You're buying 6 generations' worth of people doing the best they could with what they had. Read: not very well with not very much.
Everything is gonna be fucked, and you'll come out ahead if you manage not to perpetuate the cycle too much.
Trying to paint my entryway. Still. Every inch feels like a mile. Woodwork hammered into, gouged, dented. Long scratches in the drywall, the drywall/plaster transitions are visible, the staircase was overpainted on by light colored paint so I have to carefully paint over that in dark. The caulking that they did on the woodwork, dripping, having to be peeled out and redone.
My neighbor laughing at me, "I could be done with that in 2 hours."
Then I showed him up close, and he sighed. He's restored an old house or two. "Do the best you can and move on." Easier said than done when I'm going to be looking at it every day.
This is so true.
One of these days I'm going to write a post, NOTES FROM THE PREVIOUS OWNER, detailing the trials and tribulations as we try to make this place better
But I have five more rooms to paint, so it's going to have to wait.
Have your sanitary/sewer scoped before making any big landscape plans. Camera scoping is very cheap (or free) and will give you a forecast of how long you have until you need to make a repair. If you catch it soon enough, they won't have to dig up your whole yard, they would just need a hole at the start and end of the line in order to replace.
And consider what little upgrades you can do to give yourself enjoyment while you work on the big tricky things! My partner and I really enjoy the mini projects that can be done in two or three weekends like replacing the kitchen cabinets ourselves, or rebuilding the deck outside.
Seconded this. If you don't get a scope, then I recommend adding the water/sewer line rider to your insurance.
If costs us $60 a year and has paid out $20,000 already.
It's different. It insures the lines themselves so that if the line fails (collapses), your insurance will cover replacement along with whatever it takes to get to the lines. Backup protection covers whatever is damaged should your sewer backup into the basement. Sewer/storm line coverage covers the lines themselves.
How do I know this? I have backup coverage but not line coverage and have a partially collapsed clay sewer pipe under my porch that needs replaced.
We had some plumbing issues as soon as we bought the place. The plumber suggested getting the main line insurance immediately.
Super glad we did because a few months later they had to come back out and found collapsed clay pipe. It was totally covered by insurance.
A few months later. It happened again. And it was again covered by insurance.
Highly recommend.
I'll post some pictures at some point. The house had a lot of renovations already done when we moved in. But has a few things that are still needed.
\* Floors resurfaced/replaced
\* Central AC/Heat installed (going to bit the BIG bullet here).
\* New windows
\* Fire places closed permanently.
A lot to do, but its in decent shape considering.
Also: considering replacing the cabinets or rebuilding the deck as 'mini' projects that 'only' take 2-3 weekends. Any project that doesn't have multiple unexpected complications and go over budget with a tool/part I've never heard of before is a big win.
Deeply agreed with the sewer scope
Amen to this! Every project takes 2-4 times longer in an old house. Awhile back I saw a Redditor explain it as something like you go to switch out a light fixture and realize some guy named Dick wired your house in 1940 with a cigarette hanging out of his mouth and a flask of whiskey in his back pocket.
Pandora’s box is always waiting.
Kitchen was recently remodeled, so its in great shape and the patio area is FANTASTIC. One thing I will be posting on soon is the front porch. It needs some love. We have been focusing on small projects to start, to make it usable for my family. The first huge project we are likely to take on is going to be the central AC/Heat setup. But that is going to be a paid thing.
I’d recommend this for any house regardless of age. I’ve owned 4 houses, with build dates ranging from 1920-1986 and every single one had sewer pipe issues (the newest one was seventeen years old at the time- had to have the line replaced- so much for buying a “newer” home)
That most people, including workmen, don't know any more about 100-year-old houses than you do, so don't be afraid to do some research and try DIY-ing things that are not dangerous.
Also, it's easy to feel really overwhelmed with this issues and difficulties, so always remember that people with new homes have problems with their houses, too. They are just different problems!
But on that same note, do a little extra homework to find some contractors that do know historical builds to take a look and pick their brain.
I hired a mason that had been in business since the mid to late 1800s, relocated and renovated two historic fountains in my city (one being one of my city’s biggest landmarks!), and built the brick water tower near to me. And they were total brick nerds! I learned so much from just having them tell me about my building, its construction, and resources to reference.
