Im gonna miss the old place..

[Kashka-Kat]

Re: its old but its not particularly historic/significant.

You cant assume that! Modest houses & how ordinary people lived can be considered historic and/or significant too! It really doesn't have to be a grand house or very unusual, just a good specimen of its type.

Boomers (of which there are many of us) are retiring and downsizing - and we love antiques.

,

[phil]

antiques used to be things 100 years old. Now im seeing MCM stuff thrown in. some think antiques are anything 50 years or older but I like the first interpretation, otherwise my birth certificate would be an antique too

[GinaC]

I think we're just "vintage" now, Phil. A very fine vintage.

[jharkin]

antiques used to be things 100 years old. Now im seeing MCM stuff thrown in. some think antiques are anything 50 years or older but I like the first interpretation, otherwise my birth certificate would be an antique too

Ha! true... the other day at work I heard somebody say their house was "ancient". I asked and it was built in the 1950s.... it was all I could do not to bust out laughing....

[jharkin]

OK, so house hunt update. We have been looking and so far we are not impressed with anything... among "new houses" everything is either:
- reasonably priced but tiny/falling apart/ some deal breaker like no yard
- Way too expensive, big, looks like they have a professional crew of 5-0 people doing hte yard
- Brand new construction lacking any style

Our criteria:
2000sq ft+
4BR
2BA min, prefer 2.5BA/ master
at least one working , WOOD burning fireplace
Prefer a big lot on a quiet street for the kids. My wife needs garden space. We have 0.5acre now, 1+ would be great
2 car garage a must. attached preferred
I need some space I can turn into a wood shop
We would like to get central air this time around and be done with window units

And we have to stay in town because my wife works in the public school system and that's our built in before/after shool care plan. Moving to another town would be like loosing half an income.


Looking at old houses on the market there are only 6-7 of which maybe these 4 are even worth looking at. People from the South/Midwest try not to choke on the prices - remember this is Boston and I work a Boston hi-tech job. I cant buy a garden shed for 100k.


http://www.1090washington.com/

Gorgeous Queen Anne... We both love this one but its way over our max budget, its really TOO big and you cant tell in the pictures but on a drive by I'm nearly certain it needs a roof (there was an offer that fell though - could be why).



https://www.zillow.com/homes/for_sale/H ... 68050_zpid

Probably the best antique in town... love this one but:
1 - its also too expensive
2 - We would have to add central air
3 - We would want to add a third bath
4 - Its on the wrong end of town and would turn my 15min commute into 30+



http://www.676washington.com/

This one is decent in terms of square footage and it already has central air. We could probably get it for a steal... less than 100k more than the current house sells for - leaving us money to add the things it doesn't have like a master bath. I'd probably use the funny stone outbuilding as a workshop.

issues:
1 - Its right on the busiest main road in town with no privacy. My wife is adamantly against the location.
2 - Its been remuddled. AFAIK all the windows are vinyl and I think the kitchen is that fake "wood look" tile crap
3 - Some of the interior is a bit tired but most of it can be fixed with a good paint job.
4 - No idea from the listing if hte fireplaces even work. Have to go look in person.



http://www.15churchplace.com/

This one is interesting. 1780 build but you can tell the windows and fireplace mantles are all an 1880ish Victorian period renovation. My wife loves the interior and the kitchen. And I bet it will sit on the market a while and we could get it well under asking price, leaving a lot of money for renovations.

issues:
1 - The lot is small, and very cramped behind some other houses. They carefully hide in the photos the fact its across the street from the local masonic lodge (your front door view is the lodge parking lot)
2 - it has oil heat (the 3 above are on city natural gas) and no central air. But we could afford to put in central
3 - only 2 bathrooms on the second floor, but we could afford to add a third in time
4 - Garage is detached
5 - I have no idea what the basement looks like for workshop space.
6 - Not sure how many of the fireplaces work



I think we will end up passing on all of them and keep waiting for something better but curious what you think........

[Gothichome]

Jeremy, I like number two, It’s beautifully and retaines the rustic charm I would expect in a Georgian (federal) home. To bad about the price putting it out of range. Number three would be nice but they lowered all The ceiling heights for some reason. Number four looks to be a flipper special to me and not to my taste.
Number one is also a nice home, but for me it has caught the white paint disease, not what I personally would want in a Victorian.

[jharkin]

Unfortunately EVERYBODY likes white these days. Even my better half... as much as I’d like to I could never get her to agree to strip the woodwork back to stain in that house, she doesn’t like living in dark interiors.

Reality is the first two are probably both too big. Even if we could get the price down, the property tax, utilities and ongoing maintenance would keep me up nights and we would barely use half the space in the Victorian. Better left for a larger family.


The search goes on and I expect we probably will end up in something contemporary....

[Gothichome]

Jeremy, you could move all the way into the future, plenty of modern twenties period A&C homes out there.

[Corsetière]

You might consider sending your listing to Old House Dreams! She seems to get a lot of traffic! Good luck!

We listed our family house in Jersey City on Old House Dreams. Seemed like a waste of time, honestly. It was almost $200 and I never got a single inquiry. I like perusing the facebook posts, but I wonder how many people are actually serious buyers vs. dreamers (like me ).

Oh that's nuts! I didn't realize she charged! I figured it was just a hobby blog.

[jharkin]

Well, as it turns out finding a buyer of a well maintained old home is not so hard after all. We went on the market, got 3 offers from the first open house and where under agreement in 4 days flat. In spite of my best efforts we just couldn't find another antique that works for this stage of life so we are moving to a contemporary for the next 15 years or so.

I'll be back though. When the kids graduate college we will probably go looking for a retirement property and hopeful will have a lot more flexibility to look at cool antiques.