My first thought is "no", but it depends on what you mean by historic. In California, anything over 30 years old is considered historic. I did buy a house built in 1950, which is old enough to be historic here, but in this neighborhood there are many houses with my floor plan - in fact, there were only four different floor plans when this neighborhood was developed between 1947 and 1953. All of the houses started out as bungalow with about 800 square feet and huge back yards, where the houses could be added on to. All of the garages are beside the houses, and so there is always a garage separating any two houses, which I like. My house is now double its original size, and I still have a fairly large back yard left. I am now aware of any restriction on updating here, other than a height restriction of two stories.
Ahouse across the street from me is historic, since it was built in 1834, and it is a museum now.

I would perhaps consider buying a mid-century historic house in Palm Springs, especially ones by Richard Neutra or John Lautner, and I do not think I would be too concerned with any restrictions on updating. I would not be interested in anything older than that, however, as it is not my taste.

Wouldn't have anything else. I live in a 1922 bungalow and it's my third house of the 1920s or older, not counting the one of the same period that I grew up in. Plaster, solid wood doors, radiators...I can't imagine living any other way. (Well, I can: I've lived in some more recent rentals for a few years here and there.) Every house needs care and feeding, and for me, one that's already stood for most of a century has a track record I'm willing to buy into.

Yes, I would and I have lived in historic houses that had some restrictions, although not any with individual designation . I would buy one with designation if I liked it. My current house is architecturally significant to some extent but has no official designation. In any case I would never alter the facade.

I grew up in an historical home built in 1765. It had the exposed beams, low ceilings, rolling crooked wide floors, skeloton key, and all the other things that go with this time period. But I would never consider purchasing something like that now. Way too much effort and money to achieve the desired charm. When I get the urge to get that old taste back I go to some amazing bed and breakfast that resembles all those things...perhaps one that has a roaring fire going in the winter and sit and soak up that lovely aroma.

I should add: I administer a neighborhood historic district, which includes some individually-designated properties. I would not hesitate to buy a designated property if I loved it, though everything would depend on whether I could fence the yard as I wanted to. Note that individual designations only very, very rarely govern interior changes, and those only in the most outstandingly important properties. People often imagine they know what historic designation entails, and they are almost always imagining rules that don't exist. (Not you, palimpsest, but people I deal with every day.)

There are not that many historic districts where I live, and the ones I can think of are mostly craftsman style, which is not one of my favorites. I do like the houses I've lived in that were built in the 20s and also some that were built in the 30s, but I'm not sure I would want to buy one. I lived in Victorians in San Francisco, and I definitely do not like those anymore. I could see buying something historic in Europe, however, especially Italy.

I would and did. I should note that although historic, it has not been designated as such. We have all the required documentation to do so if we wanted. We hesitated to do so as we thought it might be detrimental to a future sale (when we are no longer able to maintain it) Our house was built in 1868 and was originally a school. The first private owner turned it into a residence in the 1890's.

we had no choice about designation... any home on our street is in the historic district and all rules apply. if you want a plaque you have to do some paperwork/research, which the previous owner did.

We have lived in several old houses, the most recent was an 1837 colonial. We sold it last year and I miss it, but I don’t miss the maintenance. I miss the high ceilings, the spacious rooms, the walk up attic, the seven fireplaces. I painted those shutters myself, operable wood louvers, 60 of them. Our new house was built in 1938, 100 years newer but still has some character.

I would. My first home of my own was a 1920s bungalow or cottage. I loved that house. My next home was a new construction home I bought with DH. Since then, we have bought two other homes and we have had to redo and update nearly everything in them and I just worked on a whole house redo of my sister's former home so she could sell it post-divorce. I like retaining a home's character while giving it some TLC and bringing it into the present. I haven't dealt with historic designation limitations, but if I loved the house, I would be willing to.

I would in a heartbeat. Historic homes are my favorite. I have only rented one... never was fortunate enough to live in one.

I would definitely need to know what my limitations were regarding the home and any changes that I could not make.

Yes, I love old houses. I would check some of the restrictions first. Our church rectory is a historic house and the city will not let them replace the leaky, totally non energy efficient windows, unless one breaks. I think the priest may offer to let neighborhood baseball teams practice in their front and back yard.

Absolutely. My house is over 100 years old, but not historic. Much of center city Philadelphia is of the age of my house. And it's full of Federal-era and Victorian houses (more than any city in the country (those are mostly designated).

I know people who have lived in the homes on Elfreth's Alley, the oldest continuously inhabited street in America. Those houses are very strange inside, and largely original--low ceilings, narrow stairs, etc. But they are very cool to be in.

