I'll bet you are noticing more now. All my first floor ceilings are done except for the dining room. It now, suddenly, looks awful. DH painted the inside of the chicken house and noticed how bad one side of boards looked and has been collecting old boards from a variety of sources to replace the bad wall. While stripping the paint off of the second story porch, I realized how bad the railing had become and we just ordered new railings in cedar. I think it is normal to do more once you get started.

I think about selling this one and buying an older one!

We started at 15 years old and bought older until this last house, which is 150 years old. After hearing all the problems people have with new homes, and with getting things fixed even under warrantee, I wouldn't touch a new house.

Ya, our house is 150 yrs old and we have had some issues. Most were caused by the previous owners being really stupid. We haven't had any MORE issues than people I know who have bought new houses. Plus we don't have that guilt trip of paying 2x the price for a NEW house that is falling apart and contributing to urban sprawl and deforestation.
Houses, new and old, are a constant chore. If you want your house to last you need to do maintanance EVERY year! Most people don't seem to do that now which is whey they move every 2 -4 years. (ack!)
Every year I am out there sanding and painting our door jams and checking our foundation for cracks and filling them. Takes five minutes but prevents HUGE problems.
Of course we have big projects happening also, but hopefully those will end sometime soon.
You should be proud you have an old house and are in the process of fixing it! Old houses last forever. The new ones don't. I really think you would end up spending the same amount of money either way, because new houses are alot more expensive and have little problems (and sometimes really big ones) that always add up.
-renee

We have been in our house five years. When we first bought it, we naively thought that we would be finished with renovations by now. Hah!

Yes, we have a lot left to do. However last summer we had our house reappraised and we were amazd at how much it has appreciated in value. Primarily because of the sweat equity in it, the fair market value improved by about 65 percent!

The woman that owned our house was over 80 years old, senile and had a nephew managing her affairs. No telling how long basic maintenance had been neglected, but we learned that the neighborhood association went to the city and forced them to paint the exterior. The way we look at it, we are making up for all the maintenance that should have been done along the way. Whenever we think about complaining, we remember that is why we got the "fixer upper" price in the first place.

Occasionally I have fantasies about getting a larger house in the same neighborhood. But DH says they will carry him out of this house feet first!

Jeannieo, since you had your house reappraised don't you have to pay higher taxes now?
Where I live noone wants to have a reappraisal and if the town knocks on your door doing the year appraisal you don't let them in the door.
I was just curious as I would like to know how our house has gone up in value since our work but i don't want to pay higher taxes.
-renee

Scryn,

I believe if you hire a private appraiser then the city/township never needs to know it was appraised. In my area a private appraisal runs maybe $300, probably less. We're thinking of hiring one prior to refinancing, but we're in the same situation wrt not wanting increased taxes.

On topic: Rindalin: We moved into our old house (80 years old) in late October. We've had about $3000 worth of completely unexpected plumbing repairs on top of our renovations (new kitchen, painting, etc.). The list of work we're planning is so long I won't even write it down because it would probably make me cry. In spite of everything, we are really in love with the house.

Most (not all) of our friends bought new houses. We're in our late 20s/early 30s so there have been lots of marriages, new houses, babies, etc in our groups of friends over the past few years. Our friends with new houses have SO MANY problems; I can't even believe some builders are allowed to continue working. One couple we know had to have all the siding on their house replaced about a year after they moved in because what the builder installed rotted. The house was mostly brick, but the siding replacement was still 10K. About two years after they moved in, they took out a home equity loan to finish the basement and install a home theater. That was in for about two years when the basement flooded with 2+ feet of water. Another friend has been fighting with his builder for nearly eighteen months, and the powder room on their first floor is still unusable (they have not been able to use it since they moved in). I could go on and on and on....my point is just that as someone mentioned above, I think any house, new or old, is just nonstop work and headaches. Honestly, I expect some problems in my old house - but I would be livid all the time if I had all those problems with a brand new house.

I don't know any owners of newer homes who are as happy in their home as we are. I love my old house in a way I never imagined loving a material item. Also, DH and I work together so well, and this house is our work in progress. We have friends who literally nearly sought divorces over a kitchen or bath remodel, and as DH and I work together to make our house lovely, we feel good about our compatibility and the strength of our marriage as well.

Hope you feel better about your home soon; best wishes to you.

Loriellen is correct, a private appraisal has no connection to the tax value of your home. Only a tax appraisal (they call it revaluation here) undertaken by the local taxing authority affects tax value. Sometimes they don't even individually look at properties, and simply increase everything by a percentage. The tax value on my house is just under $65,000 and it just appraised at $135,000. Luckily for me, the house is a designated local landmark, and I only have to pay property tax on 50% of the appraised tax value (about $32,500).

How I always think about it is you end up spending as much as anyone buying a new house, your just spreading it out over time. I don't know about you, but my kids take great pride in their home even though it is not "done". There's some kind of bond that develops when you have a old house that isn't there with a new one.

