Poll: How Old is Your House?

[astrid]

We love our 1889 Victorian, and can't imagine living in a house with level floors, straight walls and more than 1.5 bathrooms and a big master suite. My dream home though is a Craftsman Bungalow. Something about them just calls to me. Maybe I lived in one happily in a previous life?! :D

 

Just wondering.....how old are your homes?

 

(and lest you think I am a dull bulb --though maybe you do already-- I included the "over 300 years" in case some of our European WTMers live in homes older than our nation.)

 

Astrid

[newbie]

Our house is newer, 7 yr. Tuscan style home.

We like it until something needs some fixin.

[Annie G]

1880 Victorian here...and I love the Craftsman houses in our town. While I love the huge house and high ceilings, I do not love the natural gas bills that we pay during the cold winters we endure.

[Guest Virginia Dawn]

We live in a 68 year old bungalow style home, but it is not craftsman. I would call it slap-dash. I'm pretty sure the original owner built it himself from the leftovers of the builder who built the two beautiful houses on either side of us. Everything is odd sized and pieced together, even if it is real wood.

 

I guess you would say it's got character.

[Heidi @ Mt Hope]

Our house was orignally built in the 40s (I voted 50-100 years old), but has been added on to and remodeled. It doesn't have a lot of character specific to the 40s, but it has a few old things like the bedroom doors. I love it!!

[suzf242]

Two-story brick circa 1900. It was our dream home about 15 years ago, but we found it is a lot of work to keep up and hard to heat. Our dream home now is a straw bale house, but the building ordinances in our area are holding us back.

 

Suzanne.

[RebeccaS]

We live in a log home, built 1819. It's so much fun to live here. Of course, because it's so old, we have mice here all the time. That's not so fun. But, other than that, I do like living here.

[Prairie~Phlox]

1974 ranch....we love it, it does need a little updating, but that will come. It's not terrible, mainly light fixtures and some cabinets.

 

Phlox

[Marie in Oh]

dated somewhere in the late 1800's. The studs are hand hewn oak with pegs instead of nails. It is crazy. It is so hard to drive a nail into the studs. We also have an addition built in 2001, so we have some old, some new. I prefer the new. The old is ALOT of WORK!

[Blossom'sGirl]

but I am pretty sure this old farmhouse was built in the 1800's. Now that I think of it, I have never lived in a "new" house. The house I grew up in was also an 1800's farmhouse then we moved to a Victorian house which was the birthplace of a Civil War Gen.

 

I have to laugh when I watch HGTV and houses built in the late 1900's are considered old.

[elegantlion]

1970's ranch. Boring, Bland, still reflects some of the less attractive features of the 70's. I truly miss our 1930's bungalow. Now it had character.

[Paula in PA]

The original part of it was built in 1915, but my family added 2 additions in the last 35 years. My dd thinks it's very cool to be growing up in the same house that I did. :001_smile:

[nmoira]

 

We love our 1889 Victorian, and can't imagine living in a house with level floors, straight walls and more than 1.5 bathrooms and a big master suite. My dream home though is a Craftsman Bungalow. Something about them just calls to me. Maybe I lived in one happily in a previous life?! :D

I could have written this work for word, except that our Victorian is 1906.

[Lorna in the boonies]

Ours was built in 1967, same as me.;) It's pretty boring, but it serves its purpose.

 

Our last house was built in 1907 and was initially a one-room schoolhouse out of town on a ranch. When the county opened up its main school, our house was sold to the Primitive Baptists, drug into town via sled and mule (this was in the 30s), and "converted" (ha, ha) into a church. In the 60s, the church sold it and someone threw up walls and called it a house. It had an oddball floor plan, but it certainly had character!

 

I say all that to say this: one of the men from the Enola Gay went to school there as a boy -- so my living room had history attached to it!

[mazakaal]

Our current house is 50-100 years old, but our last house was over 300 years old. There was a legend that there was a tunnel from that house to the coast for smugglers. Kind of cool.

