I refer to our two hundred year old home as a white elephant. I am in the greenhouse business and my husband is a rabid gardener, so the grounds are planted with rare trees and flower gardens and go on for acres. Over the years we have added a large gazebo and a spring fed pond. yadayadayada. Only a person who knows old homes first hand, and has the time or money to hire a professional full-time gardener, should ever buy it. There'll be lots of people to come look when it goes up for sale, but it would not be for the weak of heart. Heating bills. Put that at the top of your list. Even if you let the house fall down around you, they'll just keep coming. We've installed new double-paned energy efficient windows. Caulked. Weather stripped. Built a solarium across 2/3 of the northern exposure of the home for solar gain, replaced the roof, put in a new boiler, converted from electric to gas heat (yes we had to pay to have lines ran), and placed gas grates in strategic spots to take off chill or use when it wasn't too cold. Use reversing ceiling fans to distribute the heat. We've cut our heating bill IN HALF as far as energy consumption. But, rates rise and will keep rising. We still have six hundred dollar a month heating bills in winter. And this is an old farmhouse. It does not have fourteen foot ceilings. It also is nowhere near 6,000k square feet. And, until we put a small fortune in the energy efficiency items, a draft from a window on one side of the room could blow out a candle on the other. It's comfy now, and even cool in summer so we don't need air conditioning, but for the first fifteen years of my marriage you needed a wet suit to take a bath. Think also about the bones of the house. Redecorating is great, but get somebody in there who knows construction really well to look at the skeleton of the house before you even consider buying it. The last two winters, we replaced the beams and joists under our kitchen and dining room. They were logs with the bark still on them, or logs cut on site and hand hewn to nearly square. They were ENORMOUS,and likely dragged into place by teams of horses. We needed to chain saw them to even think about getting them out. We had to gut these rooms clean down to the dirt underneath and after we got new joists up then replaced floors. Moolah. BTW, we never thought about replacing joists and floor beams in this house. After all, they'd withstood two centuries before us. Then termites happened. LOL. The roofer left about a hundred bats homeless when we replaced the slate for modern shingles. We've put in a new entrance box and had to rewire the whole house and it has solid brick interior walls. The logistics of running electricals, and the plumbing for the boiler system were staggering. If you see fuse boxes that should send up a red flag to check out the electricals for modern wiring. Moolah. We had to restucco over the seventy five year old stucco over the bricks. (major, major moolah) We've had to repair or renovate chimneys and it's hard to find brickmasons here who are familiar with the old craftsmanship. That's another thing about very old houses. Nearly everything in seriously old house is done by methods not common to craftsmen anymore and that includes materials. If you have to replace parts of woodwork it's going to be something like oak or mahogany and large. Not box store kickplates. My walls are so old, it's not even plaster on most of them, it's a sandy almost concrete covering. If we put together all the money we have spent in the last two and a half decades breathing life back into our wonderful old home, we could be living in a really fancy new one. We don't want to. We love our old home and pretty much know it inside and out by now. But, it's like a marriage and yes.............we are the volunteer caretakers to an historic old building we couldn't see being left to ruin. But, it's going to take a very special person to want the job after us. Now, ask me about the plastering schedule where the doors and windows are. LOL. Old houses just keep settling. Not a door in this house even resembles a rectangle. They all have been trimmed or had wood added to them to fit the openings. Every window was custom made and no two are the same size. The house is nearly regained its integrity now, and I can see the end in sight of the major issues. But, if we had been forced to sell this at any point along our long path of renovation, and somebody else had to pick up where we'd left off, if they knew up from down, you can take it to the bank our money and sweat wouldn't have left much room for profit. There'd have been no quick sells. The end results perfect for us. It's rustic yet and even has a pitcher pump in the kitchen to pull up the spring water for the house. But you always live with a foot in the past where people lived simpler and made do in some respects. Some people can do that. Some people can't. It fits our lifestyle well.........simple and hard working. But, it was purchased because my husband wanted an old large home in a rural setting. If he'd just wanted "room" it wouldn't have even been in the game. Good luck whatever you decide.

OK, thanks to everyones pictures, comments etc, I have decided to eliminate the glass tiles. Can't believe how quickly I finally did that. The marble is timeless, goes with any paint color, it can be traditional or modern depending on how it's used. Now I can start driving myself nuts on which marble, what pattern etc. lol By the way, the lighting in my house is horrible where I always have a hard time with paint colors. I got that blue/gray sample yesterday. Is it a go or should I look for something else? It gets to looking really blue when the lighting gets darker or at night time. gooster, I forgot to mention that the big sample sheet I had made up yesterday is Chantilly Lace for the cabinets, so it looks like I'm on target for the cabinet color.

So glad to come across this post. I am in nearly the same position. A 30" gas Kenmore Elite is supposed to show up next week and I am not excited! Nearly all my research on the Kenmore was positive and price wise it was good. I wanted a 30" gas burner, convection oven, slide in. Reading not so good reviews on the GE Cafe or any others such as KA or Electrolux (and and a significant up in price from the Kenmore) - sent me to the Kenmore. But honestly I don't trust the back control panel to last long & really don't like the look or need the features. I just want to turn the stove and burners on and off. We seriously considered the Bertazzoni but the oven was way too small (it is very pretty and basic functioning) and next thing we know are looking at Wolf for more than 3x the price of the Kenmore! It is amazing how you can mentally upgrade. We love to cook but spent the last 4 years with an ancient hotpoint that only had three functioning burners and was fine (my husband not so much :) I am glad to hear good things about the Cafe & others. Any more input on those 30" slide in "mid range" stoves - KA, Electrolux, GE - would be wonderful. And I am going to check out the NXR. Thanks.

Thank you, straw. I think Khalid also grows the Cl. Crimson Glory. That one is a 'for sure' purchase. I really want CS, but may put it on a fence to make dead-heading easier. I think I've eliminated Felicia and Blossomtime for now due to sun issues. I really just want them all, but it's too much $$$! : ( I'm planning an arbor, but don't know how soon I can clear out that area, so I'll just wait and maybe get those along with parade later, but shipping is a killer. mad gallica on the antique site said I couldn't grow anything on a north wall, but I'm going to try anyway. ARE says Ballerina and Belinda are good for shade and while not as fragrant as I usually like, I can plant others in the front of this very deep sloped bed. I'm more interested in their health. I also decided florentina may be too red and clash with CG. I'm aslo getting Barcelona for the front so that's another colour to deal with. I think it's easier to mix cool pinks than any reds. I'm also getting Gruss an Aachen, Bolero and Molyneaux for elsewhere.