Homes… Your Thoughts… Old or New?

[ultrarunner]

I’ve lived in homes as old as 1910 and as new as 1993…

In many ways I think I dodged a bullet with older as I’ve seen some really bad new construction build quality on brand new development homes friends bought in Arizona and Texas…

All have had conflict around the new home builder warranties and some as far as class action suits.

My first home, a tract home built in 1922 was original and well crafted selling new with detached garage $2,800… some have sold for as much as 900k a hundred years later.

My friends with new home problems cite shoddy workmanship as number one and materials number two.

 

[2manyrocks]

Overpriced trendy TV show influenced on postage stamp size lots. Even worse, I see what appear to be three story mining shacks so they can squeeze as many as possible on lots that used to have one single family homes on them in Nashville.

 

[MossRoad]

There're some things to be said about a new house....

Windows and doors that seal and insulate as well as operate correctly.
Thick, well insulated walls and ceilings.
Adequate electrical power.
Efficient HVAC and appliances.
Proper plumbing.
Roof and siding that's going to last 30+ years.
Etc....

With that said, we live in a house for the past 30 years that was built in 1921, with an addition from the 50's. There have been many remodels before we did our own remodel. There are several walls that have no insulation. Balloon construction means open wall from basement to attic. Great way for fires to spread and varmints to traverse. Anytime we opened a wall for electrical work, we just tore off the whole wall and insulated while we had the chance. Drywall isn't very expensive and I did the work myself. The windows are original. Took quite a bit of work to make them work properly. Added storm windows and screens. New roof. New siding. Lots of electrical updates were required. Plumbing issues that had to be resolved. Etc...

So pros and cons to both new and old.

 

[FullMetalBucket]

I bought some land thinking when we move in a few years I don’t want to buy someone else’s problem and I’ll build new. But now now prices are so high on new construction, you’ll spend 400k building a 300k house. I may have to rethink my plan.

 

[2manyrocks]

There're some things to be said about a new house....

Windows and doors that seal and insulate as well as operate correctly.
Thick, well insulated walls and ceilings.
Adequate electrical power.
Efficient HVAC and appliances.
Proper plumbing.
Roof and siding that's going to last 30+ years.
Etc....

With that said, we live in a house for the past 30 years that was built in 1921, with an addition from the 50's. There have been many remodels before we did our own remodel. There are several walls that have no insulation. Balloon construction means open wall from basement to attic. Great way for fires to spread and varmints to traverse. Anytime we opened a wall for electrical work, we just tore off the whole wall and insulated while we had the chance. Drywall isn't very expensive and I did the work myself. The windows are original. Took quite a bit of work to make them work properly. Added storm windows and screens. New roof. New siding. Lots of electrical updates were required. Plumbing issues that had to be resolved. Etc...

So pros and cons to both new and old.

Sorry to say that I brought a 1960s house that was built like a brick (same well regarded contractor built several of them in different areas in our community) and have seen newer homes built like a shed. Literally the 1960s house doors/windows all operated fine. Trim was cut and hand nailed solidly. Today's trim is shot in place with thin gauge trim nails and often joints caulked to hide the gaps. Exteriors aren't brick. They tend to be sheet goods made to resemble board and batten siding and/or vinyl siding. HVAC systems rely on flex duct not metal.

Not saying all better then/now, but saying each house has to be evaluated on its own merits.

 

[part-time-Farmer-NC]

We now live in a 1942 old farmhouse built by my wife's grandfather, father and uncles when they cam back from the war.

FIL harvested some wood from the farm and redid the kitchen and den with oak and cedar.

Before moving in we had metal roof put on, new windows and an HVAC system where they was NONE before (well the ducts were still in place but the old oil furnace had been gone some 40+ yrs ago, swapped out for a solar/wood water heating system that died some 25 ish yrs ago). New wiring in the 90's and 2000's. New pex plumbing put in about 3 yrs ago, including having all pipes insulated. Renovated the bathroom before moving in as well.

The wood that you can see in the framing, the age lines are tightly together. It has an upstairs and an attic that runs parallel to the two rooms upstairs. Upstairs is pretty much only used for storage now.

We moved out of a 2600 sft log house I built (I was the GC but did all but build the foundation, stack the logs and roof) on our family property a few miles away. Traded it to my son for some land here at the farm. We are still adjusting to consolidating to a smaller house from the other 2 (we also owned a river house, sold it in 2022).

Both had their pluses and minuses. Our current house is energy starved. Adding more circuits is next to impossible. I have resorted to using the compact breakers, but you can only do so many of those. The energy bill averages about $125 a month. This house is only about 1500 sft and easier for wife and I.

 

[deserteagle71]

There're some things to be said about a new house....

Windows and doors that seal and insulate as well as operate correctly.
Thick, well insulated walls and ceilings.
Adequate electrical power.
Efficient HVAC and appliances.
Proper plumbing.
Roof and siding that's going to last 30+ years.
Etc....

Good luck in finding a new house built that well...that you can afford to buy. Seems to me you'd have to spec out exactly what you wanted in the house and then find a builder who would build it just that way. Too many new homes these days are built on the cheap......