[Carrie12345]

Our house was built in 1991 (we bought it in 2005) but it's already starting to fall apart. :glare:

[Bee]

Lived in by it's original owners and then only rented out until the '50's when my grandparents bought it after it had sat empty for a few years.An elderly gentleman stopped by a few years ago and said he'd lived in it as a young boy.He remembered there being a massive weaving loom upstairs but it was gone by the time my grandparents moved here.Probably used as firewood by hunters or vagrants.My grandparents said everything left in the house had been destroyed and there were signs hunters had been here.Rumor had it that it was haunted but then, aren't all old houses supposed to be?

[melmac]

It's a lovely 26 yr. old, 3,000 sq.ft. ranch style house. It's not what I dreamed of when I was younger, but it's paid for and we call it home.

[whitestavern]

Our home was built in 1741. My husband and I both grew up in old homes and just love them. Yes, there are negatives to living in an old house (drafts, critters, work) but the nice thing about ours is that much of it is original like the floors, wood paneling on the walls, built in cupboards, etc. So you really feel like you've gone back in time when you're here. We do authentic Thanksgiving dinners where we cook all the food in the fireplaces and use no electricity, only candles. It was an old tavern and supposedly George Washington and Rochambeau ate here way back when. The revolutionary campsite is across the street from us. The house didn't have electricity or modern plumbing until 1980! Thankfully we didn't have to do that work :) One of our neighbors grew up in this house...she's in her 80s now and her family owned it from 1900-1980. Our other neighbor purchased it from her and did a lot of work to it, then took some land from this house and re-built a 1600s home there. So it's nice that the three families that have lived in it since 1900 are all still right here!

 

Thanks for this thread...we haven't had a kitchen or downstairs bath since Labor Day (we gutted and are remodeling) and it's been difficult. The plumbers have been holding everything up and we're way behind schedule. So it's been a nice few minutes focusing on all the positives.

[GraceinMD]

can't imagine living in a house with level floors, straight walls and more than 1.5 bathrooms

 

See, Astrid, we may not agree on too much in the way of politics, but we sure agree here!

 

Our home was built in 1794/5 by my great-great-great-great granduncle (who married my gggg-grandfather's sister, who bought this land for five shillings from her father :)!) Although my grandparents didn't own the house (they rented after the Depression), my dad did grow up here (though I didn't, and dh and I don't (sadly) own it either), which is fun, too.

 

Still has original mantles, floors, etc. It's just a great house, although small and quirky. I can't imagine (as you said) living with level floors, etc. I can't even imagine drywall and carpeted floors!

[Kay in Cal]

Our new place is a 1950's era ranch house. It isn't very interesting, but it has lots of storage and electrical outlets, both of which I like.

 

I wanted to add that I did live in a house in Germany when I was a teen that was over 400 years old. It was made of stone, and you could see on the outside walls how it had been modified over the years with different types of stone. It had lost its roof in both WWI and WWII, but had survived, and the downstairs had been the village Gasthaus for most of its history (though not when we lived there). I miss those really thick walls with deep window wells--the walls must have been three feet thick...

[LibraryLover]

About 120.

 

It has been cared for (and systems updated) all these years, but oh golly, do the closets (some rooms w/none) and square footage represent the era. :lol: I need to not own more than one dress, it seems.

 

I keep hoping to win the lottery (must remember to play!) so we can add on. We love the area!

[M&M]

Our house was built in 1926, it is a side hall colonial. I love the picture moldings, the plaster walls, and the hardwood floors. I wish the closets were bigger.

[Starr]

1852 here and the old newspaper says it was once the "Judge's Mansion". Hmm, that was a long time ago. We belong in a condo. :)

[Cornerstone Classical]

Our house is was built in 1967, by a wealthy boat dealer. He lost his $$ in the mid 70's due to his refusal to sell fiberglass boats instead of wooden.

