledge hammer to make room for the trending materials that are going to look like every other cookie cutter house on HGTV. It was wasteful and obnoxious.
This added one more bad layer to the already hard to watch show, which was already bad enough due to the high-maintenance, insufferable personalities of the participants.
I think the open concept and exposed beam fads is ruining a good many historic homes. It's going to be hard to put that material back when actual rooms are popular again, and of course by then all the 250 yr old hand planed paneling and plaster is long gone.
If there truly was home built in pre-Revolutionary War era that has been renovated recently to a have an open floor plan the folks who did so almost certainly were far more aware of the accuracy and functional aspect of the original home than any renovations done prior -- slathering chrome edge linoleum countertops in the 50s was certainly not done with such care, nor was covering every surface with space-age plastics in the 60s. Certainly the mod-era colors and materials of the 70s were applied to older homes with no thought whatsoever as to what value the original structure may have had...
By the 80s there was a growing awareness that maybe a bit more care was a good thing. That certainly grew with the popularity of shows like the original This Old House and similar programing in the 90s.
Anyone engaged in remodeling of homes more than a decade or two old these days tends to be far more aware of the value of preservation & restoration. The fact is quite a few older homes lend themselves to modern lifestyles, in many cases the intervening remodeling that sliced up stately older homes into rooming houses, apartments, or similar multi-family dwelling is being undone.
Several years ago when Tiger Woods's marriage imploded so spectacularly, his soon-to-be ex-wife bought a large, old mansion on the ocean near Jupiter, FL, with part of her divorce settlement. When word leaked out in the Jupiter area that she planned to demolish the house and build herself a new mansion on the plot for her and the kids, locals got all upset. "How could she do that?" people complained. "She's tearing down a beautiful house with historical character and all kinds of architectural details...it's obscene!" She never publicly responded, which made the busybodies even angrier. They painted her as some thoughtless millionaire divorcee who was destroying local history.
A few months later, it was finally discovered that the stick-built house she'd bought was riddled with termites and had been for years. The house was deemed not habitable, and no amount of renovations would stop the deterioration. She'd known this all along, but simply didn't feel the need to answer her (uninformed) critics. Oh, and for several months before the house was eventually torn down, she sent experts into the house to carefully remove all the architectural and historical details that could be salvaged and had them donated to Habitat for Humanity's ReStore outlets in the Palm Beach/Martin County areas, allowing those thrift stores to re-sell them to professional restorers for boatloads of money that helped Habitat in its objectives. The pieces just quietly started showing up in the stores (no press events or fanfare), but people eventually figured out where they came from because some of the millwork, mantelpieces, and doors were well-known as having been in that mansion. She eventually got her new mansion, and our local Habitat had enough money to build many more houses. All the naysayers got a lesson in never assuming you know what goes on in others' houses, even when we saw so much of her marital break-up play out in the tabloid press.
I couldn't even hope of owning a house like the ones on renovation TV. I'd like to see some shows on how to make an old low cost small home look pleasant with a $1000 budget for example. Like a jack of all trades making things from scratch. Reuse, recycle, re-purpose, that kind of thing.
It bothers me when home renovators gut out perfectly good kitchen cabinets that would use a coat of paint and new hinges or knobs instead . There are companies that specifically do cupboard door refacing for a fraction of the cost of new. Cupboard boxes all look alike. Why rip them out? A coat of paint and refaced doors look fine. This granite counter top rage is so expensive. There are great choices for lino top that look just like it, if you want granite-look. New toilets and plumbing fixtures can be cleaned and look brand new. A new seat will often help "update". Tubs can be resurfaced. Blinding white kitchens are so sterile and lack warmth.
Today's fads compared to future trends will seem like the olive green and orange and popcorn ceilings of the 70s and 80s. Wall paper is coming back when for many years it was a no-no. In future, all of today's upgrades will be ripped out too.
Well no...Actually all cupboard boxes don’t all look alike. I don’t know why you would even think that. Have you ever actually looked at a new well-built cabinet and an old one that is falling apart, poorly built, or been painted so many times that it is peeling and bumpy??
