Maggie's Farm

While NE has some beauties of old houses, those of us who have lived in them realize that this beauty comes with a price. There is always something breaking down. My father and a number of his friends spent a lot of time rehabbing old houses. Lot of time, and the more work you farm out to others, a lot of money. My father developed the carpentry skills to do a lot himself.

A childhood friend with a 300 year old house recently spent some big bucks replacing the 300 year old siding. On the other hand: those old wood floors are still good- though the living room floor is only about 100 years old, I believe. Wood laminate floors don't last near that long.

Re modernizing old houses, I am reminded of what my great-grandfather did about a century ago. Instead of adding central heating, electricity and running water to the old house, he built a new house a hundred feet away and tore the old one down.