Yes! I live in a 1935 home surrounded by older homes and many historical homes! My home is not historic but I would love to live in something even older. George Maher and Frank Lloyd Wright have a strong presence in my neighborhood, Maher's home is a few blocks away from mine and it awesome driving by it and experiencing history every day. There is so much character in each and every home. Sure the maintenance keeps me busy but the houses were built to last with attention to every detail.

Yes, I would...but only if I had PLENTY of money for maintenance. The older the house, the more difficult maintaining it can be and difficult is a polite word for "this is going to cost you BIG TIME!".

My first house was built in 1938 and it was so much nicer than this house, built in 1948. One 100 years older would be even nicer!

Would I buy a Listed house in the UK? Only if I had someone to very carefully guide me as to what I could and could not do, and how long it would take to get permission to do so. Many British remodeling show house owners say they would never again buy a Listed property.

Absolutely as long as I had the funds to keep it up to standards. There is just a character in older houses that is hard to find in modern builds.

With Listed buildings, do keep in mind you’re seeing a sample size of people who bought a Listed building and wanted to change it - which Listing is intended to make difficult so people don’t ruin historical properties. In some cases the process is ridiculous and unnecessarily tedious (to be fair that’s how a lot of stuff gets done in the UK - I lived there for 10 years) but sometimes on the shows you do see people who buy a Listed building supposedly for the history of it, and then want to do all kinds of ridiculous things to ‘modernize’ it which really means ‘replace the inside with a cookie cutter open plan thing from the magazines’ and if you want to have the generic open plan thing - don’t buy an old house in the first place, and especially not a Listed property.

That said, sometimes you have to actually repair or replace in keeping with the original, which means you can’t just put up something that LOOKS like old fashioned plaster, it has to actually BE old fashioned plaster. So you have to go with people keeping the old skills up, not just whomever in the area who advertises as a plasterer that gives you the best quote. That can be tricky to budget for and to plan because usually the folks who do that those skills are well booked up and you just have to wait your turn. So if you have experience with remodeling a modern home, it will not necessarily transfer over well at all.

(Also, there are grades to Listing, which I don’t think some folks realize. There’s one where basically it’s some famous person’s house or something along those lines and you’ll be lucky if you can have indoor plumbing, they get so cranky about changes, all the way through to ‘keep the outside the same so the street view isn’t altered, but we don’t care so much about inside’ more or less. When a Listed property is for sale it will say what grade it is, and you can pretty easily look it up and get an idea of what sort of restrictions you’d be facing if you wanted to do any work.)

Quite a few years ago we bought a condo in a designated historic building. The building was built in 1918 as an apartment building. It was converted to condos in the mid 80s. It was great. The rooms were very large and the unit had windows on 3 sides. It had 5 very large closets in it as well as a nice balcony. We had to update the kitchen,as well as replace all the widows. The bathroom had marble mosaic floors and slab marble on the 3 tub/shower walls. We had the marble professionally refreshed/restored and it was beautiful. The only restriction we encountered was keeping the same style/type of windows.

We have since sold the unit but here are a couple pictures I grabbed off the Internet.

Sure! We have owned (in order):

- 1909 row house in DC (no historic designation) - moderately well updated

- 1912 SFH in the "Italian Village" of Coral Gables, FL (historic neighborhood designation, but no individual home designation - 1912 is *ancient* in florida terms) - had been well maintained, and we did a ton of updates

- 1850s row house in DC (historic designation) - we gutted it

- 1952 midcentury home in Florida - beautifully updated and maintained by previous owner

We also own a 1996 condo that is nothing but junky problems. As long as they have been modernized somewhere along the way, i don't think they are any more expensive than newer homes, and sure provide a lot more character.

Probably not , even though I like MCM & the older ( 1920’s or so ) Spanish style homes here in So California. The Victorians don’t appeal to me at all. I don’t have the desire nor the patience to deal with the restoration and everything else it might entail. Perhaps if I were younger, but I have other things I want to spend my time and money on at this stage in my life.

In a heartbeat. I prefer old to new and always have. Growing up in a big old turn of the century home, I think, is what caused my love for old houses.

Yes, I now own a 1939 Colonial style house, built by a university professor (as are all of the original houses on my street). The professor's wife saw a home plan in a magazine at the time, took it to the local lumber supplier and had them build it. My neighborhood isn't officially classified as an Historic Neighborhood, so I didn't have to undergo the strict reviews as required in those 'hoods, but I did my best to remain true to the style/era, researching front vestibules, which I added. The Colonials of that era in my city have a Chippendale style railing on nearly flat roof one-story side rooms. I used that style when adding my new kitchen to the side of the house. We repaired the shutters on the outside.

