Homes… Your Thoughts… Old or New?

[Oaktree]

I had a bat get in my prior NH house years back. It was before I put a new roof so I think it came in by the chimney flashing. Anyway middle of the night I heard a strange erratic flapping noise around the dark room. Flipped on the light and there he was flying around in circles. I tried to catch him but all I had was a towel no net . I had a towel in one hand and a tennis racket in the other lol. Managed to finally direct him downstairs and out the slider. I didn’t want to kill it because I lived at the end of a lake at the time and those guys eat a lot of skeeters. Bats are pretty much harmless. Plus I don’t want to piss off Batman.

About 30 years ago I was in the shower and heard the cat kind of spazzing out in an adjoining room. Got out and there was a bat flying around. As I watched, the cat jumped up about 6', grabbed the bat between its paws, then sat guarding it on the floor. Scooped it up with a towel and let it go outside.
Wasn't the first bat to get into that house, not sure where they were getting in. Doesn't take much of an opening.

Unfortunately, there was some disease that killed most of them off maybe 15 years ago. We used to see a lot of them around dusk, now hardly any.

 

[Jstpssng]

About 30 years ago I was in the shower and heard the cat kind of spazzing out in an adjoining room. Got out and there was a bat flying around. As I watched, the cat jumped up about 6', grabbed the bat between its paws, then sat guarding it on the floor. Scooped it up with a towel and let it go outside.
Wasn't the first bat to get into that house, not sure where they were getting in. Doesn't take much of an opening.

Unfortunately, there was some disease that killed most of them off maybe 15 years ago. We used to see a lot of them around dusk, now hardly any.

White nose syndrome or something like that. I believe they are starting to recover from it.

 

[tradosaurus]

Watching CyFy home inspector channel on Youtube he basically shows how shoddy most new homes are being built in Arizona.

 

[4570Man]

Watching CyFy home inspector channel on Youtube he basically shows how shoddy most new homes are being built in Arizona.

How do you think the old homes were built with even less oversight? Just because YouTube didn’t exist to post crappy work didn’t mean the quality was better.

 

[Fuddyduddy1952]

Here's a funny a friend told me many years ago:
He bought a very old home somewhere in New England and he and his wife were cleaning out the attic which was full of years & years of stuff. They found a cigar box someone had made a label on it that said: "Pieces of string too small to save".

 

[Captain Dirty]

I had only heard the "string too short to save", but in cleaning our attic we found a plastic bag of aluminum ice cube trays labeled "Leaks".

 

[ultrarunner]

Watching CyFy home inspector channel on Youtube he basically shows how shoddy most new homes are being built in Arizona.

It kind of mirrors what my friends experienced…

 

[ultrarunner]

How do you think the old homes were built with even less oversight? Just because YouTube didn’t exist to post crappy work didn’t mean the quality was better.

Owned and managed a lot of old homes circa 1910 to 1993 with most built in the 1920’s roaring twenties.

I’m always impressed how a 1920 tract home has aged well and much is quality of construction and materials…

 

[grsthegreat]

I lucked out. My first and only house was the one my wife and i built ourselves on the 30 acres i own in idaho. I built in in 1996, so its turn of the century…..

Ive been in construction a long time before building my own home, and its built very well. Very few issues over the years.

Mind you, i wish I did a few things differently. The main thing is i wish i built the basement a foot taller to accommodate the change in hvac that i did later on. I never built a house with a basement before, so this never occurred to me. But, it all worked out ok in the end.

Ive had to repair and remodel alot of older 1920-1940 houses over the years. Dont like it at all. Exposed to lots of asbestos and lead paints, dead rodents in attics and crawls, no real insulation. Single glazed windows, old crappy plumbing. Horrible electrical including knob and tube wiring..

Give me a new house any day.

 

[tradosaurus]

Owned and managed a lot of old homes circa 1910 to 1993 with most built in the 1920’s roaring twenties.

I’m always impressed how a 1920 tract home has aged well and much is quality of construction and materials…

bUt bUiLdInG cOdEs mAkE cUrrEnt HoUseS mUcH bEttEr.
I'm fine with my 1974 build house we bought in 2017. I would never buy a custom home.