Old Houses - some reasonable expectations
If you are shopping for an old house, it is important to remember something that may seem obvious. It is not a new house. What a concept.
Old houses have amazing features and characteristics that you just can’t find in a new house (disclosure alert - my personal preference is old houses, I own a circa 1900 Victorian ). 2×4s that actually measure 2″x4″, wood floors that are so rich and aged they take your breath away when the sun hits them, tilework in bathrooms and around fireplaces that you rarely see anymore, history, funkyness, uniqueness. They are invariably in a neighborhood where the houses around them are equally cool. And if you are buying in a transitioning neighborhood, they are often a great deal.
But they are not new houses, so they have some features that, if they are important to you, may present a challenge. Here are some of the comments I have heard from buyers who have insisted, early in the process, that they want an old house.
1) “there’s no master suite”. Unless you are looking at a house that has been somewhat gutted in a rehab process, there wont be one. Master suites are a fairly new ( last 30 years or so) concept in houses, so don’t expect one in that 1935 Craftsman Bungalow you’ve been eying.
2) “the closets are tiny (or non-existent )”. A middle class family around 1900 probably owned about 4 outfits, so they did not need a walk-in closet.
3) “the floor is kinda slopey”. Houses settle. The questions about floor slope are: Is it still settling, can I live with the slope that exists; if I can’t, what is involved in removing the slope? If there are plaster walls, say goodbye to them if you intend to jack up a house. FYI, bungalows slope toward the center of the house, and Victorians stay high in the middle and slope down toward the exterior walls.
4) “there’s only 1 bathroom”. Again, common in older homes. The question is, can you live with this, and if you can’t, is there a fairly obvious and easy places to add another bathroom.
Older homes can be a joy, but like all of us, they can use a little more TLC as they get older. Just don’t expect an older home to have the features and sensibilty of a newer home. They don’t, and that is a huge part of their charm.
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