Old House Lovers

[ducks4you]

It all depends. Some older homes were just never really maintained, so they are falling apart. Some have interesting features, like mine. We have a 2nd floor with three dormers, north, south and east. There are NO windows facing west on the 2nd floor. There is a walk in attic that looked initially like the door to another bedroom, so NO pull down stairs to access it. There are two "cubby holes" to the north and south of the east bedroom and I floored the one to the south about 15 months ago. We had some rewiring done upstairs and I cut a 1/4" plywood piece with handles that isn't screwed down, so that an electrician can access it. It can hold weight, and has an old toybox on top of it right now. DD's have a full flight of steps to their attic, again you walk through a bedroom door to access, and they are identical to the steps that lead from 1st floor to 2nd floor. It is the full square foot dimension of the 2nd floor.
The house we moved From was built in 1956 and designed with high, slotted windows with NO cross ventilation, so it HAS to be air conditioned. We had one power bill from our forced air furnace that was $400.00, in the 1990's. Our highest bill for natural gas to power the boiler has been about $250.00 this year.
If you Like old homes, you should really be watching "This Old House". They love to give you the history of the house that they are remodeling and the modern upgrades that make them livable. I think that the only job that they did they, IMO, was a waste of money and time was this 1885 3 story townhouse. The owner had 3 neighbors who shared adjacent walls. I thought that if everybody shored up their 1st floor entryways with a beam of steel, like they did for HER, than the whole building would survive. They didn't say that anybody else was repairing their own units, except for the owner of the one that they were working on. If the other 3 go, hers was gonna go, too.
I have come around to accepting replacement of rotten outside decorative wood with plastic that needs no maintenance.
Things only last so long, so if you can replace them with products that really last, you can enjoy your old home longer.

 

[Nyboy]

I grew up in house with full staircase to attic. Now I have pull down folding steps what a pain if I want to put something large in attic.

 

[Beekissed]

The last house I owned was built in the 30s, had all cypress siding and all the interior walls were built out of wormy chestnut lumber, though it had been covered over with cheesy looking paneling sometime in the 70s. Had the original windows throughout, though many of the sashes no longer worked.

I had fun tearing down later stuff in it to reveal the old. It was a solidly built house with a good metal roof. Had to replace the porch floor...some idgit had placed strand board there~painted~ and fastened it on with about a thousand decking screws. Had to saw and sledge that stuff off of there, then reinforce the joists, before replacing the flooring with tongue in groove flooring that should last a good while with the proper care.

Tore down the wall between two rooms and used some of that wormy chestnut to make some countertops and windowsills for the kitchen, found me an old porcelain, double drain board sink unit to put in there and turned back the clock in that old place...and all for very little money. Just work, paint, some savvy scavenging, dumpster diving, and flea marketing.... and imagination.

And that house had a laundry chute, as mentioned in the OP. Another thing I don't think was mentioned in the OP, was sun rooms/porches...maybe that's a northeastern thing, but I love those. Also pocket doors, summer kitchens, walk in pantries, wrap around porches, gingerbreading, porch swings, built-in bookcases and shelving.

LOVE old houses. You just won't find that level of construction, that quality of lumber and craftsmanship, in houses built in later years.

One show on HGTV I like is Fixer Upper...I like it that those folks take something old and make it livable once again(though I don't see the need to "modernize" kitchens that are already just fine), instead of building new construction.

 

[Nyboy]

I often see pocket doors for sale on CL, and I think what fool ripped them out. How about before AC 2nd floor sleeping porches.

 

[baymule]

I miss attic fans. We had one in a house we lived in when I was a kid. Even in the heat, at night the attic fan would draw in a breeze, cooling us off.

 

[Smart Red]

My favorite TOH remodel was one where they transformed an old barn into a house. What a joke! By the time they were done, they had kept 4 feet of foundation, two old beams and a pair of hinges. Everything else had to be torn down and replaced. Even the well and septic system were new.

What they ended up with was a brand-new replica of the old barn with a few feet of old foundation showing and those beautiful reconditioned hinges on a fake (sliding)
barn door between two areas of the building.

Add to that all the hoops they had to jump through to make the local zoning board happy. Wow!

 

[Nyboy]

Red one of my client's house in Armonk was a barn. Don't know if she bought it already converted or did her self. Was on 2 acres, she sold it last year 2.3 million. I wonder what the farmer who built it would think LOL.

 

[aftermidnight]

My fantasy has always been in finding an old mill with waterwheel and stream, converting it into a home oozing rustic charm, of course it would also have to be in a woodland setting. Sighhhhh, not likely but one can dream .

Annette

 

[Nyboy]

Once on a old home show they had a house with a stream flowing though basement. It was before refrigeration, use to keep dairy cold. The owners now a days used it to keep drinks cold when throwing a party

 

[baymule]

Around here barns converted to a house, or a barn on the bottom floor with house on top floor is called a barndominium.