CNN article: Some buyers want time capsule homes

[Bruce Wayne]

Interesting. It refers to mid century homes but I'd bet there are people who would want older homes.

http://www.cnn.com/2014/07/16/living/irpt-time-capsule-homes/index.html?c=us

 

[LizzieMaine]

The appraiser who just did my house marked "retains period look" as a postive factor.

 

[HudsonHawk]

Probably the only period nobody wants is the late 70's, such as when my house was built. It had brown walls, thick brown carpet, brown and orange wagon wheel wall paper, shiny brass hardware and fixtures...It was hideous.

 

[PADDY]

My 1930 house is for sale. All original Art Deco fireplaces and coving and ceilings with internal Deco stain glass doors. The amount of viewers I hear muttering, "Those fireplaces can go! " "Be easy enough to get new doors..."

 

[MurderOfGoths]

Our home is a 60's build, previous owner was also it's first occupant. Suspect the wallpaper is from when he first moved in, I can't wait to cover it up though. It's so dingy and makes the room look so dark and dreary. Layout wise though it's the nicest place we've ever lived in, beats the modern builds hands down.

 

[Bruce Wayne]

My 1930 house is for sale. All original Art Deco fireplaces and coving and ceilings with internal Deco stain glass doors. The amount of viewers I hear muttering, "Those fireplaces can go! " "Be easy enough to get new doors..."

That's horrible!

 

[LizzieMaine]

What's really awful is when the "upgrades" violate the spirit of the house. I've seen a lot of simple little hundred-year-old working-class houses around here that end up being bought by gentrifiers, who immediately rip the guts out and shove granite countertops and stainless-steel appliances into a tiny little kitchen with an eye on "resale" value. It might end up being an "investment," but it doesn't end up being much of an honest home.

 

[St. Louis]

This is exactly what happened to my kitchen. When I first looked at this tiny bungalow, built in 1929, I found the original steel cabinets in the basement. They disappeared by the time I moved in. It makes no sense to me at all to gut-rehab any part of a house that is barely 1000 square feet and only has one miniature bathroom. At least the former owners left the original doors and windows intact. I gather they ran out of money after they "redid" the kitchen.

What really drives me nuts is the gut rehabs that are done with cheap materials. This happens quite often in the Midwest -- don't know whether this is common in other regions. The handyman told me recently that there are no modern bathroom tiles, for example, that are anywhere near the quality of the old ones. Yet the old ones must come out because ... oh, maybe the colors weren't quite right?

My kitchen has the cheapest possible white laminate countertops, which stain and chip so easily. The cabinets are thin veneer over MDF. The faucet was the least expensive one found in Home Depot (I was able to replace that with a nice vintage repop.) The only original thing left in place was the pine floor, thank goodness.

 

[dh66]

It's truly disappointing isn't it Paddy.

We have recently purchased a nice mid-century home (60s), from the daughter of the original builder, and thankfully it only needs a little pre-modeling to get it back to it's former glory. The one exception is the kitchen, unfortunately. Lizzie's comment certainly struck a chord.
Our previous home was a nice 1920s bungalow, but it had been through so many "upgrades" that it would have been near impossible (on my budget, anyway) to have restored it back to much resembling period correct. At least it was the only one left on the street that still had the big front porch intact.

 

[HudsonHawk]

I have installed granite countertops and a limestone fireplace. Not for resale value, but because I want to have as many rocks in my house as possible.

 

[LizzieMaine]

At least it was the only one left on the street that still had the big front porch intact.

Porch-stripping was actually a fad of the early forties. If you read Better Homes and Gardens of that era, you'll see lots and lots of how-to articles showing the best way to get rid of those "gawky, awkward" Victorian/Edwardian porches. Bourgeois philistinism knows no era.

 

[dh66]

One lady across the street had screened hers into a sun room, so I guess technically it still functioned as a porch, but all the rest had been closed in to gain another room.

In some ways, the demise of the front porch has been a detriment to society. At one point in time people actually spent time hanging out on the front porch and, by default, got to know their neighbors. These days, in the era of a.c. and t.v. and the tiny, uninviting front stoop, it is possible to live in a neighborhood and never even know what your neighbors look like.

