Me too,we bought a 1700 farmhouse w 40 acres of land.We spent the first year restoring the home .We kept all the trim,woodwork,interior doors,floors .We took the old poured glass windows hhad new windows built to match old windows.They were in bad shape.We wanted everything done before we moved in.My hubby is a builder I could have any home I want.I love my old house.A col.George Himes had my home in 1822.I have the deed with his signature on it.When we bought the farm someone sent me the deeds they had and many land drawings.Most were there.

Not particularly, but I did enjoy going thru the plantations outside New Orleans years ago.

I love older homes, and we have a good abundance of them here, our first house was 80 years old, so not ancient but old enough to have character.

that's amazing Dink. The thought behind putting a house together like yours would be intense. It would take years just to learn the details. I would like to see your windows. Just think of all the stories those walls could tell.
We have a farmstead that we don't live on. The house and barn were once a prize in this county. Now the house has gone down hill and will be used by the firefighters this year for practice. I love the barn too much to see it go. I wonder how the farmers built it, with the high pitch roof and sturdy beams. If only I could move it to our farm. There is a sad story behind the barn, it's about the first owner hanging herself. When we first bought the place, the outlaw- inlaws of the past owners come over and took stuff they wanted without asking. I don't know how they got in but we did catch one looking around with a few items already in her truck. Later she stole the rest. The house tells so many stories of it's past.

There's a song called, "I could love a million girls," which was featured in the movie "Ragtime."

And that's how I feel about houses. I could love a million old houses, and every house a twin...

Yes, I LOVE touring the old houses. We've been to the ones on the "River Road" between Baton Rouge and New Orleans. We've also toured some in St. Francisville, La, Vicksburg and Natchez Ms. We have one in Tyler that is a museum--the Goodman/LeGrand home, and the most wonderful thing about it is ALL the furnishings are original. That is pretty unusual. They have recently found more things stored in the attic--dishes, furniture, clothes--it is a wonderful place and gorgeous. It was built around 1850.

Yes. We have lots of 100 year old houses here. I love to go on the home tours.

I love going thru old houses even empty ones out in the middle of nowhere. We went through one close to where my husbands fathers family was raised. I found an old Christmas thing with the names of the students written in it. Two of my husbands fathers cousins were listed in it. My husband used to work for these cousins in the summer when he was younger. I remember going back to that house with My husbands uncle and we all climbed in the window including his uncle who was probably about 80 at the time. We were in Fon du Lac Wisconsin a number of years ago and we had a tour of an old house that a had a dumb waiter in it. When we go to Holland Michigan this summer they have an old house there and I want to take a tour of it.

Jan & I have an annual membership in the "Old Sturbridge Village Museum" at Sturbridge, Mass. Old Sturbridge is a living museum where they have located structures all over the state built between 1776 & 1830 and they have reconstructed a rural New England farming & light industrial village. All of the structures are open for touring through and they are all fully furnished with genuine antiques of the period.

In addition, they have volunteer staff members who are dressed in the costume of the period and performing the different household or farm chores or working in the mills and shops so you not only see what was done, you can see how it was done.

In addition, they keep sheep, oxen and horses on site, so the museum is open year around and you can see all phases of planting, tilling & harvesting as well as the everyday chores of tending the animals.

Jan and I go there at least once a week, yet every time we go there is plenty of different things to see as they move through the seasons.

Here are a few photos so you can see a house in town and a farm, and a young lady cooking lunch in a farmhouse kitchen where she cooks in a huge fireplace with dutch ovens, hanging pots and a sheet metal reflector oven.

One time when we went there we got to see two baby lambs less than an hour after they were born.

I appreciate them historically and I love looking at pictures but I always feel a little uncomfortable in them. My best friend has a 150 year old house and I hate going up her stairs. They seem so small and uneven and the whole place is so dark and gloomy. It has pretty detail but I'm always relieved when I leave. She claims it's haunted so maybe that's part of why I don't feel comfortable. :) I'd love to see a plantation or castle someday though.

There are alot of real old houses in the area I live in now and sad to say many of those in Minot are under water. The land we bought here had a old one, but it could not be saved. Everything was very old and damaged and yes my DH has built houses and is very familar with structures etc. My DD used to live in one built in the 1800's and the owners son lived next door, but there was some major upgrading after DD and SIL bought it. Like the wiring in the basement was part extension cords. The house my GD just bought was also built in the late 1800
or early 1900s. The stairs are so narrow and steep they had to take the bedroom set thru the window to get it into the room..But they like it.
I really like many of the old houses in Mt and AZ with the west theme. If only houses could talk.

Love touring the plantations here, and the history behind the homes. We have many here in Louisiana.

I love looking at old homes, not sure I would like living in one though.

Toni, you are removing old doorknobs and fixtures before the firemen come? Those sort of things are highly desirable on eBay.

