Do you live in a really old house?

[Cocogreen]

I live in Australia and our oldest houses are largely from the end of the nineteenth century. In another thread someone mentioned their house was from the 16th century ( I think?, can't actually remember the century).
I'm fascinated by this and wonder if any of you live in a property with a long history? Any drawbacks to living in such old buildings?

1790 Georgian house owner. In the first lockdown I started going through the censuses for the Terrace. If the walls could talk.....

Friends of mine live in a house from the 1400s with bits added in the 1500s and 1600s (and garages in the 1930s). Things Which are central -
Grade 1 listed so all renovations require a huge amount of consultation and approval and then are very expensive and take a long time ! Materials and methods need to be approved and overseen. Fascinating insight into building methods from so long ago.
People stopping at the gates to just stare in astonishment.
Low ceilings - the main door is a very humbling height - you really realise how much shorter people were.
All floors creak.
Death watch beetle taps.
Leaded windows let in huge number of flies no matter what you try really.
It’s a major major responsibility which is experienced either as an unbelievable privilege and honour or a pain in the ass which becomes too much.
Ancient barns/moat are as much of a responsibility.
Great hall is breathtaking.
Other rooms are ‘odd’ for modern living.
Cold in winter.
Security when away is a thing.

1875 terrace in a village. It's pretty with high ceilings, the original fireplace in the living room and picture rails. The cellar has a natural spring underneath it which requires a pump to keep the water at bay - when there is heavy rain the floor gets damp. There are lots of large spiders, but I have a cat who actively chases them off!

Our house was built in 1752 , used to be a school house

Ours is 1822 so probably not as old as you’re looking for but fairly old! It’s Georgian so has really lovely high ceilings, big windows, fireplaces, cornicing, picture rails etc. We also have original shutters in one room and the original bread oven on the basement! I love the ceiling heights, the thick walls mean sound proofing is good and it’s cool in summer. Even though it’s just a 3 bed house some of the rooms feel grand and the bannister is gorgeous.

It’s cold in winter though and expensive to heat. Painting all the windows and exterior woodwork is expensive upkeep. The lack of open plan kitchen is a pain with small children and because of limited space and layout we don’t have the possibility to extend/knock down walls. Also it’s Grade II* listed so trying to get permission to change anything is a nightmare.

There’s loads I love about it but I would like to move soon as it’s just not practical for us long term which I’m sad about.

We have paperwork going back to the early 1700s but the house is older than that.

There isn’t a right angle or flat wall in the place. It has solid walls that are four feet thick at the bottom so takes a bit of heating. Once it is warm, it stays warm. It stays cool in summer.

My husband took a door off to paint it the other day and was surprised that it only came up to his nose. Despite being 6’4, he had never noticed before.

About 1820 house here

It’s a Georgian terrace split into two flats
It’s been quite cheaply converted though we’re very happy here. They were lots of these houses built quite rapidly in my area as a pp mentioned. So not a grand house belonging to an important member of the community

1611, the part I live in. Older Tudor and pre-Tudor adjoining.
Pros: unique, beautiful, historic, quiet location. Cons: cold in winter, v expensive to heat and maintain, Grade 2* listed with all that entails.

I tend to go for victorian - last house only 170 years old, 3.5m ceiling height and large rooms. Wonderfil lily ceiling roses, high skirting boards and intricate coving. Money pit though.
Current terraced house probably 1890, still decent ceiling height and big windows. Lovely coving though skirting has been replaced. Luckily decent walls as I hardly ever hear the neighbours!
Proper old buildings I find the ceiling heights low, very low doorways and small windows. People were shorter, glass expensive and keeping the house warm meant small rooms too. Plus bedrooms through other bedrooms - higgledy piggledy layouts with bathrooms and sculleries tacked on the back.
When I was I Australia what I didnt understand seeing tracks of new builds was how small the gardens were when you had all that space! It reminded me of houses in Florida - I suppose the weather is similar in some parts maybe there's a connection.

We live in a building that used to be the rectory for a rather wealthy parish. The oldest part dates nack to the 16th century, the 'newer' part to 1705, and there is also a victorian extension. It became a children's home in the 19th or 20th century, then stood derelict for some time before it was renovated and split into two separate parts around 2000. I love it - lots of odd angles and half-levels. High ceilings and large windows mean we have airy, light filled rooms. On the other hand we also have woodworm, large heating bills (single glazing and an occasionally leaking roof

@maofteens you're right about the tiny blocks the new builds are on and no gardens - sacrificed to get the four bedroom two living area house. Also a long way from the city ( I'm in Melbourne). Real estate/ houses here are horrifically expensive, hence the small blocks a long way out.
We're in a 1960s house that was added to about 4 times before we bought it. The house doesn't take up a lot of room on our block so we have good size gardens front and back - love gardening!

I've lived in a few, parents lived in a house built 1820s when I was born, moved to childhood home which was built 1592 and mine and DH was an old slate miners house built around 1880s.
Love old properties - but we now live in a new build built 2017!

Our house is new(!) - 1900. Fantastically quiet and solid.

My granny’s house was dated from 1457. Was originally what I think is called a marriage (or wedding) feast house - used by the parish for celebrations. As originally constructed was double-jetted but Georgian additions of bay windows and other works meant you could only see the jetting in the wood house at the rear. Next to the church, so lots of bell ringing (which I loved). Also next to the graveyard which we all also loved wandering around in. Ceilings were reasonably low but manageable.
I loved that house soooo much - it’s still my “happy place” - if I’m struggling to sleep I walk myself around it in my head.