 

[HudsonHawk]

I remember as a kid "visiting" with your neighbors was a nightly ritual almost. Sometimes it'd be on someone's porch, other times, just out in the yard or by the road or the fence. We still do that sometimes in my neighborhood, as most folks are of an older generation, but where younger people dominate it's pretty much unheard of.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Porches were a foundation of our neighborhood. At night you could walk down the street and follow every pitch of the Red Sox game because nobody had air conditioning and everybody was sitting out front on the porch listening to the broadcast. My mother's house didn't have a proper porch -- it was just a little platform jutting out from the side with a doorstep attached to it, but my grandparents' house more than made up for it. Their porch spread across the front of the house, and had a clothesline stretched across it. When the washing was hanging out, it diffused the sunlight and made for excellent shade in the summer.

My own porch was glassed-in sometime in the 1940s, and I like it that way because it lets me put a big bookcase out there to hold the overflow from the bookshelves inside. I've got a wing chair, a ratty old couch, and a radio out there as well, and nights when I'm not working I'll sit out there with the windows swung open, with the game on reading a book. Solid comfort.

 

[DNO]

My house was built in 1927 and has a full porch on the front. About 10 years ago we decided that it had about reached its end, so we hired a couple of true craftsmen to tear down the porch and replace it with exactly the same thing. It took them a while and they had to mill their own hand rails and decking (tongue and groove) but they did it. Looks great and was well worth the time and money.

 

[Guttersnipe]

What's really awful is when the "upgrades" violate the spirit of the house. I've seen a lot of simple little hundred-year-old working-class houses around here that end up being bought by gentrifiers, who immediately rip the guts out and shove granite counter tops and stainless-steel appliances into a tiny little kitchen with an eye on "resale" value. It might end up being an "investment," but it doesn't end up being much of an honest home.

This and tacky bathroom redos are my biggest pet peeves. A little paint, elbow grease and the right furniture can bring most rooms back to a resemblance of their period glory, but restoring an old bathroom or kitchen takes a lot of money.

The folks who cooked in those little kitchen really knew what they were doing too. They didn't need a chromed "professional" range and fridge as big as Buick to reheat frozen food!

 

[LizzieMaine]

The appraiser told me he just shakes his head at the people who have to have a "trendy" kltchen, because nothing dates -- and ultimately, drives valuation down -- faster than a "trend."

The only thing that looks dumber than a "professional kitchen" in a house with less than a thousand square feet is a big pink marble sink set on top of a dark brown Masonite vanity, in a 6 x 5 bathroom. Good luck getting to those pipes.

 

[dh66]

We have a pink sink in the main lav, not marble though....and a pink tub too. Some previous owner nixed the pink throne for a boring white one, but I guess these days that's about your only option .
There's pink tile on the floor and walls too.

I think nearly every person who has visited has remarked "wow...bet you can't wait to rip all that out" and are completely flabbergasted when I tell them the only plans I have for it involve finding another pink toilet

 

[Guttersnipe]

I was told by a friend, who's a realtor, many buyers have a perception that original bathrooms, kitchens and light fixtures are maintenance time bombs. Of course the challenges of vintage plumbing and wiring shouldn't be underestimated, but this means many homes get shoddy cosmetic re-mods per-sale that don't address underlying plumbing or electrical problems. Ironically, the only plumbing and electrical issues we seem to have in my building (built in 1931) are related to non-original systems . . .

 

[ChiTownScion]

I have installed granite countertops and a limestone fireplace. Not for resale value, but because I want to have as many rocks in my house as possible.

I enjoy the character of granite as well. Each section is unique and displays millions of years of geological history. The house was built in the 1970's so it really didn't anger any gods of preservation when we redid the kitchen.

The vacation home is a more recent built structure: 2004. The field stone fireplace reflects the local geology, but the kitchenette is pretty basic. Going high end on the appliances really doesn't make sense as we rent it out by the week and it would just get beaten up.