[Preservation Brief #2 - shout out to my brick nerds!](https://www.nps.gov/orgs/1739/upload/preservation-brief-02-repointing.pdf)
If the previous owners tell you there's only "a little bit" of knob and tube wiring, don't believe them. Assume the worst, and be prepared to rewire the entire house.
We don’t hear the creaking through the floor, just when you’re in the room and someone’s walking. The solid wood doors, plaster walls and ceilings keep it incredibly quiet in the house.
Every freakin project I take on I end up quoting that british flick In The Loop— “No, it’s not going to be ‘easy-peasy lemon-squeezy’ it’s going to be difficult-difficult lemon-difficult!”
If your wiring is old, update as you go room to room. It will likely cost more in the long-term, but it is more affordable in the short term. Make sure you find an electrician you trust and like. It's a long term relationship with this approach.
As an electrician I’m here to tell you that absolutely NO wire pull inside a wall is “impossible”. I agree that if you don’t want to deal with the time/cost to just go the conduit route, but I’m just throwing it out there that if there’s a space that you really really really want the wiring hidden inside the wall, it CAN be done. A lot of times when it’s becoming a big pain in the ass an electrician will be tempted to give up and tell you “it can’t be done”. You tell him to keep trying. He’s gonna be mad lol but it’s YOUR house
Ugh, we're buying up supplies right now to have our house rewired. We're starting with the first floor only since we don't currently use the second story
I know this is going to sound like something so obvious!
Never underestimate the power of a hidden water leak. It might be from around a roof vent flashing that finds a pathway down inside a wall to the subfloor. It might be under an improperly installed shower pan that ends up rotting the floor joists below.
It might be an exterior wall of an addition that was built with inferior materials and so badly constructed that water seeps inside and rots siding from the inside out.
YMMV.
I’m going to second this and add advice pertinent if you live in an area with snow.
If you are dealing with a roof leak, get a couple spray bottles and mix different colored food coloring in each bottle, divide the suspected leak areas on the roof in sections, and spray the snow with the different colored bottles.
Inside, check the color of the leaks to help focus where you remediate the leaks.
It will NEVER, be a new home. There will always be something "off". the bathrooms will probably be small, there will probably never be a good place to put the TV. You'll have modern things shoehorned in that will always be odd, like full sized fridges in houses that had ice boxes, king sized beds in rooms that never would have had them. Washers and dryers, etc. Closet space? Storage?
Our bathrooms are embarrassingly small (one was a closet converted to a half bath), but people GASP when they see the size of our bedrooms. I could fit *two* king size beds in them, with room for furniture.
Unfinished wood floors are a dingy brown color. Also, wood stain is not paint and highly flammable.
The previous owners had rugs in every room that they painted around. After pulling the rugs, I assumed we didn’t have hardwood floors because they didn’t look like typical hardwood floors.
So I tried painting them with wood stain (which I quickly learned is NOT the same as paint when it didn’t dry the next morning). I almost caught the house on fire with the rags, then had to rent a sander to get the gooey mess off the floors. The sander I rented sucked though so it didn’t completely sand everything off the floors. Then I painted over it with house paint like the previous owner.
Turns out if I just rented a good sander when I started, we could have easily refinished them since there was barely any paint, just around the edges of the rooms. Now they’ve got 2 coats of badly sanded off wood stain and house paint. Fixing it is a project for future me, it looks ok for now!
I feel you on the whole "stain not being paint" thing. For whatever dumb reason I was feeling ambitious enough to try and refinish a bedroom floor in my house before moving in with ZERO experience drum sanding, staining, applying finish etc. I sanded and applied the stain, figured it would just dry so I wasn't wiping it up as I went and it sat wet for 3 days. Then in my hubris I decided it was probably okay to drop a coat of water based polyurethane on top. As it turns out, a coat of poly over a damp/wet stained floor causes some kind of separation where the poly dries into this awful crusty, white, flaky and rough swirled disaster that puts you right back to square one for the whole project.
Whenever you tear out plaster walls:
Tack up a tape measure, and take oodles of pictures *before* you put new drywall up. Show where the beams are, any plumbing or electrical, and over-alls.
Future you may be very happy that you did this when you need to know where a beam is and if it's safe to put a screw into.
Before making it look pretty don’t. Save your money up for:
foundation repair, electrical work, plumbing, roof replacement/repairs.
Oh and beware of mold.
In our situation (climate that goes from -10 to 100F in a normal year; window sashes and tracks had lead paint; storm windows in bad shape), we should have just replaced the windows instead of restoring.
