Date: Wed, 27 Feb 2013 08:52:54 -0500
From: Lynn Hicks
Subject: old farm houses
I want to thank Maclyn Humphreys for an excellent response to the discussion about old farmhouses.
Every time I pass one of those abandoned old houses, often with a double wide in front, my heart breaks. I too think about all the life and history it witnessed, about what a “throw-away” mentality our society has, the beauty, about the waste.
I understand some of them are unlivable, and certainly low doorways would be difficult, tho charming. But some of them are salvageable. I live in just one of those. When we bought it 25 yrs ago, we bought the land it sits on. The house was not mortgagable, therefore added nothing to the cost of the land, in fact made the land cheaper because most looked at it and considered the cost of demolition. We have worked hard on it, still working on it, doing most of the work ourselves, at little cost. I would love to “restore” it but that’s not in the budget, so we have inexpensive storm windows instead of replacing them with energy efficient ones.
I love all the old wavy glass. If your goal is to make it as luxurious as a modern house designed to look like an old one, the cost as they say would be more than building new. But if a simpler, more connected life is what you want you can make it quite comfortable without much cost.
And save a little bit of history.