Buying A House: C or D?

My 1950s home still has some original knob-and-tube electrical wiring, odd since that was mostly phased out by then.

There are definitely things I like better in old houses, like real attics that can be turned into an extra bedroom, rather than the useless attics in newer houses that are full of trusses (diagonal wood beams) holding up the roof. And then there's those interesting floorplans that have things you just wouldn't find nowadays, like the house my aunt lives in that, in addition to a main staircase that runs through the four levels, also has stairs leading directly from one of the third-floor bedrooms to the kitchen. From what I understand, this was so a paid cook could walk to and from the kitchen without disturbing the rest of the household. Some old houses I know have had several renovations and additions over the years, leading to a hodgepodge of architectural styles and rooms without any obvious purpose.

also we wanted something in town that we could afford and there aren't really any newer houses in town in greenfield! its an older town. you have to go out further into the woods for newer stuff and those houses are more expensive. so we figured $140,000 for almost 2,000 sf house with 4 bedrooms was worth the future upkeep.

yeah our attic is amazing and huge and could definitely be turned into something. our basement is great too. and relatively dry which is rare around here.

and its not like newer houses don't have problems too! they can be just as much of a headache sometimes. depending on who built them. i figure old houses have stood the test of time. this house has seen a ton of northeastern winters and storms! and its still here. need that kind of solidity in a post-warming world.

agreed - especially the McMansions that were built all over the US during the housing bubble 10 years ago. Cheap, cheap, cheap. It's like the builders used a computer to determine the thinnest possible walls and floors that wouldn't collapse by themselves. Forget listening to vinyl - the floor will shake with every step you take, causing the needle to jump to the next groove. Rare in the US, my house is built mostly of masonry and steel framing - I could jump up and down on the floor and it wouldn't shake. I can barely hear the people upstairs.

We had been trying to come to a price agreement on a house we liked (long story short, vendors have reduced the price three times now but can't let go of the original price and so are determined not to budge on what it's on for just now, whereas we're looking at it knowing it needs building work to make it good) but after a week of being £10-15k apart decided to look at other things. Viewed another yesterday (the first to look at it), put an offer in this morning which I pretty much know is too low but is really for them to tell me what they want/need for it because we are definitely buying it, the only debate is how much for.

Do you mind saying whereabouts it is? I think we live in the same city so wouldn't mind picking your brains about neighbourhood s. We've been looking for ages. Webmail might be better!

Yeah, drop me a email. We're moving out of the city to Three Counties but have been in Bristol for 15 years so have plenty of opinions on areas.

our house is turn of the 20th century. 1910's. its totally solid. we will have to rewire though.

We call that relatively new around here. lol Part of the shop we rent is 18th century. You can see it on the tiles (engraved date).

We don't own ourselves. We live in my parents owned house. Really great (4 to five bedrooms, three bathrooms). Big yes, but it really doesn't feel that way. Probably cause I stuffed it full of furniture. lol
But we'll be the "naked owners" of the flat my inlaws will be buying. OMG!

I wish I could afford this house: http://www.redfin.com/IL/Chicago/1048-W-Oakdale-Ave-60657/home/13364482

woah, flicking through those pictures, specifically 3 and 4 and 7 and 8, it's obvious that they are systematically replacing that wallpaper with magnolia paint. 9 and 10 also. leave it alone!

Oh yeah, I'd want it as is.

oh, it's just photoshopped. can they do that? mock up pictures like that without pointing out what they are doing?

"We call that relatively new around here."

well, duh. you can buy an 18th century house around here, but most of them are expensive show house historical landmarks or museums.

for instance:

http://www.trulia.com/property/3089609239-26-West-St-Hadley-MA-01035

this is dreamy. 14 acres. next to a lake and the mountains. deal of the century.

http://www.antiquehomesmagazine.com/Properties.php?task=View&id=14906

woah, flicking through those pictures, specifically 3 and 4 and 7 and 8, it's obvious that they are systematically replacing that wallpaper with magnolia paint. 9 and 10 also. leave it alone!

― koogs, Thursday, August 30, 2012 10:36 AM (2 hours ago)

Yeah, what's the deal here? It's like, "hey potential buyers, here's what the rooms would look like if you painted over the wallpaper"....

One house I looked at was advertised online with several nice-looking photos. When I drove up to see it, I found out it was the last house in the residential-zoned area, and backed up against an ugly industrial complex behind the rear fence, full of dumpsters and trash bins. I took some pictures, which I later compared to those that were posted by the seller's agent. The latter had been 'shopped to remove the trash receptacles.

This is around the corner from she we are now. Wish I had £1.65m.

http://search.knightfrank.com/exe100278

See I would change nearly everything about that! No original fire places or Coving or ceiling roses! Plus I have a personal loathing of beige bathrooms. There's one coMpletely clad in those beige tiles on the place we're interested in and my heart sinks to think of ripping them out but I want to re create our current bathroom.

have to say sick, that place looks clinical and heartless ..

give me a lived in home with scars of life over a showcase house anyday ..

Oh I like both extremes. Every house had to be new sometime! Also the non-furniture furniture they've filled that modern house with is the absolute WORST, and they don't have any window treatments, probably to show you the maximum views etc, but who lives in a house with no shades or curtains??? That's ridiculous.

Coveting those bathrooms hardcore.