Thanks for reminding me how much work a new house can be. We originally bought this old house because it was cheap. I've never been attracted to restoring old houses. It isn't really a labor of love for me, it's a labor of necessity (I'm probably one of the people that will be cussed someday because I didn't restore things properly). My old house doesn't have much personality. It's just an old plain jane. It doesnÂt have the beautiful high ceilings (mine are only 7' high). It doesnÂt have the ornamental woodwork that I read about in so many of your homes. I guess my old house is a combination of old and new. It was originally built in the early 1900's, but rooms were added in the 50's and again in the 70's, so some parts of the building are only about 35 years old. Sometimes I feel like IÂm fighting a losing battle with it.

My kids are grown and gone. DH was transferred to another state when he was promoted at work. At this point I just want to get this place looking good so I can sell it and move on. It gets kind of overwhelming when I think of everything I still have to do to make it a nice livable home.

It is enough when you can't do it justice anymore.

We added A/C, took care of all the walls and ceilings, updated the electric and bathrooms and all the lighting and replaced all the roofs and a hundred other things. But then we lost an income and had health problems that prevent physical labor. The house was crying out for balcony railings and a new kitchen and we couldn't give it. Time to accept that somebody else will have the pleasure of bringing it to complete glory. Maybe. Maybe they'll just maintain it the way it is. Or maybe they'll let it fall into disrepair again.

We are buying a home built in 1970, updated, with aluminum siding. This will be a huge change for us. We have been house people - house centered, house proud, house involved. It's going to be a whole new world for us. I hope we do some good for ourselves, and learn how to be passionate about something new. Wish us good fortune!

My DH coined an expression you might like: edifice complex.

Although I look forward to the day when all my restorations and renovations are done, I just can't imagine living in a newly built home. To me they have no charactor, no history, no soul and that seems to be important to me and most of the people that live in old homes. Plus I can't imagine living in a city or suburb where the new homes are jammed together, cheek to jowl, on tiny lots with paper thin walls and no place to have extensive gardens, no mature trees, no privacy. Maybe I'd just be bored if I didn't have anything to do!!!:)
It does take a certain kind of person to undertake these lifetime projects-some folks just don't care for the neverending work. Certainly nothing wrong with that. You have to love working on old houses in order to live this way or it's just not worthwhile.

wyndyacre, I think you hit me when you said "It does take a certain kind of person to undertake these lifetime projects-some folks just don't care for the never ending work" Right now my dream is to buy a motor home and become a "snowbird". Of course I might wake up tomorrow and want nothing more than to continue working on this old house... LOL

When I bought my old schoolhouse, I had a goodpaying job and 9-10 weeks off a year. I would do a project on the house and then travel for 2,3 or 4 weeks, come home to go to work and work on the house and then go away again. I travelled around the continent on my motorcycle, would forget my house even existed and then come home enthusiastic to start again. That was the ideal way to work on an old house! Wish I could still do it that way.

I want to think of it as our "hobby". Everyone spends money on some kind of hobby and this old house is going to be ours. Also, I told my DH it is like living on a ship. I was told by one of our cabinet painters (as I was scraping paint off of the moldings) that in the navy the crew are continually scraping and painting and working on the ship to keep it in top condition. I think living in this old house will be kind of like that. We'll always be scraping and painting and working on something to keep it up but hopefully it will remain a labor of love. :-)

Our old house is in pretty good shape. It's about 70 yrs. old. We've been pretty fortunate as far as large repairs. We have had to replace the heating & air system. We used the horrible kitchen for several years before remodeling it. We took the ugly paneling off the walls of the den & put in sheetrock. We tore off the tiny, rotting 6X8 laundry room & added a much larger one. The concrete porch was covered with brick pavers & new spindles & columns put in. Now we're working on the bathroom. Most of the remaining work is basically cosmetic - patching plaster, painting, etc. We've done most of the work above ourselves. The laundry room is only partly finished, so that's still to do. It just seems to take so long to do. Both of us have busy jobs & work fairly long hours. It seems the only time we get to work on the house is weekends & of course other things come up so we can't work all weekend, every weekend on home projects. DH went in this weekend to finish a project that had to be delayed due to other projects. If I'm home alone, there are a lot of projects we need to tackle that require both of us. We've been here ten years. I thought we'd certainly be done before now. So yes, I think sometimes that it would be nice to buy a new house, or even an old house that someone else has already restored. I guess for us, at least so far, it's more an issue of time than money. We're trying to save money by DIY. We haven't had any major things like replacing the roof or dealing with structural problems. We got a good deal on this house, so we still have less money in it, even with the repairs, than we could have bought a new one for. It would be nice, though, to be able to spend weekends & vacations doing something besides home improvement.

We lived in a condo belonging to my parents before buying this house. It was only about three years old. It looked very nice & was okay while we we there. We did have some minor issues. Once some ants built a nest outside one of our windows, which were the tall ones that go basically all the way to the floor. The nest was hidden by shrubbery, so we didn't know it was there. This was a guest room, so we didn't go in there very often. One day, I opened the door & there was a huge ant nest inside my room. We called the property maintenance people & they said there was a problem with the bottom seal of the window. There were also issues with leaks around the windows & doors. My dad has sold his condo, but I understand that a lot of the owners are suing the builder for multiple problems, including rot.