 

[HawkinsHollow]

Our abode is a well built house from 1955 that had a small addition on the back, 975 sqft. rancher. It has good bones and for the first 8 years I lived in it I had very little issues other than a few plumbing snafus. Got it for a GREAT price right when houses in this neighborhood began to skyrocket so I have lots of equity in it over the last 9 years.

This past year I added an 850 sqft addition and pretty much completely redid the entire existing house, making it a 3br/3ba 1800ish sqft. All new plumbing, new roof, mostly new electrical, new kitchen, new appliances, redid bathroom plus added another for a total of 3, some floor leveling and new subfloor, drainage, gutters, etc. At 50 years old I am hoping I don't have to do much to it for the rest of my days. Might do new windows in the existing after the financial sting of this construction phase wears off. Our family of 3 LOVES our new space and it will be all we need for the rest of our lives. Oh yeah, added a 24x28 detached garage to it 4 years ago, really been enjoying that. Our son of 13 is a pretty sentimental guy and I think he would be into living here after we are done with it. I hope to be able to leave it to him when we move on.

 

[Shenandoah MF1760]

I'm in the process of having a new home built. The cost for a new 3000 sqft home is crazy.

This will be a single story and doesn't have any of those high vaulted rooms. But the rooms are large with 9' ceilings. The walls and attic ceiling are all spray foam insulation making the house a type of igloo in terms of being insulated. It's a custom home builder doing the work, and he only does a single home at a time. No one I talked to has had a bad work to say about him.

I lived in a converted 1880's schoolhouse and have nearly froze to death in the winter, same with my turn of the century brick house with plaster on lathe, single pane windows and when they switched from gas lighting to electric they put in four 15A fuses. Heat was originally coal converted to natural gas with one of those "octopus" furnaces. It did have a on-demand gas water heater that looked like the worlds skinniest franklin stove that was wonderful.

My current home is a late 70's tract home. The drywall appears to have been installed by drunken junior achievement kids, and all of the paint is coming off. Nothing sticks to it! The plumbing is a mixture of PCV and PBC and the original electric service was 100A. The house has needed to be leveled twice and the driveway replaced. Definitely not the high point in home construction.

 

[Jstpssng]

There are proa and cons of each. Even a prefab has it's merits. A new house is likely to be better insulated, and you can have it built the way that you want. We are in the process of cleaning out the house which my grandfather had built in 1927. The story is that he paid extra to buy 27' rafters and have them delivered. While he was working, the carpenter cut his special order rafters to a shorter length.

If Eddie Walker was building it, I would go with a new house.

 

[IndyIan]

Build quality, a good design, well thought out updates, and keeping up on maintenance, can make old places better than new ones, but it has to be done right...
We are upgrading my FIL well built 1918 place. He did a significant update in 1980 but cut a few corners with upgrading the HVAC, electrics, plumbing, and someone thought a chimney at the base of a valley in the roof would be fine with some extra flashing...(probaby leaked since 1984....) and since about 2005 he hasn't really kept up on maintenance....
I guess he saved a few 1980's dollars, but its been quite a few bucks now to get things up to scratch... Its triple brick on a stone foundation that is 5' wide at the base, so its not falling down real soon, but it needed some help.
I've been in lots of farm houses from the same time that are very very nice though, and would cost a fortune to replicate now. Those owners have no interest in moving to a new house.

 

[JeepHead]

Good homes are sill being built but not generally in neighborhoods where they're building one home after another or even multiple at a time. Those tend to get slapped up fast and have lots of issues. I know, I built my first home like that. The home we have now was built in 1965 and owned by the same old couple until we bought it 20 months ago. Our home is all brick and was completely remodeled with with no expense spared right before we purchased it. We're very happy with it!

I would have no issues building a new home today but I would have the Amish do it if I went that route.

 

[masseyrider]

Two levels of old.
1
60s and early 70s.
Still solid wood. Tongue and groove boards. Real 2x10-12s.
Exterior grade plywood roof.
Admittedly insulation, windows, HVAC, electrical aren't as good.
However the basic box is superior to what they are building now.
2
I love the look of a real Victorian.
You couldn't afford the trim and hardwoods throughout now adays.
They need a thorough gutting and update but the style

 

[WinterDeere]

I'm chuckling at anyone calling 1920's "old", as that's basically modern construction, if you ignore the obvious safety concern with balloon framing. Really, I'd consider anything after the invention of Portland cement as relatively modern, meaning Victorian onward, with regard to maintenance costs and frequency.

I've lived in and worked on houses spanning 1690's - 1950's, and my life has been mostly marked as a long series of home rennovations. There are pros and cons to each era, so it'd help to know your goals.

Our present home was built in four phases, the oldest dating to the 1730's. It's beautiful, but admittedly very expensive to maintain. I'd recommend a home of this age only to someone who's seriously into older houses.

The house I owned just prior to this was a Victorian, built in the 1870's or 1880's, and by comparison to the present house, very modern and easy to maintain. As I'd done a nearly-complete rennovation of the place, the person living in it now no more maintenance work than a modern home, other than repainting the remaining original windows every 5 - 10 years. In fact, given how poorly some things are flashed and weatherproofed on modern homes, their total maintenance may be lower on that Victorian.

