My original wood plank floors that have held up from 1880!! You can't replicate.

The odd details, hidden nooks and crannies. My mom talks about the hidden doors and panels and little room in the old Victorian she grew up in New Haven. The old dumbwaiter.

My rowhouse had the underground railroad pass through it. The doors, the original crown molding, the bay windows. The hidden attic room. The large trees and the gospel church with it's preserved stained glass windows overlooking our back patio. The very, very old large Cherry tree in the center. I LOVE old homes---even if they can be a pain in the ass when you need custom window treatments (not standard size), etc.

Not cookie cutter or mass-produced..
Quirky details....moldings, arches, hardware, turrets, etc.
Historical.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've heard several people mention working shutters. Do you say this because what you really mean "shutters that look nice versus something cheap/fake" or do you really close your shutters? Because I've never seen anyone do this so I was really just curious.

When I lived in Italy I had exterior shutters that worked and I definitely used, i.e. closed them. It was kind of wonderful - kept the heat out during hot summer days -- and I always wondered by American houses didn't have them.

This is a good reading about shutters. Operable shutters look so much better than fake ones. I built and installed operable shutters in my home. What a difference!

http://www.oldhouseguy.com/shutters.php

Take a walk in Georgetown or Old Town. You'll notice that shutters are usually operable.

I am an unabashed romantic when it comes to my 1920s row house. I love the individual pane windows, the transoms, the wide moulding, beautiful hardwood floors, high ceilings, crystal door knobs and the tiny little mail slot that says "letters." Also, we have a side hall colonial which is actually more of a modern open floor concept than a center hall colonial, particularly once we took the wall down between the kitchen and dining room.

However, what I love the most is thinking about the people who lived in my house in 1926 and what their life was like. I actually went through the WaPo archives and found the original real estate listing for my house. It cost $8,000!

Anonymous wrote:Hardwood floors, true divided-light windows, solid wood doors, real masonry rather than a veneer, working shutters, radiators rather than forced-air heat.

I have beautiful old French doors leading into my dining room and another set into my formal living room. My house has thick gorgeous moulding and huge baseboards. The kitchen is not open concept, which I dislike.

Anonymous wrote:I've heard several people mention working shutters. Do you say this because what you really mean "shutters that look nice versus something cheap/fake" or do you really close your shutters? Because I've never seen anyone do this so I was really just curious.

When I lived in Italy I had exterior shutters that worked and I definitely used, i.e. closed them. It was kind of wonderful - kept the heat out during hot summer days -- and I always wondered by American houses didn't have them.

Old houses usually located in or very near city - amenities, sidewalks, etc. I want just not a house, but a neighborhood.

Our house was built in 1920. When we toured it, I fell in love with one of the bedrooms which has a cozy window seat. We also liked the beautiful wood floors with inlays, leaded windows, built in bookcases, tiled entry way, and French doors leading to the sun room and dining room.

Not to say that it's perfect. The lot is tiny and we have an old unfinished basement that crushes my spirits every time I go down there, lol. And it's not as big as I would like so we're planning to add on an addition.

I've heard several people mention working shutters. Do you say this because what you really mean "shutters that look nice versus something cheap/fake" or do you really close your shutters? Because I've never seen anyone do this so I was really just curious.

I live in a neighborhood of homes mostly built in the early 40's. There are lots of cape cods and colonials, the occasional bungalow, tudor, Craftsman or farmhouse, and very few ranch houses or split levels. The features I love include:
- tudor houses with the narrow peaked roof, wood beam detailing, unique window mullions and doors with rounded tops.
- working shutters and sometimes window boxes
- inside: crown moldings, nice baseboard moldings, chair rails, wainscotting, arched doorways, windows that are not all the same size/shape. Window seats, etc. Solid wood doors with panes instead of plain hollow-core doors.
- I think sloped ceilings and dormer windows and weird angles can be neat features that are a little more interesting than just 4 plain, straight walls at right angles, with a normal ceiling.

My house was built in 1942 so it has the original features on the main level, but it's also been bumped out on the main level and the upper level was bumped out for more ceiling height. I've been gradually making cosmetic changes to get rid of 80's elements in the house (shiny fake brass sconces, hollow doors) to make the rest of the house more consistent with the original house. I do wish we had more closet space, newer plumbing and better wiring, but some of that stuff I can change and some I just live with.

Where I would never live: a cookie-cutter subdivision where every house looks a lot like its neighbor, where architectural details are kind of thrown on at random (with no regard to whether they belong on a house), or in a house that didn't have an actual architectural style. Some of the newer homes are such a mishmash of things.

I have a 1939 Cape and I love the arch between the dining room and living room and my glass door knobs. Also, the black and white tile in the bathroom.

Hardwood floors, true divided-light windows, solid wood doors, real masonry rather than a veneer, working shutters, radiators rather than forced-air heat.

I wouldn't mind a new house that had those features (if I built new, I could even have radiant floor heat, swoon), but who builds that way these days?

Well, my answer would be different from 10:19, b/c I live in a 1925 row house -- so it *does* look identical (aside from paint color) to the other 25 houses on my block (as well as the ones across the street and on the other side of block).

To me, some of the appeal of a seriously old house is the construction quality -- we have two full layers of brick between our house and the house next door, for example, and then plaster on top of this, so we hear next to nothing from our neighbors.

Some of it is the location -- I prefer living in the city, and lot of urban neighborhoods are older than their suburban counterparts and have older homes. (Though that's changing, as suburbs are aging and there's more development within the city.)

And some of it, for me, is similar to the appeal of an antique table. Even if I could buy a new table/house built to the same specs as my old house, it wouldn't be an authentic old house.

They don't look identical to 50 other houses in the area ... i.e., they are not "model" homes that builders stamp down like an assembly line product. Not that there's anything wrong with that approach - cost effective and very utilitarian. Old house "charm" means something that looks authentic to the period in which it was built and is fairly unique in features ... whether that's woodwork, stonework, exterior architecture, window features, interior details (window seats, built-ins, mouldings), etc. Usually the 'charm' comes with 'upkeep' but many people assign value to the individuality and historical character of an older home and prefer that value over the convenience of the more modern designs. Very high-quality new custom builds also have 'character' while mid-century/post-war suburbs are often old and devoid of individuality so it's not a simple old vs. new. Mostly a unique vs. mass produced thing.

I hear this mentioned a lot but without much description so I never really know what exactly the speaker is talking about. What kinds of features typical to old houses fall into this category for you?