Our Story

Many years ago when my family was young we bought an old house to fix up. We worked on the house over fourteen years. We stripped wallpaper, took up flooring, painted, plumbed and upgraded the electrical service.

At about the same time friends of ours moved into the new house they had built. They too had a young family to raise. Our family consisted of four adults and four strapping boys. Their family included mom, dad, a son and a daughter.

We worked on our house and gradually brought it into this century. There were times that we wondered if we were fixing up as fast as the boys were wearing things out, but in the end we had a house we sold for twice what we paid for it. Our boys were rambunctious kids. They pelted up and down the stairs in like a herd of small elephants. They had the wonderful disregard for the consequences of gravity of the young and they hit the landings of the stairs with resounded thuds that shook the house. At least they did when they thought we wouldn't notice. During all the years of stair jumping by four boys the worst thing that happened was some cracking in the plaster in the stair well to the basement.

Over the same time period our friends were raising a lovely demure daughter named Kate, and a hellraiser named Robbie. Robbie was an instigator and a rapscallion, but he hadn't the shear destructive power of mass our boys commanded. After they had lived in their house for about ten years our friends had to have their stair landing supports replaced and reinforced. Robbie's constant jumping from stair to landing had broken through. One boy, in a relatively small time, wore through the supports.

Our house was ninety years old when we bought it. The wooden supports that went down into the concrete basement floor that the staircase rested on had rotted out. We replaced them. Even with that support missing, our staircase stood up, to time and our kids.

We won't buy houses built after 1940, period.

Old house lovers feel the way they do about their homes for a lot of good reasons. The quality of materials that can't be affordably used nowadays, the architectural detail, the workmanship, the personality of age, all these things mike old houses wonderful. The fact that they are frequently wonderful investments helps too.

We are a network of people with a passion for old houses. If you love the history, beauty and personalities of old houses, you belong here.

Welcome to the Old House Network