Another offering to the Lovely Linda C. I think it was her idea, and not taken from a letter. Or maybe I just foisted the thing on her.
I was starting to make my getaway to New England, so it beats the hell out of me where it came from.
SO YOU WANT TO LIVE IN A HISTORIC HOUSE
So you want to live in a historic
house. There are considerations both physical and cultural to keep in mind.
First, if it's in a designated
historic district, there may be local guidelines as to what you can do to alter
it. People that put a lot of time and money into their homes' authenticity
don't necessarily want a neighbor with modern fabric or design changes that
might degrade the historic aspect of the neighborhood. That doesn't mean you can't put up gutters or
replace your windows; it just means that alterations should look like what was
there before.
Older neighborhoods are more integral; privacy fences are few, and
neighbors often interact with each other more than in suburbia, looking
after each others' property as well as the whole neighborhood. It's a fairly
hip crowd that takes on the responsibility of keeping up a historic house.
And older homes take more upkeep.
If you have wood siding, it will need to be painted every ten years or so.
Interior "box" gutters need to be maintained, or they'll leak and
your eaves will disintegrate. Wood porches need a lot of attention; homeowners
used to sweep the water off them right after a rain to preserve them. Older
homes are more expensive to roof, as they are often taller and have a more
intricate roof design or steeper pitch. Interior plaster is easily repaired,
but a cracked plaster ceiling should be removed and replaced with drywall.
Older homes, however, can be made
much more energy efficient with newer technologies. Most were built without
insulation and seem quite drafty until insulation is added above, below, and
blown into the walls. Replacement windows are sometimes installed, but a
properly caulked original window casement with a new storm window will be
nearly as efficient. Taller ceilings cry out for ceiling fans with downrods,
and almost all older homes were built with outside-to-inside air circulation in
mind. Modern homes do not circulate air nearly as well.
Older homes were often built with
superior lumber that withstands stresses and termite attack better than newer
wood, and as most were built with pier-and-beam foundations, they have
crawlspaces instead of concrete slabs. This allows for systems to be inspected
and updated easily. Lead paint is almost always present in older homes, but if
it is encapsulated with new paint and not made airborne through sanding, it is
not a hazard. The soils near the foundation should be tested for lead that came
off the house in past years. Asbestos is sometimes a concern, but much more so in commercial construction. The binders in residential plaster were usually jute fibers and horsehair, not asbestos, and the most common places to find the nasty stuff is in old 12" square rigid tiles or in the thick [plaster that encasulates old boilers.
If you buy an older home, have it
inspected by someone who knows old houses. Original electrical and plumbing
systems are outdated and dangerous, but updating them is easier because of
access in the attic and crawlspace. Most updated older homes have already had their
knob-and-tube electrical wires and galvanized iron pipes replaced.
If there are wood floors, you will
need carpets. Older homes often require more furniture, as they have larger
spaces, and living in one sounds completely different than in a newer home, as
sound seems to carry and reverberate more.
Older homes may take more
attention, but they give back such charm that those who live in one often find
it hard to go back to modern homes. It is also a fact that those in older homes
tend to live there much longer than those in newer homes.
This might sound biased, but after
all, I am The Old House Doctor.
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