But if you buy a motorhome and become a snowbird, what
would you do with your plumeria?

When talking about the really old gems and restoration - doesn't it become a way of life? As one poster said, a hobby.

I liked "Wyndyacre's" post about our older homes and what they have to offer. To me, the most important part is: Some houses are just that, houses, others are a home!!!! Have lived in both kinds, and some of those houses could never ever be a "home!" There is a difference, think about it!

When is enough, enough???? Probably never! Have lived in my older home for 30+ years. A single story, which is great, as no stairs to climb when the knees are aged! ;-) Went through a period when kids were at home and wished for more room, not now, it is perfect.

There is always a project that one can undertake. Some can wait, like my kitchen, in favor of something else on my "mental agenda." Having recently had a barn built for my horses, that was higher on the agenda than a kitchen remodel!!!! ;-)

Having bought when I did, I enjoy the huge appreciation in the value, and for So. CA, I have the room, the land (and 5/8 of an acre is a lot in my neck of the woods), the big trees-----and I get to enjoy it all. Sure, I get frustrated when some problem comes up to deal with, but.....so what!!! It is a lifestyle, and a lifestyle that I love. Wouldn't trade it for anything!!!!

Guess the most important part that I have to say----I live in a home, a home that I love! Work, yes, but that is good for me, and keeps me off the streets and out of mischief in retirement!!! Have a grand day, one and all.

Cow

We wanted to be done before we moved in.We did all work before.It took over a year.But we didnt want to do one room only to have to redo because of water problems etc.We rewired,redid all plumbing .New heat the radiant in floor.Then youre done when you move in.Glad we could do it that way.I had a new house before we bought this Im sorry theres no comparison.They dont build homes now like 100-200 years ago.We have 1700 farmhouse.love it.

QAGuy, I guess being a snowbird is not an option for me. I wonder if Plumies would travel well? LOL

OH YEAH! I'M AT 10 YEARS AND COUNTING TOO. WHEN WE BOUGHT THIS DREAM HOME I SAID THE ONLY WAY I'D EVER LEAVE IS FEET FIRST. WELL, WASH MY MOUTH OUT! IT'S NOW "COME ON CONDO!!"
I'M BROKE, EXHAUSTED AND THERE IS NO END TO THE DRUDGERY IN SIGHT, I SAY THIS AS MY BRAND NEW MEGA$$$$ KITCHEN IS BEING INSTALLED. TALK ABOUT BURN OUT!

A mid-60's era ranch home, like 100's of thousands of others across the land. Good roof, needing lots of new windows, siding, etc. No character. I like our home anyway - with our 5 kids I think I would shudder to think what they would do to a really "nice" place. They can bash in the hollow core 50's style doors all they want - eventually they will all go to their rightful place - the trash heap!

my house is 80 years old, There will always be something to fix but I do most everything myself. This old house has character, solid plaster walls, history. New houses are so....cookie cutter as well as expensive to just buy in the first place.

Whether it's old or new, I think your house needs to be a source of strength. It should be your favorite place to beÂwhere you can recharge your batteries and collect your thoughts. If it's not, then it may be time to think about moving.

UPDATE:

I love my old house again! I finished the living room, DS has most of the drywall up in the breakfast nook, and I currently have the bathroom walls ripped out, preparing to install drywall. WOW, it's so neat to see what is inside the walls! I should post a picture, you would not believe the framing that is inside that wall. I think of framing as wall studs that run from floor to ceiling... not these... the wall is full of little squares, big squares, and crosses, in amongst the big squares. Funniest looking framing job I've ever seen! There is a spot where there used to be a window and I think I'll incorporate a large medicine cabinet in that spot. My son has a "vision" of a big L shaped vanity he wants to custom build into the room, move the comode to the other end of the room and install a raised garden tub with steps and wings at the far end of the room. Sounds like a project to me! :-)

In the May issue of SmartMoney magazine, there is a feature article entitled "The New Middle-Class Luxury Home". It seems that the hot new trend for home building these days is smaller homes with much more detail work.

For example, they profiled one couple who moved from a 5000sf "mcMansion" to a new 2500sf home, which has wainscoating in the living room, hand-crafted maple staircase, crown moldings, giant floor to ceiling windows, etc. The idea is that people are tired of the maintenance of the huge houses, so they are now putting their money into the finishes in the house, instead. It's sort of like getting an "old" house, brand new.

loriellen said: I love my old house in a way I never imagined loving a material item.

I had to smile. It's been a little over a year since we moved into our 163 year old home. Every morning when I walk down that staircase, I feel like a queen. I feel as though I'm on vacation (albeit a working vacation, lol).

Every day, rain or shine, my dog and I walk the grounds as though it were a palatial mansion instead of the modest acre we have.

Not a square corner, not a level surface, there are creaks and groans, some fading and settling...in fact, the old girl and I are going through the same thing. With me, they call it midlife, at 163, I'm hoping the house is still an infant.

I love my old house!

Here is a link that might be useful: That old house!