I Love Old Houses

[John McKenna]

I wore my finger out clicking pictures...

The client said he plans on spending $250K to upgrade this old girl.
Built in 1940.

[klott]

J.R. Ewings place? Beautiful home.

[jhodge]

Yeah it's to bad homes are not built as good as the older homes... My house was built in 1935 and all the wood in the house is nice and thick... Most of the newer homes use the cheapest wood they can find and just slap the homes together. They tend to cut corners to make a buck and have no pride in building like they did in the older days....

[Steven Woods]

Originally Posted by jhodge

Yeah it's to bad homes are not built as good as the older homes... My house was built in 1935 and all the wood in the house is nice and thick... Most of the newer homes use the cheapest wood they can find and just slap the homes together. They tend to cut corners to make a buck and have no pride in building like they did in the older days....

Very true. Here in El Paso houses go up in a couple of months and are built so close together to get more out of the land. It seems like its all about the money these days.

[John McKenna]

The old lumber is harder and better as well.

[bdoles2]

The last three houses we've rebuilt - I'm glad they don't build them like they used to.

I've come across some of the sh!ttiest designs and framing. The lumber was much better, but methods - not so much.

[Gary Farnsworth]

Variety is the spice of life.

[lkrausz]

It's all in the pride of the workman building it. Some of the new are just as square and strong as the old and some of the new technology is far superior. I still run into old craftsmen comming over from different countrys putting their very best into some of the new homes that are being custom built. The sad thing is they put them to close to the neighbors just to get the neighborhood they want.

[jvogan]

You call a house built in 1940 "old"!!! Around here, that is just "middle aged" at best!
Our house was built in 1906, foundation made from blast rubble from the local coal mines. House hasn't moved 1/4 inch in 103 years....not so much as a soft spot in the floor!

[William J. Decker]

Things change and so does construction.

• It is no longer profitable to build small houses. Very little profit margin.
• If you built a new house with the same quality as some of the older places, it would be too expensive to sell. People want a house, but are not willing to pay for the quality.
• Unions are good and the best ones provide training for the people entering the trades. But the unions have also priced themselves out of the residential market. More and more, immigrant workers (Polish, Mexican, etc) are doing all the residential work, at least around here. That being said, there are some REALLY GOOD immigrant builders who do exceptional work.
• Most states (at least here, in Illinois) have no state license for GCs and no testing or qualification requirements, except for insurance. They get the Architect to design, then ignore the details and the specs, all to save money.
• Local codes do not speak to quality, only to bare minimum standards. Also, codies don't have the time, or the budget, to fully inspect. Government cut backs.

[klott]

Originally Posted by jvogan

You call a house built in 1940 "old"!!! Around here, that is just "middle aged" at best!
Our house was built in 1906, foundation made from blast rubble from the local coal mines. House hasn't moved 1/4 inch in 103 years....not so much as a soft spot in the floor!

Are you talking about ,"The BIG HOUSE" Jeff?

[jvogan]

Originally Posted by klott

Are you talking about ,"The BIG HOUSE" Jeff?

LOL! Yes, Ken, but it's OUR big house! 4K square feet, three stories. Built in 1906 by an attorney...we have the original docs. from the first insurance policy taken out on it in 1910. It has BEAUTIFUL woodwork! We found a sketch of it at the historical society that has the actual local newspaper which ran an article on the attorney that was building it.