October 2009 Weddings
Dear Community,
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
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Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Old Houses?
DH and I have been drawn to some older houses lately (1920's and one from 1900!) in our beginnings of house hunting. Are we...
A. CRAZY! DON'T EVEN LOOK!
B. A little crazy... Just make sure to look for/ask about __(fill in the blank)__
C. Not crazy at all! Go look at them!!
D. Other
Re: Old Houses?
Not crazy - I love older houses and would have gotten one older than my 1948 model if I could have. I lost my first potential house by $500 in a bidding war and it was built in 1902 and had all that cool built stuff in the living and dining areas, stained/leaded glass windows, cool old staircases that were actually wide enough for furniture to go up, cool light fixtures, etc.
Look for houses that have good insulation, good wiring (I used to work for an electrician and can vouch for knob and tube wiring not being as bad as people make it out to be unless you are making massive updates to the system, nor are fuses any better or worse than breakers unless you ask an insurance agent who will charge you extra if you have the former and not the latter) a good foundation without any obvious gaps where cold, water and pests can get in, and a good roof. If it is "historic" in any way, you may have to worry about any exterior improvements you make to it over time but that is really dependent on the neighborhood etc.
Basically, look for an old house that has been well taken care of and loved and you should be fine.
I adore the charm and character of houses that have a story of their own to tell.
c) not crazy at all!
If we could have afforded a house that old we totally would have gotten one. Our dream neighborhood consists of houses in that age range. Unfortunately, houses that old are all either in DC or the immediate suburbs which means they are super expensive (even though most of them have less square footage than our townhouse). The majority of the homes in the town we did buy in were built in the 80s or later since it is the very last "liveable" suburb of DC...oh urban sprawl.
Enough about me, just know I will live vicariously through you should you purchase an older home
. Aside from what everyone else has already recommended, I would recommend having someone who specializes in inspecting older homes do your inspection if you get to contract point on a home that old. Good luck in your home search!
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We're used to that pain already. We live in a house that DH's grandpa built and the only closet he built was a linen closet. We only have two wardrobes in our room and a closet organizer on the wall in the extra room. *ha* So any closet will be an upgrade for us. *smile*
The house from 1900 is already off the list. We did a drive by this weekend and it was further out in the country than either of us thought and we'd have to merge onto a pretty dangerous two lane highway any time we left.
DH was completely opposed to older houses when we first started watching the market, seeing what we could afford, etc... but now that we're seriously looking, he's been more open to the idea and even showing me some of the older houses that come up on the lists.
We'll see what happens!
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