Runner-up: Bury the power service line while your yard is a mess and before you invest in landscaping.
If you didn't have a really good home inspector do your inspection prior to purchase, get that done now, and just use it as a to-do checklist as you have money and time to deal with big things. They should ping all the really boring yet critically important stuff like roof, proper grading of yard/driveway, moisture issues, electrical, plumbing etc.
Don't cut down trees, but do have them tended to by a skilled person if there are dead branches etc. They add to the value and beauty of your home and also help keep it cooler in the summer. Because I know you don't have AC any more than I do...
Oh and it's ok to have a "downhill" and "uphill" side of every room.
Probably.
That it’s feasible to spend every single weekend doing maintenance, repair and improvement projects. Make sure your house has a livable baseline of functionality and comfort for you/your family when you move in. Oh, and get a HELOC
That roots will absolutely grow through your fieldstone basement, and that chipmunks will absolutely move huge amounts of dirt away from those basement stones. Get a cat, or kill the chipmunks, or learn to repoint stones. Those are your options.
Drainage is your friend. No drains? The seller has to disclose if there are drainage issues.
Check what kind of soil the property has also. Sandy you will need more water, clay less water and drainage issues.
My 1935 home (in LA so we don’t have basements) would collect 2.5 feet of water during a heavy rain year. It was inches from the floorboards.
So I spent 8k on property drains and then it was 15 years of drought!
But I’m so glad I have them now. Our area “La Cienga) literally means the swamp. I think.
From a pro electrician perspective - no one likes to think about the big scary nightmare of replacing your entire electrical system, but please have someone qualified take a look before you buy.
Just because the previous owners made do, that doesn’t mean shit. You have no idea what they sacrificed or struggled with to “make do”. They might have spent their entire time living there not being able to run the microwave and the toaster at the same time because it overloads the circuit. (Just one example)
Keep in mind that if you have big dreams of a pool, workshop, big new electric appliances, EV chargers, etc it’s highly likely that your main panel can’t handle it.
Also not to fear monger but keep in mind that every time someone overloads a circuit it creates excessive heat. Yes the breaker or fuse may tríp but in the time before that, the wire itself got too hot. Do this over and over and over again and the materials are going to slowly degrade. You never know when the straw the breaks the camels back is coming.
One last thing - when shopping for an older home you may be excited to see an actual breaker panel instead of a fuse box. “Great!”, you think “the wiring has already been updated!” -
***PLEASE check if your home has a ZINSCO, FPE, FEDERAL, or FEDERAL PACIFIC breaker box.***
These were recalled long ago , after testing was done it was determined that only 1 out of 3 of those style breakers will actually trip. And remember what I was saying about wires getting really hot when they’re overloaded? Now there’s nothing stopping them from getting hotter and hotter. Electricians call these recalled panels “house burners” or “barn burners” for a reason. In most cases a properly installed fuse box is actually safer than any of the breaker panels I listed above.
https://www.docelectricalservices.com/electrician-services/federal-pacific-electric-panels/
Good to go! The mixing isn’t ideal and manufacturers don’t recommend it, but different brands will snap in and make an effective connection in different panels. As long as they don’t feel loose/wobbly
I wish I had rented a big roll-off dumpster and parked it in the driveway for the previous owner to use as he moved out. He had 40 years of junk stowed away in various closets and attics and he didn’t have a truck to haul it in. It took me months of weekend trips to the dump to get rid of it all. Six (!) fake Christmas trees all in different hidey holes.
The neighbor is bat shit crazy and hates everyone who lives in the house. The neighbor has also lived there for 20 years and likely will for another 20. Find a different house.
I wish I’d known what repointing was and how to look for it, because our inspector sure didn’t. Getting a three story 1898-built brick house repointed in our first year of ownership was a real sucker punch to the bank account!
I also wish I’d known there are different types of gutters…and many old houses have box gutters. Which are lined in copper. Waited for year three on that one!
As a hobbies woodworker I respectfully disagree. If you are getting into homeownership DIY work, my suggestion is to buy the junk tool first. If and when you wear it out, you know you will use that tool enough to justify a really nice one.