Isn't that a hoot?

 

In 1967 this 9,378 square foot home had all the top amenities. Too bad those amenities have stayed the same since then:glare:, and now we get to update it! The house has "good bones", we just need to bring in to 2008. But after 4 years of continuously having an updating project going on, we are getting burnt out! BUT hopefully it will be worth it. It's a wonderful home for a homeschooling family that stays home a lot. Everyone has their own space.:001_smile:

[JFSinIL]

about 1900 - 1908ish timeframe here...American 4-square with a two bedroom/powder room addition from 1925. So five bedrooms total - one small full bath upstairs.

[Melissa in Australia]

my husband built our house, he built a small house, more of a cottage really, 2 bedrooms and minimum kitchen/bathroom size.

when our family grew to 5 children and couldn't fit in he extended it, doubling it in size. he finished the extension last year.

[laughing lioness]

Ours is a 1920's craftsman style farmhouse. We think it might have been a Sears 'build-your-own." Wood floors, 12" floorboards, tons of windows, crown molding, walk-up attic, 10' ceilings (including basement), 2 built-in buffets on 10 acres, facing a river. It's a cool house. Needs some work...plumbing, wiring, new kitchen, etc. etc, etc, etc..:)

We LOVE it.

[clane]

Boring square modern two story, circa 2001. Never again.

[Tracey in TX]

We love our 1889 Victorian, and can't imagine living in a house with level floors, straight walls and more than 1.5 bathrooms and a big master suite. My dream home though is a Craftsman Bungalow. Something about them just calls to me. Maybe I lived in one happily in a previous life?! :D

 

Just wondering.....how old are your homes?

 

(and lest you think I am a dull bulb --though maybe you do already-- I included the "over 300 years" in case some of our European WTMers live in homes older than our nation.)

 

Astrid

Astrid, I have home envy! How amazing to have a turn of the century Victorian. I'm salivating at the very thought. DB and his wife will inherit her family's historical estate in upstate NY (over 300 yrs), so there really are some American homes that old.

We live in a typical Texas brick house. I swear they all look the same. Only difference is size and brick color.

Do you have a photo of your home to share?

 

ETA: 15 y/o home, 4000 sq ft. What it lacks in ge na sais quoi, it makes up in bedrooms and baths!

[Kay in Cal]

That sounds lovely! I love Craftsman homes too... sigh...

[astrid]

See, Astrid, we may not agree on too much in the way of politics, but we sure agree here!

 

Our home was built in 1794/5 by my great-great-great-great granduncle (who married my gggg-grandfather's sister, who bought this land for five shillings from her father :)!) Although my grandparents didn't own the house (they rented after the Depression), my dad did grow up here (though I didn't, and dh and I don't (sadly) own it either), which is fun, too.

 

Still has original mantles, floors, etc. It's just a great house, although small and quirky. I can't imagine (as you said) living with level floors, etc. I can't even imagine drywall and carpeted floors!

 

 

COOL STORY! I'll bet it's gorgeous! And you're so great to have kept it in your family. It makes me so sad to see old houses which I am certain were once beautiful but sit on their lots, unloved and uncared for. Really....I'm a sap when it comes to old homes!

 

astrid

[jamnkats]

You need an "other". We don't live in a house - we live in a palapa. :)

 

But we're considering buying a ruin which is over 500 years old and restoring it.

[Matryoshka]

1880 here, but it's brand spankin' new compared to the house I grew up in, which is 300+ yrs old.

[Amy in Orlando]

I'm so jealous of you folks with cool older houses. We had a chance to buy an old Victorian (old for Florida 1902) house for almost nothing. But the "bigs" were babies and there was lead paint everywhere inside and out. I drive by the house now and just sigh. I wonder if I could have made the babies wear gas masks or something. ::sigh::

 

We live in a house built in 1983 (year I graduated high school) it's not interesting or fun looking. But, we've made it ours and I'm happy to have it.