There are plenty of situations when it’s better to replace than attempt to “refresh”. Just because you can’t afford to do that, doesn’t mean it’s wrong for anyone else to do so. And just so you know, most people do send off the usable materials to be used by someone else in a secondhand shop or Habitat for Humanity.
If there truly was home built in pre-Revolutionary War era that has been renovated recently to a have an open floor plan the folks who did so almost certainly were far more aware of the accuracy and functional aspect of the original home than any renovations done prior -- slathering chrome edge linoleum countertops in the 50s was certainly not done with such care, nor was covering every surface with space-age plastics in the 60s. Certainly the mod-era colors and materials of the 70s were applied to older homes with no thought whatsoever as to what value the original structure may have had...
By the 80s there was a growing awareness that maybe a bit more care was a good thing. That certainly grew with the popularity of shows like the original This Old House and similar programing in the 90s.
Anyone engaged in remodeling of homes more than a decade or two old these days tends to be far more aware of the value of preservation & restoration. The fact is quite a few older homes lend themselves to modern lifestyles, in many cases the intervening remodeling that sliced up stately older homes into rooming houses, apartments, or similar multi-family dwelling is being undone.
These are good points, and they remind us that we often view history through rose-colored lenses.
And it's funny you mentioned the chrome edging...now in the 2010s removing that haphazard slathering of chrome would often be seen as blasphemous. It's like we've been brainwashed to think everything old is better, even if when it was new it was lame.
And I'll add...
For every truly preservation-worthy home in any given era of history, there were probably 100x as many generic, un-spectacular homes of zero historical significance. These are homes that may indeed have nice workmanship and decent materials, but that's about it.
If there truly was home built in pre-Revolutionary War era that has been renovated recently to a have an open floor plan the folks who did so almost certainly were far more aware of the accuracy and functional aspect of the original home than any renovations done prior -- slathering chrome edge linoleum countertops in the 50s was certainly not done with such care, nor was covering every surface with space-age plastics in the 60s. Certainly the mod-era colors and materials of the 70s were applied to older homes with no thought whatsoever as to what value the original structure may have had...
By the 80s there was a growing awareness that maybe a bit more care was a good thing. That certainly grew with the popularity of shows like the original This Old House and similar programing in the 90s.
Anyone engaged in remodeling of homes more than a decade or two old these days tends to be far more aware of the value of preservation & restoration. The fact is quite a few older homes lend themselves to modern lifestyles, in many cases the intervening remodeling that sliced up stately older homes into rooming houses, apartments, or similar multi-family dwelling is being undone.
That's actually funny!
While your post may be true where you live, I am correct when it comes to the wealthy areas of the northeast, and the flippers are no better. I work in the preservation field where I see first hand a home before and after, and there have been many very intact homes in recent years that have been essentially destroyed by these trends.
Gaudy colors and chrome edged countertops, while cringe-worthy, are pretty easily replaced. When someone takes a early 1700s paneled wall and mantle and hacks it to be a headboard, because they think exposing the chimney stack is "cool" - that is much harder to fix. When original plaster ceilings are removed to expose beams that were never meant to be exposed, that is hard to replace. When complete walls are knocked down, including old-growth hand planed wainscoting and built-ins, that is hard to replace.
There is a local house I looked at buying a few months ago that now has a pile of debris sitting outside a window. It was a very intact and solid structure and in the same family since it was built. It was never "modernized" the way you described with the exception of wallpaper which is easily removed. It will be interesting to see what the new owner does to it, but the pile of wood on the grass does not bode well.
Obviously if the house is falling down, full of termites or powder post beetles, that is a whole other ball of wax. But because I work with houses that are on the national and state register, I can tell you for a fact that many times we are told "the house is in horrible shape!!!" and it's really not. It IS for that person who thinks new and shiny is the only way to go, but in reality, the bones of the house are just fine.
The absolute last thing one ever wants to see in an ad for a 1700s house is "historic charm meets modern convenience".
Sadly in my area, we have a condition called "more money than sense" and those people are only aware of keeping ahead of their neighbors, and have no clue or care about preservation.
If your area is doing well in that regard, perhaps there is hope for the northeast!
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I would not count on that...