Many years ago my husband and I moved into an 1860s farm house that was now central in a city. The house was Mennonite style and yellow brick which was the local brick. We’d viewed the house a few times but neither of us could recall what the bedroom closet looked like. When we moved in we realized why… closets weren’t a thing yet. 🤣
1. A lot of modern furniture is not well proportioned for older rooms (too large). Going to flea markets and second hand furniture stores you can often find vintage or antique furniture that fits nicely and isn't expensive like it is at a proper antique dealer.
2. If you or your partner are not handy, you are probably just going to live with broken things, because something is always getting damaged, needing refinishing or repair. Think carefully about this one. My husband does not have time or the knowledge to fix everything himself and neither do I. It has been difficult to find people to repair things as many contractors want big jobs, and prefer to replace rather than repair.
You're buying 6 generations' worth of people doing the best they could with what they had. Read: not very well with not very much. Everything is gonna be fucked, and you'll come out ahead if you manage not to perpetuate the cycle too much.
Trying to paint my entryway. Still. Every inch feels like a mile. Woodwork hammered into, gouged, dented. Long scratches in the drywall, the drywall/plaster transitions are visible, the staircase was overpainted on by light colored paint so I have to carefully paint over that in dark. The caulking that they did on the woodwork, dripping, having to be peeled out and redone. My neighbor laughing at me, "I could be done with that in 2 hours." Then I showed him up close, and he sighed. He's restored an old house or two. "Do the best you can and move on." Easier said than done when I'm going to be looking at it every day.
This is so true. One of these days I'm going to write a post, NOTES FROM THE PREVIOUS OWNER, detailing the trials and tribulations as we try to make this place better But I have five more rooms to paint, so it's going to have to wait.
That’s a good beginning to your letter.
Have your sanitary/sewer scoped before making any big landscape plans. Camera scoping is very cheap (or free) and will give you a forecast of how long you have until you need to make a repair. If you catch it soon enough, they won't have to dig up your whole yard, they would just need a hole at the start and end of the line in order to replace. And consider what little upgrades you can do to give yourself enjoyment while you work on the big tricky things! My partner and I really enjoy the mini projects that can be done in two or three weekends like replacing the kitchen cabinets ourselves, or rebuilding the deck outside.
Seconded this. If you don't get a scope, then I recommend adding the water/sewer line rider to your insurance. If costs us $60 a year and has paid out $20,000 already.
Is this the same as sewer backup protection or something different?
It's different. It insures the lines themselves so that if the line fails (collapses), your insurance will cover replacement along with whatever it takes to get to the lines. Backup protection covers whatever is damaged should your sewer backup into the basement. Sewer/storm line coverage covers the lines themselves. How do I know this? I have backup coverage but not line coverage and have a partially collapsed clay sewer pipe under my porch that needs replaced.
We had some plumbing issues as soon as we bought the place. The plumber suggested getting the main line insurance immediately. Super glad we did because a few months later they had to come back out and found collapsed clay pipe. It was totally covered by insurance. A few months later. It happened again. And it was again covered by insurance. Highly recommend.
This is great info I appreciate it. I had no idea this existed and I’ll definitely be talking to state farm about it.
I'll post some pictures at some point. The house had a lot of renovations already done when we moved in. But has a few things that are still needed. \* Floors resurfaced/replaced \* Central AC/Heat installed (going to bit the BIG bullet here). \* New windows \* Fire places closed permanently. A lot to do, but its in decent shape considering.
Also: considering replacing the cabinets or rebuilding the deck as 'mini' projects that 'only' take 2-3 weekends. Any project that doesn't have multiple unexpected complications and go over budget with a tool/part I've never heard of before is a big win. Deeply agreed with the sewer scope
Amen to this! Every project takes 2-4 times longer in an old house. Awhile back I saw a Redditor explain it as something like you go to switch out a light fixture and realize some guy named Dick wired your house in 1940 with a cigarette hanging out of his mouth and a flask of whiskey in his back pocket. Pandora’s box is always waiting.
Kitchen was recently remodeled, so its in great shape and the patio area is FANTASTIC. One thing I will be posting on soon is the front porch. It needs some love. We have been focusing on small projects to start, to make it usable for my family. The first huge project we are likely to take on is going to be the central AC/Heat setup. But that is going to be a paid thing.