My carpenter replicated the trim in the existing house to use in the added rooms. I refinished the existing cast-iron tub, and kept the powder room sink. After four attempts to replace the faucet for the full-bath and failing, I found a new sink that resembles the era. I added a few "modern" touches, such as some accent tiles to the subway in the upstairs bath; for my master, I went with a 1930's Paris look, as that's where my heart lives.

Before:

After:

I complain frequently about owning a 1906 farmhouse that's had all manner of "country ingenuity" fixes that need undoing, but it is incredibly solid (framing is 4x6 oak) and even this simple home has 10000x the character of most new builds.

My house is not yet 100 and a 1920s home was my compromise with my DH. I want a 1700s home and he was afraid of the maintance of a house that old. I find our home takes less to keep up and has far less plumbing, cracks and structural issues than my neighbor's twelve year house. On our last inspection it was listed with a relative age of 10....we have all orginal floors, plaster, woodwork and even one orginal bath but all new electrics, roof and boiler. i do live on a planned perspective street so even the newer houses have to a line with that perspective and front elevations need to maintained the line when viewed as a whole street so although not truly historic there are some zoning hurtles if you want to renovate.

Even though I design contemporary homes that don't look anything like a historic house, I would. Actually I do - I live in a 100 year old apartment building where we did less renovation than I typically do. We upgraded the electrical, stained the floors, skim coated the walls, and re-did the kitchen. The layout is much better than most new apartment buildings and we can't hear a peep from our neighbors.

Like mary lu (hello mary lu!!), I also live in an old school. I always tell people, not only am I the owner but mostly I am the caretaker. An historic home or building in a neighborhood likely is considered a nostalgic part of that neighborhood and everyone watches to see what you do and how you keep her maintained. :)

Absolutely not. Would not like someone else telling me what changes
I can or can't make to my house. They typically need extensive plumbing,
electrical etc updating to meet ever changing codes. No thanks.

No. We had one. Tore it down before it fell down. We are so happy with our home that perfectly fits our needs, maximizes our view and is so energy efficient with all the modern conveniences. I prefer to take my inspirations from the past but make them work for me today. Housing is so expensive to do otherwise...

A neighbor of mine has an historic home. The benefit to me is that the home was in the sight line of a proposed 140 foot cell tower (which was also in my sight line, but that didn't count). Because of the historic home, we were able, along with other reasons, prevail in not getting the unsightly tower built. In case you're wondering about cell phone reception, there were better alternatives. So yay for historic homes.

Absolutely, depending on the house of course!

I bought a 1958 midcentury modern. It has been a lot of work to bring it up to modern day standards, partly because it was horribly remodeled in the 70’s and 80’s. But I love it despite the tribulations and I feel honored to live here, although sometimes I feel like I’m raising an obstinate child.

Yes, I'd like to try it.

I've had two homes that were more than 100 years old. That's what I prefer, but I can no longer manage frequent stair-climbing. I now have a 1950's rambler. A complete gut and rebuild of bathrooms and kitchen was needed to help me get over the loss of built-in buffets, wonderful old woodwork, high ceilings, light fixtures that were the original conversion from gas to electric, etc. Turns out that the layout of this shoe-box of a house lives a lot bigger than the square footage would indicate. I have a new found love of pocket doors and cove ceilings!

I wouldn't mind restrictions if they aligned with what I like. If they didn't align, I would not buy.

In my state (Maryland) historic is akin to major restrictions. I live in a home built in the 1800's but it isn't deemed historic. Historic is seemingly reserved for "town" areas and not farms.

I'm on the Cdn west coast, we don't have old houses. I live in a 1972 post and beam house which I love mainly because it's unusual architecture for this area.

Anne - I do sometimes wonder if the UK Listed system is simpler than in the US where the designation varies so much by location. In England, if it’s Listed, it gets a grade, and that grade means you can do such-and-such and there’s less digging through local rules and regulations.

In New England, many towns have historic districts and all the homes within those districts are protected. Where I live there are at least 5 districts. Therefore, if you own a home in one of those districts, you must go before the Historic Commission to construct an addition, install a fence, or do any exterior change, even paint color. We actually had to prove that our house shouldn't be white with black shutters, which it was when we bought it. Neighbors, whose house has been in the same family since 1640, had a watercolor of our house in 1806 when our home was grey (probably weathered clapboards) with a faded barn red door. Showing a copy of the painting to the Commission allowed us to put it back to those colors. Sometimes you need to do your homework

When I said that people watch what I do to my place, I didn't mean there were any restrictions. It's just that an old school is very nostalgic for many people (including me) and covering it with vinyl siding, adding modern windows with no indiv. panes for example, or ripping off original details is just so disappointing. Besides, I like most anything vintage or antique so the house suited me from the very beginning.

