My house was built in 1952. Part of the post-war housing boom. It's a little brick ranch, not remarkable in any way, and pretty much like the other houses on my street. But if I tried to replicate it today, it would cost a small fortune.
The exterior walls are brick. Not that silly brick facing, but real fired two-inch-thick brick. The interior walls are concrete board on a wood frame, with a steel mesh to hold the plaster. No drywall. In ill-considered bursts of youthful anger, I've put a fist and a foot through a Sheetrock (tm) wall -- not gonna happen here. My hand will break before the wall will.
I never knew what a wall anchor was until I went to college. In this house, the walls are robust enough that just tapping in a straight nail is enough to hang most of the stuff you'd want to hang. If it's a heavy frame, two nails.
The floors are hardwood, and the sub-floors are ... unfinished hardwood. There's not a lot of plywood to be found.
The insulation value of these sturdy walls is pretty solid, too. It's 38°F outside, 62°F inside. I have not fired up the furnace yet this year. Once I replace the old windows with some nice double-pane numbers, I should be able to knock out the drafts and make things nice and cozy.
I can't imagine buying a new house unless it's built to my specs and under my supervision. Most houses today are built on the assumption that buyers want something trendy and shiny, and in a few decades it'll be razed and something else built on the site. Old houses were built on the assumption that they would stay in families and should stand forever.
There are drawbacks. My '50s house has a '70s electrical system. One designed for the days before computers, microwave ovens, blow dryers and air conditioning, A typical new home has a 200-250 amp breaker box. I have a 75. Over the years I've learned which electrical appliances I can't run at the same time without tripping a breaker. I can iron my clothes and microwave my breakfast in the morning, but not at the same time.
The plumbing is no great shakes, either -- I have galvanized, cast-iron and copper pipe where more modern homes have PVC. Gluing PVC isn't fun, but it's a lot less hassle than sweating copper. And if anything goes wrong with the cast-iron sewer line, just damn.
But this sturdy old dame is a good platform to improve on. It's got cable and Wi-Fi, coax and twisted-pair copper to every room, which I ran my own damn self. I had the notion of running cat-5 to every room, but then Wi-Fi came along, and it wasn't worth the hassle. My house has a basement that's damp and an attic that's hot, but I can work with that.
All in all, I think I'll stick around for a while.
I've got a 60-amp service.
Try running a box from each 110-side of your range. You'll find lots of amps that way.
We have left it original except we did upgrade the power. None of the outlets were grounded.
Built in kitchen cabinets that one would have to bulldoze out. There are several others in the area i am keeping my eye on and my wallet at the ready. What goes around comes around.
You represent a perspective that is lost on too many people today. My house is of a later vintage, built in 1987, bought by us in 1988 from original owner, for $116K (Piedmont, NC). It had 2200 square feet of heated space (now, with half of basement finished, a little over 2500 squre feet). We took out a 15 year fixed rate loan, refinanced once with another 15 year loan and paid it off early, a few years ago.
We have resisted the urge (not really THAT much of an urge) to “upgrade” to a more expensive home, and we don’t regret it at all. Our income has grown pretty well over the years, but we are just putting money away, and raising boy/girl twins, now almost 16 years old, waiting for college expenses to hit. We will weather that storm and then perhaps slow down a bit. I am 50, wife is 46. We don’t have expensive tastes. We save for things we want rather than buy on credit. We usually buy one step below “cutting edge” technology on things, saving good money there (and “cutting edge” is often not cutting edge any more by the time you get the item home).
I fear for our kids, who I hope have been watching how we live and will emulate it. They are savers, not spenders, and that makes us proud.
I admire your spirit and your perspective. I wish more would see its wisdom. Some may, soon, by choice or otherwise.
In some cases a liner can be threaded through that cast iron to save digging it up...