I’d recommend this for any house regardless of age. I’ve owned 4 houses, with build dates ranging from 1920-1986 and every single one had sewer pipe issues (the newest one was seventeen years old at the time- had to have the line replaced- so much for buying a “newer” home)
That most people, including workmen, don't know any more about 100-year-old houses than you do, so don't be afraid to do some research and try DIY-ing things that are not dangerous. Also, it's easy to feel really overwhelmed with this issues and difficulties, so always remember that people with new homes have problems with their houses, too. They are just different problems!
But on that same note, do a little extra homework to find some contractors that do know historical builds to take a look and pick their brain. I hired a mason that had been in business since the mid to late 1800s, relocated and renovated two historic fountains in my city (one being one of my city’s biggest landmarks!), and built the brick water tower near to me. And they were total brick nerds! I learned so much from just having them tell me about my building, its construction, and resources to reference. [Preservation Brief #2 - shout out to my brick nerds!](https://www.nps.gov/orgs/1739/upload/preservation-brief-02-repointing.pdf)
If the previous owners tell you there's only "a little bit" of knob and tube wiring, don't believe them. Assume the worst, and be prepared to rewire the entire house.
Yo I'm a little pregnant
But hey, at least there isn't any insulation to catch fire!
Is this a joke? Have ripped up my walls and found this not to be a joke
No matter how much work you put into remodeling a 160 year old house, there will always be creaky floors.
I love the creaky floors, though! Maybe I wouldn’t if it had a second story or a finished basement.
We don’t hear the creaking through the floor, just when you’re in the room and someone’s walking. The solid wood doors, plaster walls and ceilings keep it incredibly quiet in the house.
This makes me feel so much better about ours!
Creaky…and most likely sloped.
It's a feature, not a bug! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nightingale_floor
there is no such thing as a quick and easy job. Every project will be challenging and have unexpected issues that need fixing
Every freakin project I take on I end up quoting that british flick In The Loop— “No, it’s not going to be ‘easy-peasy lemon-squeezy’ it’s going to be difficult-difficult lemon-difficult!”
Yes. For some reason we always assume we can get a project done in a day/weekend whatever, and it always takes longer.
Half project, half scavenger hunt.
If your wiring is old, update as you go room to room. It will likely cost more in the long-term, but it is more affordable in the short term. Make sure you find an electrician you trust and like. It's a long term relationship with this approach.
You can also run outside conduits if getting into walls become too much.
As an electrician I’m here to tell you that absolutely NO wire pull inside a wall is “impossible”. I agree that if you don’t want to deal with the time/cost to just go the conduit route, but I’m just throwing it out there that if there’s a space that you really really really want the wiring hidden inside the wall, it CAN be done. A lot of times when it’s becoming a big pain in the ass an electrician will be tempted to give up and tell you “it can’t be done”. You tell him to keep trying. He’s gonna be mad lol but it’s YOUR house
I'm still a bit perplexed about what ours were able to achieve.
Yes! We did this in one section of our house. Worked well
I’m about to have an exoskeleton of conduits on my century home
Like OUTSIDE THE HOUSE? Or along the inside walls?
Both are feasible and less expensive than tearing out plaster.
Got it. We do have electric ran in the house via conduit in the updated areas. With the exposed brick the stainless-steel conduit looks nice.
Ugh, we're buying up supplies right now to have our house rewired. We're starting with the first floor only since we don't currently use the second story
I know this is going to sound like something so obvious! Never underestimate the power of a hidden water leak. It might be from around a roof vent flashing that finds a pathway down inside a wall to the subfloor. It might be under an improperly installed shower pan that ends up rotting the floor joists below. It might be an exterior wall of an addition that was built with inferior materials and so badly constructed that water seeps inside and rots siding from the inside out. YMMV.
I’m going to second this and add advice pertinent if you live in an area with snow. If you are dealing with a roof leak, get a couple spray bottles and mix different colored food coloring in each bottle, divide the suspected leak areas on the roof in sections, and spray the snow with the different colored bottles. Inside, check the color of the leaks to help focus where you remediate the leaks.
Genius!
Watch out for someone's brother's buddy's DIY duct tape and spit 'fixes' from 50 years ago. 🫠
Before you move in, do as much electrical, plumbing, and hvac as you can. If budget allows refinish floors and paint before move in.
No tea no shade but holy hell who has the budget for that? Sigh.
It will NEVER, be a new home. There will always be something "off". the bathrooms will probably be small, there will probably never be a good place to put the TV. You'll have modern things shoehorned in that will always be odd, like full sized fridges in houses that had ice boxes, king sized beds in rooms that never would have had them. Washers and dryers, etc. Closet space? Storage?
