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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I grew up in a 1930s mock Tudor and it was amazingly well built. I would have no problem with a well-built Tudor. I’m in a circa 2015 new build colonial and often long for the thick walls and doors and pretty arches of my childhood home. It was plenty bright, too.[/quote]

If you had walking around money in the 1930s, you could go nuts on materials and labor because things were cheap. Lots of homes built during those years are overbuilt relative to their 1920s or 1940s counterparts.

Furthermore, this place seems like it was put together by someone actually involved in home building. Often builders and developers and others in the industry will put the best stuff in their own houses, making for surprisingly durable structures.

Systems could an altogether matter. Plumbing, electrical, and especially HVAC have changed enough that the when and what of updates are real questions. I'd be very curious about this place's utility bills.[/quote]

The 20s was probably peak for home construction quality balancing affordability and accessibility. There are entire neighborhoods of lovely 1920s houses in most American cities that are often also still the most desirable neighborhoods.

The housing market collapsed with the depression and why housing quality deteriorated was because developers scaled back on quality as well as size to keep housing as affordable for a country still suffering from the Depression. Then the post-war boom meant a rush to build as many houses as quickly possible. At the same time, we lost a generation of talented builders and craftsmen who could provide the high quality finishes and touches that could even be found in upper middle class housing, as well as skill in bricklaying and stonemasonry. A lot of them were Italian immigrants, and their children moved into the middle class occupations instead of becoming a builder or carpenter.

High end new builds today are probably as good as housing has ever been since the 1920s, bringing back design and craftsmanship. But they are not cheap![/quote]

This is a good understanding of the dynamics of subdivisions. BUT, a high-quality one-off 1930s house slays almost anything from the 1920s. If you had money during the depression, you could have much more choice than you could in the 1920s.

Given this, it would be nice to know what people mean when they claim this place is a gut job. Does the roof leak? Is there plaster crumbling (leaky roof?)? Is the electrical original and therefore dangerous? My guess is that structurally it’s very good, but systems and styles are from probably the 1970s or 1980s.

It probably should be updated, not replaced, but it’s not my place to decide. It’s quite likely after lots of haggling someone will build another mc-something in its place.[/quote]

I can agree with you in that those lucky enough to be able to build a luxury house in the mid to late 1930s reaped the best of both words, the quality of craftsmanship and materials commonplace in the 1920s with notable improvement in modern conveniences, especially kitchens and bathrooms. At the same time, substantially fewer higher end houses were constructed in this period, really, a fraction of the late 1920s, and one does see a notable decline in UMC housing quality in the late 1930s when the housing market started to pick up. I can immediately spot a 1939 house from a 1929 house in my neighborhood!

I am also intrigued by the poster who said this is a gut. Pictures show a lovingly maintained house, exteriors look solidly maintained. What are we missing? [/quote]

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