What are your goals, and your preferences? Do you mind maintenance and rennovations? Is heating cost a serious concern? Do you see value in the character and ambience that only a truly old home can provide?

My home office now is built into the 1775 kitchen addition of this house, with a walk-in fireplace behind me containing a wood stove, and leather sofa across from that. There's four old wavy glass divided light windows from which I can look out on acres of lawn and woods in all directions from my desk, and I can see every battle scar in the floor from generations of past homeowners who used this room every day as their kitchen. Just outside the office is the staircase to the second floor, treads scalloped 1/2" deep by the probably 3 - 4 million trips made up and down those stairs, over the last 250 years. The room below my office is the original 1734 kitchen and living room. I really can't imagine a nicer place to have to sit and do my work, which at least in my mind, makes the cost of maintaining and heating the place worthwhile. Of course, others may feel differently.

 

[Tomtint]

If you have the means to build a new custom home, I believe its for superior to older homes. More energy efficient, Quieter, etc. I have built a number of our houses, The one we are in now I built in 2009, It will be here another 200 years with all the steel and micro lams in it.

 

[ultrarunner]

I think the reason so many 100 year old homes here have weathered well is the very mild California climate…

Somewhere I have the original bill of sale listing down payment in 1922 as $10 US Gold.

The layout and craftsman standards like the Bay Window, Built In Hutch and Matchstick Hardwood are appreciated 100 years later…

I like the original double hung windows, door hardware, 1922 high leg stove and gravity central heat…

 

[David in KY]

I've lived all over America, in nice neighborhoods and in many custom built homes (wife traveled climbing the corporate ladder).

Every home we lived in had attractive layouts and were spacious. But each one had various layout flaws and design problems.
My retirement home will be a ICF ranch style house of my own design. Being a jack of all trades and having been around construction most of my life, I will do the much of the work myself. The main motivation for that is seeing shoddy workmanship and poor designs that become permanent issues for the "next guy".

Also, you can address design priorities like building to withstand tornadoes and earthquakes, or having a large pantry, or dog wash station, or whatever strikes your fancy, to accommodate your own circumstances.

To the OP, new would be my choice, if you have the option.

 

[FullMetalBucket]

two of the houses I grew up in were old. The first was 200ish years old in the early 70s, but not sure if the exact year. It’s long since been torn down now. Then we moved into a house in NH that was built in 1750. That was a very interesting house with a history. We did a lot of work on the house as it was in tough shape.

here’s a pic of the dining room.

Towards the back of the property there was an old iron door in a small hill that was rumored to lead to underground tunnels. It was locked or rusted shut and we were told never to go near it. I got curious once and when I got close to it the hair on my body literally stood up on end and I gtfo of there .. completely creeped out. A lot of the houses in the area were the same timeframe and lots of stories to go with them.

In any case it’s now 275 years old and still standing.

 

[Dftodd]

Last house was an early 80's build. It was quite comfy after opening the kitchen, updating the windows, venting the attic, and adding 10" of insulation to the attic.

My grandparents home was built in the early 1900's.

The original house had a pitched roof for the second floor with gables.

My great grandfather purchased the house in the 1940's and immediately raised the roof and put in a full second floor without the pitched ceilings and added a full attic in the new pitched portion.

The issue was insulation. My grandfather had blown in insulation added to the walls when he and my grandmother inherited the place and moved in.

What he didn't realize was the headers for the walls were there, as the old gables. So there were places without insulation.

The house was gorgeous, but drafty.

The gas furnace was undersized for the 3500 sqft.

Original single pane windows with the storm inserts.

To put in mildly, it was 40° in the bedrooms in the winter

Electrical needed a serious updating, heating system needed updating, etc.....

 

[4570Man]

I’m a contractor and as far as I’m concerned the idea that old houses are better is completely rubbish. There’s always been shoddy builders but at least now they have some building codes to keep them in check. I’m not sure how anyone thinks that people could build whatever they wanted completely unchecked and untrained made for better quality? My county didn’t enforce any build codes until 2012. Until then you were completely free to span 2x6 floor joints 16 ft on 24” centers if you felt like it. Now days plumbing and electrical has to be done by licensed plumbers and electricians and be inspected. Does that ensure quality? Of course not but that’s better than harry hack doing it with zero oversight. Depending on where we’re drawing the line as old the old houses didn’t even have plumbing, electrical or HVAC. Those systems were usually installed later and almost always hacked up. Even crappy new windows seal better than old ones. Heating old homes especially really old ones is a costly venture. Building code requires insulation. Old homes frequently have none or very little. People are usually comparing the elite class of old homes and ignoring that the vast majority of them fell down already. I will agree that old timber was better and the old building lots were usually better. I’m not saying all new houses are good. There’s definitely shoddy builders but at least now they at least have code enforcement. But there’s always been shoddy builders and previously they had zero oversight. I don’t exactly send the code guys a Christmas card they make my life harder and more expensive but I’ve seen enough shoddy work to realize why they exist.