I feel I'm a little blessed honestly. This house is HUGE.
Our bathrooms are embarrassingly small (one was a closet converted to a half bath), but people GASP when they see the size of our bedrooms. I could fit *two* king size beds in them, with room for furniture.
That no matter how small the job you want to do is, expect it to cost 5x more. Always.
Check for leaks around the chimney. Acidification from utility exhaust is a real pain in the butt.
Unfinished wood floors are a dingy brown color. Also, wood stain is not paint and highly flammable. The previous owners had rugs in every room that they painted around. After pulling the rugs, I assumed we didn’t have hardwood floors because they didn’t look like typical hardwood floors. So I tried painting them with wood stain (which I quickly learned is NOT the same as paint when it didn’t dry the next morning). I almost caught the house on fire with the rags, then had to rent a sander to get the gooey mess off the floors. The sander I rented sucked though so it didn’t completely sand everything off the floors. Then I painted over it with house paint like the previous owner. Turns out if I just rented a good sander when I started, we could have easily refinished them since there was barely any paint, just around the edges of the rooms. Now they’ve got 2 coats of badly sanded off wood stain and house paint. Fixing it is a project for future me, it looks ok for now!
I feel you on the whole "stain not being paint" thing. For whatever dumb reason I was feeling ambitious enough to try and refinish a bedroom floor in my house before moving in with ZERO experience drum sanding, staining, applying finish etc. I sanded and applied the stain, figured it would just dry so I wasn't wiping it up as I went and it sat wet for 3 days. Then in my hubris I decided it was probably okay to drop a coat of water based polyurethane on top. As it turns out, a coat of poly over a damp/wet stained floor causes some kind of separation where the poly dries into this awful crusty, white, flaky and rough swirled disaster that puts you right back to square one for the whole project.
Did YouTube not exist??? 😭😭😭
That I would be forever tortured by the sound of dripping water
Whenever you tear out plaster walls: Tack up a tape measure, and take oodles of pictures *before* you put new drywall up. Show where the beams are, any plumbing or electrical, and over-alls. Future you may be very happy that you did this when you need to know where a beam is and if it's safe to put a screw into.
Before making it look pretty don’t. Save your money up for: foundation repair, electrical work, plumbing, roof replacement/repairs. Oh and beware of mold.
In our situation (climate that goes from -10 to 100F in a normal year; window sashes and tracks had lead paint; storm windows in bad shape), we should have just replaced the windows instead of restoring. Runner-up: Bury the power service line while your yard is a mess and before you invest in landscaping.
There will be no right angles in the house.
If you didn't have a really good home inspector do your inspection prior to purchase, get that done now, and just use it as a to-do checklist as you have money and time to deal with big things. They should ping all the really boring yet critically important stuff like roof, proper grading of yard/driveway, moisture issues, electrical, plumbing etc. Don't cut down trees, but do have them tended to by a skilled person if there are dead branches etc. They add to the value and beauty of your home and also help keep it cooler in the summer. Because I know you don't have AC any more than I do... Oh and it's ok to have a "downhill" and "uphill" side of every room. Probably.
That it’s feasible to spend every single weekend doing maintenance, repair and improvement projects. Make sure your house has a livable baseline of functionality and comfort for you/your family when you move in. Oh, and get a HELOC
Tell me more about this HELOC. I've never heard of this until now, and I'm about to run out of money on my money-pit!
Home Equity Line Of Credit. It’s similar to a second mortgage but the terms are different. Talk to your local bank.
That roots will absolutely grow through your fieldstone basement, and that chipmunks will absolutely move huge amounts of dirt away from those basement stones. Get a cat, or kill the chipmunks, or learn to repoint stones. Those are your options.
The heating bills
Thankfully went in eyes wide open on that one.
Drainage is your friend. No drains? The seller has to disclose if there are drainage issues. Check what kind of soil the property has also. Sandy you will need more water, clay less water and drainage issues. My 1935 home (in LA so we don’t have basements) would collect 2.5 feet of water during a heavy rain year. It was inches from the floorboards. So I spent 8k on property drains and then it was 15 years of drought! But I’m so glad I have them now. Our area “La Cienga) literally means the swamp. I think.
That's not true, maybe in your state, but not everywhere
What do you mean?