I grew up in an 1860's Queen Anne Victorian and now stay in it about one week a month for business. I would never ever buy a house like it. The on-going maintenance is incredible -- there's ALWAYS something wrong that needs an expensive repair. Plus, the energy efficiency is nil. Poorly insulated through-out plus drafty windows result in $800+ monthly energy bills through-out the winter months. Pretty to look at but very uncomfortable to live in.

Hi Emily,

No, not unless I had unlimited funds and time.

LOVE looking at them though.

Permits to work on historical homes where I live is a nightmare.

wow I think I liked all the answers lol because I loved reading each one

(Lars I laughed when you said in CA everything more than 30 years old is historic..very true for OC ..we live in a ranch built in late sixties/or 1970-can never figure out what year exactly it was)..and already feels like historic-people added and changed and landscaped during years, and houses that were essentially tract homes, even though very desirable ones back then, all look different after 50-60 years..the lots are much bigger, and we have no HOA..)) and it's right in the heart of the city. It's where the city started.

yeah we did gut remodel. Didn't have to. But it had asbestos. And some of it was disturbed. and we wanted an addition. So nightmare. Well I mean a construction type one. Not the worst type of nightmares lets be honest. But now I really like living in something you now,,older. Even though comparatively to other, really old houses, its age is laughably young actually

My sister lived in 1905 Victorian in MA, and now lives in another Victorian, 1901..I'm not sure whether it's historic because that's what the pool of houses there is...if everything is approximately the same age, is it historic?

I grew up in one of the very old cities..celebrated 1500 years when I was a little girl..I grew up in a very old house(actually apartment building) right in the very middle, the windows faced the Central square..was probably built in 19 th century?

I know they (the city) remiodeled it completely after I was born..they put families in temporary apartments for a year or two that it takes then bring them back. So I spent couple years in some little white one story house that somehow stayed from some other times, actually almost on the same street. But I don't remember it. I knew the house though. It was on the way to my daycare and I liked how it's one storey in the middle of the big city and has a little garden around, and was shocked when my Mom told me we actually lived there for a bit when I was a baby.

Interestingly enough my house now is in different hemisphere but is one storey and white and has a garden..))

I love old houses. Yes it came with all sorts of problems, even after they remodeled. But to live there, in the center, in the building with character and details, and higher ceilings, and just to feel the pulse of the city like its your own..I now realize how cool it was. Then I was envious of my cousins who lived in very non descript new buildings in far newer neighborhood and I had to take subway then tram to get there..later also trolley when we moved a bit further..but-they had a real forest nearby! And if you go long enough you get to a lake.

(We had a big river crossing city in half..the right part was an old one..the left, was new)

And they had so many kids playing around since so many long, long buildings full of apartments and families.

It was always an adventure to go there

And my cousins loved to come to us:) The most famous city's park was 5 min walk from us and it was on a big hill, with levels and all, so then, to us, seemed indefinite, with the corners to explore allover..and one could see our big big river from there..the river they decided to build the city on those 1500 years ago

Truth is everything is an adventure until truly horrible. Especially when one is a kid and mundane things are not mundane one bit yet.

So..what was the question? lol. yeah. I lived in a historic house.

I did in my previous life:).

In a flash, if I had the cash.

There's a National Register house near me, with two guest cabanas and it's totally awesome.

Would love to own one if only... :(

PirateFoxy "here" in the US Maryland maybe to my county if you go historic you cannot do anything without approval. Our home is super old but the interior is updated and I would be afraid to change it. If I wanna paint my doors blue , I do n't want to be told no I respect the home but I just don't want that. In my little area there are many estates that are on the registry and I envy them all.

I live in a historic home that was built in 1880 (Queen Anne), it is designated as an "outstanding" historic home in the county I live in. Our neighborhood is on the national registrar of historic communities, we have homes in our community that are non-contributing, contributing and outstanding (as a contributor). This means hoops had to be jumped through when we renovated, restored and rebuilt our house, it was a two year long project. I wouldn't change a thing though, old meets new is my most favorite, and while the process was a long one I loved every minute of it. So much so, I now chair our community's historic preservation committee. This is the intstagram account I kept through the process: https://www.instagram.com/blueberryabode/ - if you have patience I think it is worth it :) Good luck to you!

A big fat yes. I noticed a lot of additions on historical houses were additional houses, not just a room or two., so they are actually 2 houses in one, built in different years. It’s pretty amazing.

Absolutely yes! Unfortunately my husband says absolutely not.

I grew up in a villa with pre-WW1 newspaper under the wall paper and my parents bought an old decrepit church when I was 4 or 5 and it’s been my favorite place to stay for years.

Hubby and I are now getting ready to build and my goal is a house that’s modern enough to be warm and comfortable, but which retains the high ceilings, proportions, and some of the details of the old houses I love.