Is An Old Home for You? - The Cons - Repairs
So you think you might like to buy an old home? Perhaps even
something old enough to be historic? It's a good idea to
carefully evaluate the pros and cons before you decide. There
are plenty of both. Will the pros be valuable enough for you to
be willing to cope with the cons? Where shall we start? With a
cautionary tale, I think.
The Cons of An Old Home
In 1972, my husband and I bought a house built in about 1825. We
moved in on August 15th. My husband had an out of town business
meeting and left about 5 AM the next day. (What makes him so
smart?) About an hour later, I started downstairs and flipped
the switch to turn on the chandelier in the downstairs hall. Boy
did I get light. There was a flash, and then what looked like
lightening ran up the cord. I turned the switch off, but the
fireworks continued. I ran and yelled for our sons (10 and 11
years old at the time). We got out a door off another hall and
ran to our next door neighbor's house to call the fire
department. (This is a very exciting way to meet one's new
neighbors.) The fire department was really fast and got to our
home before we got back ourselves.
By the time my husband returned late that evening, we had been
visited by not just the fire department, but also an electrician
(old wiring needed to be reworked and a fuse box replaced with
circuit breakers), a painter (to get a price on fixing water and
fire damage), and a floor refinisher (same reason as the
painter), and both our sons had been offered marijuana. (Did I
mention that beautiful old houses are often located in intercity
areas and sometimes the whole neighborhood has not yet been
completely restored to its original state of gentility?) We were
asking ourselves, "What have we done?"
Well, we had the wiring fixed, put off having the floors worked
on and did the painting ourselves. We also paid tuition and fees
to keep the boys in their old school district.
You have to be flexible to happily live in an old house. Nothing
is a standard size. Right angles are purely coincidental. (The
water damage mentioned above had showed us that the floor on the
outside edge of the front hall is about six inches higher than
floor on the far side of the living room.) Go to Lowes or Home
Depot to buy a standard replacement this or that? Forget it.
You're probably going to have to fabricate it yourself or have
it done. You need to either have a large home maintenance
budget, be prepared to invest a lot of "sweat equity" or both.
We've lived in this same old house for over thirty years now.
Items we've had adventures with include:
1. Plumbing,
2. Bringing in more electricity,
3. Replacing the heating system,
4. Repointing the chimneys,
5. Having dampers made for the chimneys so heat doesn't escape
from them when they're not in use (did I mention we have four
working fireplaces?),
6. Increasing the insulation, and
7. Painting many, many times.
Our house is real wood, not vinyl, and the roof is standing seam
tin - the original roof. That, of course, means there is a lot
of surface to paint, and, since the house is two stories and has
high ceilings, some of the surfaces are pretty high. (Did I
mention that my husband has fallen off the roof twice?) We're in
the process of having our home painted (not a do it yourself
project this time) yet again. The bids we got ranged from
$15,000 to $20,000. (Did I mention you need a larger maintenance
budget with an old house?)
Whew! I think the cons are clear, don't you? Owning an old home
is wonderful. Just make sure you understand what you are getting
into.