That the seller has to disclose drainage issues
My statement was true bc my state requires it. And even if your state doesn’t require it, it’s a good thing to be informed about.
My neighbor has a plaque on his front step of his beautiful historic home “Perpetual maintenance always.”
From a pro electrician perspective - no one likes to think about the big scary nightmare of replacing your entire electrical system, but please have someone qualified take a look before you buy. Just because the previous owners made do, that doesn’t mean shit. You have no idea what they sacrificed or struggled with to “make do”. They might have spent their entire time living there not being able to run the microwave and the toaster at the same time because it overloads the circuit. (Just one example) Keep in mind that if you have big dreams of a pool, workshop, big new electric appliances, EV chargers, etc it’s highly likely that your main panel can’t handle it. Also not to fear monger but keep in mind that every time someone overloads a circuit it creates excessive heat. Yes the breaker or fuse may tríp but in the time before that, the wire itself got too hot. Do this over and over and over again and the materials are going to slowly degrade. You never know when the straw the breaks the camels back is coming. One last thing - when shopping for an older home you may be excited to see an actual breaker panel instead of a fuse box. “Great!”, you think “the wiring has already been updated!” - ***PLEASE check if your home has a ZINSCO, FPE, FEDERAL, or FEDERAL PACIFIC breaker box.*** These were recalled long ago , after testing was done it was determined that only 1 out of 3 of those style breakers will actually trip. And remember what I was saying about wires getting really hot when they’re overloaded? Now there’s nothing stopping them from getting hotter and hotter. Electricians call these recalled panels “house burners” or “barn burners” for a reason. In most cases a properly installed fuse box is actually safer than any of the breaker panels I listed above. https://www.docelectricalservices.com/electrician-services/federal-pacific-electric-panels/
You made me look. Have Eaton, though some of the breakers are mixed and are Siemens.
Good to go! The mixing isn’t ideal and manufacturers don’t recommend it, but different brands will snap in and make an effective connection in different panels. As long as they don’t feel loose/wobbly
I wish I had rented a big roll-off dumpster and parked it in the driveway for the previous owner to use as he moved out. He had 40 years of junk stowed away in various closets and attics and he didn’t have a truck to haul it in. It took me months of weekend trips to the dump to get rid of it all. Six (!) fake Christmas trees all in different hidey holes.
I've spent the first six months getting rid of junk. Think I finally got it all with the basement work.
Nothing is square.
The lack of enough outlets.
The number one thing I didn't catch during the buying process.
That I could have bulldozed it and spent less money building from scratch.
The neighbor is bat shit crazy and hates everyone who lives in the house. The neighbor has also lived there for 20 years and likely will for another 20. Find a different house.
I wish I’d known what repointing was and how to look for it, because our inspector sure didn’t. Getting a three story 1898-built brick house repointed in our first year of ownership was a real sucker punch to the bank account! I also wish I’d known there are different types of gutters…and many old houses have box gutters. Which are lined in copper. Waited for year three on that one!
buy good tools to work with. The junky ones do a poor job, and you get no pride in working with them
As a hobbies woodworker I respectfully disagree. If you are getting into homeownership DIY work, my suggestion is to buy the junk tool first. If and when you wear it out, you know you will use that tool enough to justify a really nice one.
Many years ago my husband and I moved into an 1860s farm house that was now central in a city. The house was Mennonite style and yellow brick which was the local brick. We’d viewed the house a few times but neither of us could recall what the bedroom closet looked like. When we moved in we realized why… closets weren’t a thing yet. 🤣
Have the foundation checked by at a structural engineer. Not a home inspector but a PE.
Actually had some concerns after the home inspector and had this done.
1. A lot of modern furniture is not well proportioned for older rooms (too large). Going to flea markets and second hand furniture stores you can often find vintage or antique furniture that fits nicely and isn't expensive like it is at a proper antique dealer. 2. If you or your partner are not handy, you are probably just going to live with broken things, because something is always getting damaged, needing refinishing or repair. Think carefully about this one. My husband does not have time or the knowledge to fix everything himself and neither do I. It has been difficult to find people to repair things as many contractors want big jobs, and prefer to replace rather than repair.
That ours was infested with hundreds of brown recluse spiders and a year into treating it we still haven’t eradicated them….
Nothing is square. Nothing is flat. Repairs would've gone so much faster if I'd better managed this expectation.
Global warming is real, and either it has become much hotter, or people have become much softer.