I like the rooms where you can sit around and look at the views, but I'd feel a little ridiculous doing my cooking business on a pair of kitchen worktops dumped in the middle of a giant open-plan non-kitchen area, even if those two worktops + the space between is bigger and more kitted out than my whole current kitchen

(but then for me cooking involves making a mess and dropping stuff and swearing and being too tired to clean up afterwards, so that's not really something I want on view to any guests who are sitting in other parts of my imaginary spotless luxury design house. Not that I'd actually be able to keep those tastefully uncluttered either)

omg we looked at this amazing place today. Detached Georgian place, want to sell quickly so will accept an offer we can afford, amazing huge rooms like a palace, everything we've been looking for, just unbelievable. BUT it's right on a main road on one side so the garden is really noisy. Inside the house it's ok. We've already nixed another nice-enough place on the basis of noisy garden (is as good as no garden?) so we're totally torn up about this one. Argh. Is there such a thing as noise-sucking machines?

Shrubbery and water features?

A tall baffled wall covered in vines on both sides oughtta do it.

Yeah, foliage and water, soak up that noise.

Doing some google-fu on it. There's already a fair bit of foliage but not all the way along. It's always going to be a gamble!

Well, the last two weeks have been hell, and there have been some serious contract wranglings and it looked as if, six months from accepting an offer on our flat, it might all fall through. But this morning our buyer has signed the contract and our solicitors ave been instructed to exchange. We will complete next Weds or Thurs. half a year of uncertainty and expense (it's cost us £2k more than anticipated because of lease / management company issues) is nearly over and we'll be in and settled for Christmas.

Phew.

Wow, was actually going to ask you how it going as we're about to embark on same. Offers all agreed as of Friday but not getting overly optimistic yet. Our management co i.e. worst person in the world is causing massive hassle although not directly to do with us buying and selling.

Good luck. Remember, if you want things to happen, you can make them happen.

Cheers. Yeah we have that attitude, sadly this often means reducing prices/ paying more :-)

gl all. Hopefully this is another few years away yet for us.

Contracts exchanged, moving next Thursday!

We've changed estate agents because the one we had just wasn't getting people in the door. At least the house we want isn't gone yet.

We've just had ours emphasise the importance of staying on the good side of the management company as their delays can hold things up badly. The management company is a woman who's avoided actually living in her flat for the past week so she doesn't have to speak to us...

Our estate agents were pretty good in that they cared a lot about getting good pictures and made sure all their agents had gone around the place before doing any viewings. Can't really fault them except ... we didn't get a particularly good price for our place. Lots of people were viewing. It's downhill for the rest of the year pretty much, if we hadn't found anywhere we'd be trying again in Spring.

Did/do either of you have to do a fire and asbestos risk report for any communal areas of the building (if you're in a flat)? It's the most pointless thing ever and doesn't seem to apply to communal areas of domestic buildings but apparently have to do them anyway. Just spent ages trying to find anything that might have asbestos (the guidance is all 'if you don't know ASSUME IT'S THERE') but our reports are the shortest documents in the history of mankind. Not sure if it's petulant to answer 'source of oxygen' with 'air'.

Ha, thank god we didn't have to deal with that. Did become a fast expert on asbestos when we bought this place as there's some in the roof tiles or something, but it's the least harmful type. You'd have to eat the tiles to get ill.

We're all packed, bar the TV, shower gel, and my bottle of beer. Feel stressed and knackered in equal measure. Roll on THS time tomorrow when it's all over.

good luck! We've just taken some of the family around our house-to-be, a third viewing kind of thing. It's an amazing house, won't believe it if it all goes to plan without something going wrong.

And we're in.

pics!

Soon as the Internet is back on! Meant to be tomorrow.

excellent. are you fully done with the new place or do you plan to work on it etc as you go on?

bravo sick.

we too had this kind of crap b4 we got hq.

we x-fered the deposit over to arrive before a certain hour, and then with minutes to spare we received a phone call from our soliciti-scum advising us that an hour b4 the deadline the money was not in their account.

after a heated discussion during which we explained that we did not pay the soliciti-scum to be so relaxed and nonchalant re such situations we decided to transfer more ££ into the relevant account using a much more expensive and direct banking electr-system.

thankfully we got the outcome we needed, and 10 years on, i am still in hq proving that all that short term crap was worth it.

hopefully you too get the outcome you deserve.

for all the politics, there is nothing like having your own house.

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7273/8151292287_7ae9dc75fd.jpg
Bedroom mantelpiece by sickmouthy, on Flickr

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7138/8151304406_aa79018c5e.jpg
Second bedroom mantelpiece by sickmouthy, on Flickr

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8482/8151261379_80eb5d7455.jpg
Kitchen sink by sickmouthy, on Flickr

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7127/8151291992_d839bc4af6.jpg
Kitchen windowsill by sickmouthy, on Flickr

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8063/8151273940_7ae48d4d1d.jpg
Hi-fi by sickmouthy, on Flickr

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8348/8151277356_2f9d4bdd19.jpg
Cornicing by sickmouthy, on Flickr

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7277/8151283298_2b6d6d3277.jpg
Stained glass by sickmouthy, on Flickr

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7248/8151301484_518471ebe8.jpg
Green toilet seat by sickmouthy, on Flickr

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7133/8151306972_e55a342869.jpg
Desk by sickmouthy, on Flickr

i love that green toilet seat!!

£12 in B&Q: bought and installed today because the previous owners' one was crap. First toilet seat I've ever installed! It's awesome.

685's. Nice.

Nice hi-fi. Oh and the house is cool too :)