How Old Is Your House?

Discussion in 'Places I Have Lived' started by Ken Anderson, Feb 23, 2024.

  1. Ken Anderson

    Ken Anderson Senior Staff
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    If you live in a house, when was it built? Are you keeping up with the maintenance?
     
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  2. John Brunner

    John Brunner Senior Staff
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    My place was built about 60 years ago. I could do better on maintaining it.
     
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  3. Jacob Petersheim

    Jacob Petersheim Very Well-Known Member
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    60 years old. Sometimes I think the answer is a lightning strike. Barring that maybe gut renovation?
     
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  4. Ken Anderson

    Ken Anderson Senior Staff
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    Mine was built in 1910. When we bought it, it was a three-unit apartment building, but I think it had been a single-family house at some point. Nobody seems to know. As for maintenance, I take care of the critical things, but, for things like painting, I can't do it myself anymore, and we can't afford to hire someone to do it. When I first moved here in 2001, I bought a large, fire-department-type ladder and painted it myself. It needs to be redone, but, while I still have the ladder, I can't raise it by myself anymore, nor could I move it as needed. I repainted and/or re-wallpapered most of the interior of the house.

    However, we have replaced all of the windows, a crap-load of them (16 in one room alone), added a floor and stairs to the attic, replaced all the electrical outlets, and added a bunch more. When we moved in, there was one two-pronged outlet per room. We also upgraded the electrical panels to handle the much greater load.

    After a freeze-up a decade ago, we've replaced nearly all of the plumbing.

    We removed a few walls, added some more, and removed a couple of doors that we didn't need. We removed two of the three kitchens we had when we first moved in and one of the bathrooms and completely rebuilt one of the others. I suppose it would be more accurate to say that we removed that bathroom, too, since we moved it to a different place, and no part of the old bathroom was used in the new one.

    We had the house completely insulated, which was when we learned that parts of it had been insulated with newspapers that had crumbled, and we had a heat pump put in to further reduce the amount of oil we used, as well as offering a semblance of air conditioning in the summer. We also replaced the shingled roof with a metal one.

    But I was ambitious then, and capable of doing some of the work myself, but not so much now. Of twenty things I hope to do in the spring, summer, and fall, I rarely complete more than three or four.
     
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  5. Beth Gallagher

    Beth Gallagher Supreme Member
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    We built this house in 1994; in June it will be 30. We do keep it maintained but we aren't able to do a lot of maintenance ourselves any longer. We just paid to have fencing replaced that in years past my husband would have done himself, but it's a lot of work. I'd like to have some flooring redone but the thought of moving all the furniture in and out of rooms makes me want to take a nap instead.
     
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  6. Celia Jenkins

    Celia Jenkins Well-Known Member
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    Mine was built in 18 something. There is a datestone above the door but it has worn away with the weather. It has mullioned windows and very thick walls. You can see where horses used to be stabled.
     
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  7. Von Jones

    Von Jones Supreme Member
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    Built 1923. New roof, exterior painting, walk way repaired. Not so much as maintaining but monitoring stuff. :rolleyes:
     
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  8. Don Alaska

    Don Alaska Supreme Member
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    Built in 1977 but the original owners only lived here for 3 years. We bought it in 1992 and have been here ever since. We have done some patching here and there, but no add-ons or anything to expand as the kids were moving out as they got older. We have constructed a number of outbuildings, but, other than paint and rebuilding the deck and patio, not much has been done to the outside.
     
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  9. Krystal Shay

    Krystal Shay Very Well-Known Member
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    Our house was built in 1978. We have lived here 31 years. We keep up with all the maintenance and we have updated the kitchen and bathrooms twice. Plus all the other stuff just to keep it fresh and new looking; lights, flooring, painting, etc. We have done a lot of work to this house since we have lived here, inside and out. It’s were we spend all our time so we wanted it to be pleasing to us. We have always done all the work ourselves but we too, aren’t able to do some of the major stuff anymore.
     
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  10. Ed Wilson

    Ed Wilson Veteran Member
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    My house was built in 1975. I know because that is the date on the inspection sticker on the breaker box. It is in good condition except maybe the Andersen awning windows could be replaced for new. They were the originals when the house was built. The previous owners built it, raised a family and eventually passed away. The mother was the last. That is the story of most homes. Occupants are just passing through. It's on a double lot meaning twice as much grass to cut which is getting to be too much for me.
     
