Is An Old Home For You? - The Cons - Repairs
By Raynor James, Fri Dec 9th

So you think you might like to buy an old home? Perhaps evensomething old enough to be historic? It's a good idea tocarefully evaluate the pros and cons before you decide. Thereare plenty of both. Will the pros be valuable enough for you tobe willing to cope with the cons? Where shall we start? With acautionary tale, I think.

The Cons of An Old Home

In 1972, my husband and I bought a house built in about 1825. Wemoved in on August 15th. My husband had an out of town businessmeeting and left about 5 AM the next day. (What makes him sosmart?) About an hour later, I started downstairs and flippedthe switch to turn on the chandelier in the downstairs hall. Boydid I get light. There was a flash, and then what looked likelightening ran up the cord. I turned the switch



off, but thefireworks continued. I ran and yelled for our sons (10 and 11years old at the time). We got out a door off another hall andran to our next door neighbor's house to call the firedepartment. (This is a very exciting way to meet one's newneighbors.) The fire department was really fast and got to ourhome before we got back ourselves.

By the time my husband returned late that evening, we had beenvisited by not just the fire department, but also an electrician(old wiring needed to be reworked and a fuse box replaced withcircuit breakers), a painter (to get a price on fixing water andfire damage), and a floor refinisher (same reason as thepainter), and both our sons had been offered marijuana. (Did Imention that beautiful old houses are often located in intercityareas and sometimes the whole neighborhood has not yet beencompletely restored to its original state of gentility?) We wereasking ourselves, "What have we done?"

Well, we had the wiring fixed, put off having the floors workedon and did the painting ourselves. We also paid tuition and feesto keep the boys in their old school district.

You have to be flexible to happily live in an old house. Nothingis a standard size. Right angles are purely coincidental. (Thewater damage mentioned above had showed us that the floor on theoutside edge of the front hall is about six inches higher thanfloor on the far side of the living room.) Go to Lowes or HomeDepot to buy a standard replacement this or that? Forget it.You're probably going to have to fabricate it yourself or haveit done. You need to either have a large home maintenancebudget, be prepared to invest a lot of "sweat equity" or both.

We've lived in this same old house for over thirty years now.Items we've had adventures with include:

1. Plumbing,

2. Bringing in more electricity,

3. Replacing the heating system,

4. Repointing the chimneys,

5. Having dampers made for the chimneys so heat doesn't escapefrom them when they're not in use (did I mention we have fourworking fireplaces?),

6. Increasing the insulation, and

7. Painting many, many times.

Our house is real wood, not vinyl, and the roof is standing seamtin - the original roof. That, of course, means there is a lotof surface to paint, and, since the house is two stories and hashigh ceilings, some of the surfaces are pretty high. (Did Imention that my husband has fallen off the roof twice?) We're inthe process of having our home painted (not a do it yourselfproject this time) yet again. The bids we got ranged from$15,000 to $20,000. (Did I mention you need a larger maintenancebudget with an old house?)

Whew! I think the cons are clear, don't you? Owning an old homeis wonderful. Just make sure you understand what you are gettinginto.

About the author:Raynor James is with http://www.fsboamerica.org - providing FSBOhomes For Sale By Owner. Visit our "sell my home" page athttp://www.fsboamerica.org/seller.cfm to list and sell your homefor free for one month. Visithttp://www.fsboamerica.org/buyer.cfm to see homes for sale byowner.

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