I love old homes and live in one. Mine was built around 1839 with a wing added in the 1850's. Troops passed by my house on the way to Gettysburg and the owner was shot as he stood by the town pump(still being used in my front yard) by a southern sniper on the train. Probably fatal as he died that year. His daughter was still living in the house in 1928 when she was declared "of weak mind" and the house was sold from under her. It was going to be torn down but a restorer bought it and they subdivided the six acres and left the house 1/2 acre. The houses on the street are all Craftsman from the late 20's /early 30's and the street is named after the owner of my house.

I love house tours and used to go regularly to them especially at Xmas. I went for decades to auctions every Saturday so I got to rummage thru old farmhouses out in the boondocks. It was bittersweet watching all their memories sold at auction. If I bought something, I'd ask the owner about the history.

I've gone to home- a-ramas where the houses are 1-3 million and they aren't built as solidly as mine. Mine was built by two brothers..the town's black smith and the town's wagonmaker and they cut the trees down from the land. It's clapboard and every board gets slightly narrower from the bottom to the top. Imagine that.

I love them and a picture of this caught my eye a few years ago for sale in the classifieds. Realtor gave me the website. Guess they decided not to sell, but keep on renovating. Amazing amount of work finished. Last I looked they were pouring boiling water on the back steps.

Links to history,renovations, etc. are top left.

Here is a link that might be useful: 1800's Queen Ann

Lazypup~ Natural history reincactments are the best teachers. You have an outstanding place to enjoy, lucky!

Lydia-I've given some things away, used a few items and will be do one last go over before they burn.

Lily~ You'll have to share some pictures of home some day. I sounds fantastic.

Breenthumb- Thanks for the link. I'm imagining creeky wood floors and staircases! Lovely home.

The post from chi83 reminded me of the house my late mother *almost* lived in. It was pre-Rev. War and had been a coaching inn in RI. Had Mom agreed to marry the man she was engaged to in her twenties (who was still after her in her sixties), that would have been her home.

Her old beau's mother had ripped out the beautiful wide staircase from foyer to second story "because it caused a draft and wasted heat". That meant that everyone had to negotiate a completely enclosed winding kitchen stair that was about 18" wide. The house had ceilings only about six feet tall and of course had fireplaces in every room.

Oh, I should add that Mom had accepted her beau's proposal (again) and was preparing to move to RI. She asked him if he'd prefer that she bring her washer and dryer or buy new there. He lost her when he replied that the washboard and tubs in the cellar had been good enough for his mother. (Per my 'Marriage Vows' posting, I guess she wasn't 'buxom' in *his* sense of the word.)

Well, I've always loved old houses and my own house is more than 100 years old. But after 17 years of having to replace tons of stuff every time we want to do some work (eg, when we wanted to replace our upstairs bathroom sink, we had to replace all the plumbing down to the basement), I'm craving a modern loft space, or maybe even a ranch house. Something I never, ever thought I'd say, but now I see the charm!

Lazypup, thank you, we have a similar village here, it is great to visit and step back in time. My BFF's life partner purchased his family's homestead, a small two story farmhouse and they have invested a labor of love remodelling and adding on to the original house. The tiny, narrow staircase leans to one side and the house cries out when the wind blows......what a great place! Jeff and Rich have done a wonderful job, I love the house.

Wow-these postings are making me remember places I visited years ago: I loved Sturbridge Village. I visited the Mark Twain house in Hartford, Ct twice-once at Christmas. The tour and information were fascinating and it is a beautiful house. It's built to resemble a steamboat. He had it situated so the "front" of the house faced the river and the servants' quarters fronted the avenue. Also visited Olana, the painter Frederic Church's beautiful home on a hilltop in Hudson River Valley. Just recently went on a field trip with my grandson to the Wilder Farm where Almanzo Wilder, Laura Ingalls Wilder's husband grew up. Very narrow, steep stairs in the house. House was original, barns are new, but exact replicas. I would love to see some of the old southern homes.

The house I grew up in wqas built in 1923,, the same year my mother was born. It was a beautiful red-brick Craftsman style house with all kinds of built-ins, a brick fireplace, bookcases, a milk box off the kitchen, a broom closet, stained glass near the front door and in the living room, a bureau built in one bedroom closet, a small closet off another bedroom closet, an attic, and a porch between two of the bedrooms, and even a room for the maid off the kitchen. I just read today in my hometown paper that the AAA built a clubhouse in a town park in 1911, so this year is its hundred anniversary. I was inside that Town Park Building years ago, when I was in Junior High, as a Girl Scout. Love old houses. My cousin lives in a house bulit in the 1800's, a three story house complete with a "cupula", a little third story bell tower sort of thing. I love love love old houses, poking around. I've toured a New York house which Wild Bill Cody built and lived in, it had a beautiful and massive dining room and several stuffed animals he shot, including a vear.

I was to Sturbridge Village once and loved it. Unfortunately it was 101 and not fun to be out in. We have a similar smaller scale version near Lancaster called Landis Valley and it's a small settlement of life as it was in the 1800's in Lancaster County.