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    Last edited: Feb 24, 2024
  11. Yvonne Smith

    Yvonne Smith Senior Staff
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    Our house was built in the 1950’s, so it is around 70+ years old, and the neighborhood is mostly houses that were built around WW2, or maybe earlier.
    It is probably the worst neighborhood in all of Huntsville, for having crazy people and drugs, and now is mainly the illegals. So far, I prefer the illegals to the crazies and the druggies; but if I had any other option, I would not live here at all.

    The house is perfect for Bobby, he has added on to the front and built a covered porch where he likes to sit and watch everything that goes on in the neighborhood.
    He added on to the old shed out back, and now Bobby has a nice workshop out there and it is full of his woodworking tools and equipment, and he has Rusty, his big dog, to guard everything.
    Bobby does all of the maintenance for the house himself, and he enjoys working on his projects.

    I love gardening, but the soil here is hard-packed clay, and is either like gooey mud or like cement, and not really good for growing things, plus there are so many trees that it is hard for the flowers and garden to get enough sunshine to thrive. I have decided to not even try gardening anymore, and just maintain what flowers and berries we already have.

    IMG_6092.jpeg
     
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  12. Don Alaska

    Don Alaska Supreme Member
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    Sad that you are giving up on gardening, @Yvonne Smith!
     
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  13. Mary Stetler

    Mary Stetler Veteran Member
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    OK Rolling up my sleeves...
    Our house was built in 1980. We moved in in 1990. It was clean and fresh and needed nothing. I wall papered a few walls even though hubby wanted to leave all the walls white. Then I painted a few after he told me not to. I finished the basement. It had poured concrete walls so I primed them with some stuff and wallpapered them with a vertical patterning of light palm fronds. It looks like a Florida room. The stairway is in the center so I had a framed in area built against it to make a picture 'window' and wallpapered the interior of the window with a mural of a Japanese garden. I put a small shop light into the front/top of the window frame so it could be sunny in the window in the basement. I love finishing basements. I think I was a bear in another life. Anyway, I could not carry a roll of carpet that large downstairs so I used some really nice, ice blue carpet tiles in the florida room and peel and stick vinyl tiles in my exercise room. I just painted the walls pale gold. The rest of the basement is mostly just full of stuff. This house was huge to us. HUGE. We came from a small 3 bedroom one bath ranch full of girls and hubby. This house has a mother in law suite down (w/ 3/4 bath) and three bedrooms up, 2 baths. I had the dining room expanded because it was tight for some of my chubby friends and I had a bay window and a couple windows on the side so I keep my winter-over plants in there. Why cuz the kids all left and I have no friends.:rolleyes:
    Hubby is not handy.
    A few years back I went to sling my old canvas duffle bag over my shoulder to climb the tv tower to clean my gutters and vacuum out the light tubes again and I COULD NOT CLIMB IT:eek: What the heck? So now, if it really needs doing I have to have my handiman do whatever.
    My farm house was built in the 70's. The main house burned down in the 50's and the family moved into part of a three story barn, making it a barnhouse. I get a good feeling from it every time I enter. I had it gutted and insulated and wired. I found a tiny wood burning stove that is great in there. I love it. I painted the inside but have not wall papered (yet;)
    A storm came through in 2017 and insurance got me new roofs on all of my buildings.:)
     
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  14. Kate Ellery

    Kate Ellery Supreme Member
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    Coming up 18 years since we moved into our newly built home.

    We had a small home built just after getting married in 1987 lived in that till 2004 when we sold the home in the city ( suburbs )
    went traveling for a year came back to SA in 2005 signed up to get our new home built which took a year moved in June 2006
     
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  15. Kate Ellery

    Kate Ellery Supreme Member
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    Our home we had built in Adelaide in 1988 just after getting married …..we sold it in 2004

    we established the garden as it was a home in a bare bit of land when we moved into it

    Our block size there was 19X 30 mtrs it’s rare for anyone to have homes on acreage unless your a farmer.

    the home like the one we have now , is brick veneer so it’s bricks outside and lined ( inside ) with insulation then gyprock which is painted .


    and our dog we had …a silky terrier

    IMG_6368.jpeg
     
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    Last edited: Mar 1, 2024

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