I grew up in Bath so lives in a Beautiful Georgian flat. I remember my sister taking me to where the archives are and looking up our house on the censuses etc (she was trying to convince me there was a ghost)

When my mum remarried her husband lived in a house from 1506 in the countryside. It was lovely! Not a single straight line and it was only one room deep so very long as gif I found a bit odd after our flat.

Now as an adult I own a beautiful end of terrace Victorian house. Not sure exactly when it was built but there is one very similar looking round the corner which has a carved date stone saying 1870 so prob around then.

I love old house

she was trying to convince me there was a ghost

IME the most annoying thing about living in an old house - people insisting it must be haunted, and inventing all sorts of spurious situations that might have caused this.

I used to live in a Tudor farmhouse. Some of the beams were incredibly old and thick - we were once told these were often salvage from ships which I loved the thought of.

It had lots of original features but lots of stuck-on modernised parts,. One huge fireplace big enough to place a couple of chairs in, with a big hook over it (for roasting meat?) One modernish chimney/fireplace in the attached barn which had been converted into a living room. So a bit of a mishmash really.

It had some strange things like a little shrine-stone in one corner on the floor. Some carvings in the bedroom beams. Some stories such as 'a king and queen sheltered from a storm here one night..' which might even have been true, as it was just off a road which led straight to Sudeley Castle, where kings/queens often did stay in the 16th c.

There were certainly drawbacks to living in such an old house! lots and LOTS of dark dusty places behind flimsy plaster or cupboards. The loft was just horrible. I dreaded going up there. Lots of animals lived right there with us in that house over the years.... bats, mice, RATS, squirrels...

It looked really beautiful from the outside and I'm glad we lived there for so long, the kids loved the wilderness which was the untamed part of the garden. BUT the maintenance costs were huge - the beams needed treating every 10 years, we had to have ALL the rotting windowframes replaced, a lot of wall-work, all of which required specialist builders because of the property age.

We moved to a new build in 2002 and I've never been happier. Light, clean, lovely. Take the side off the bath and there's nothing nasty underneath but clean planks. We don't have to lie awake in storms wondering if the roof will be ok. Believe it or not we've still had the occasional wasps' nest, mouse and rat in though - penalty of living near farmland I suppose.

For my next house I'm going to live in a plastic dome where no wildlife can EVER get in!

I have lived in an Edwardian detached house, a Victorian terraced house, a 1980s built detached house, a 1960s semi-detached built house, an early 1800s detached built house and my current one which was built in 1996 (detached).

In terms of easy to look after and practicality my current house has been the best. There are no building restrictions, so we had solar panels installed 9 years ago, and our gas and electricity costs have been the lowest in this house than any other houses we have lived in.

It is easy to heat and keep clean as well. It isn't a beautiful house, nor is it ugly, and is an individual build. While old houses are more beautiful, I prefer the practicality of the house we live in now.

Our current house is only 152yo but I grew up in a house that was mentioned in the doomsday book (1086) it was much altered by the time we lived in it but had very thick stone walls, occasionally flooded (old mill & the leet which run next to the house would struggle in heavy rain) and was only partially connected to the mains, it was cold in winter but lovely and cool in summer. It was a rather awesome house to grow up in and as kids we often blamed ghosts for naughty behaviour 🤣
The main issue with it was that there was an ancient right of way right past the front door through our garden so we often ended up with walkers and tourists right outside taking photos, trying to picnic in our garden etc.

The older part of our house was built in about 1500, the newer part about 1600. I love it.

Drawbacks- it's listed and in great detail so we are quite limited in what changes we can make. Low ceilings (fine for me but a problem for DH). Very poorly insulated so heating bills are high.

Mine is mid-1500s with some 1600 additions and I do know a lot about its history and development. It has the usual beams, carvings, fancy stonework, mullioned windows, decorative tiling (no thatched roof, thankfully) although the ceilings are high and the rooms are big as it was built as a “high status” house. It’s a good layout without too many nooks and crannies so stands up well to modern living.

It does however, like various PPs, have the most amazing and diverse selection of wildlife currently resident within its structure. You have to not be too squeamish about insects, arachnids and rodents to live here!

I live in a terrace of farm workers cottages built in 1858. I have lovely high ceilings, a lot of the original features have been modernised such as skirtings, double glazed sash windows etc but kept in the original style so all very nice. It's only a 2 up 2 down so we have a kitchen and bathroom downstairs which were built a bit more recently in 1991! It's draughty and damp when it rains but I love it and wouldn't change it for the world!

Ours is about 1600, an old detached corn mill that was converted to residential use about 150 years ago. It's not listed - unlike our two neighbours (the former stable block and the mansion to which ours and the stables once belonged) - although the crenellated wall that forms part of the garden boundary is.

We still have the (drained) leat running through our land and traces of where the water wheel stood as well as the outlines of the original windows, some of which were reduced in size/moved when the building became a house. We also have an undercroft but this is currently not habitable space.

Sadly, because it was converted in the Victorian era and isn't listed, internally few of the original features remain and those that do are predominantly Victorian... for example the ceiling heights have all been raised so it no longer has that cottage-y feel ☹️

There is a fabulous, small walled garden leading straight off the house and beyond that larger, partly walled gardens. For me, the cottage gardens are the best feature although the way they look now is a result of our labours, because before we purchased the property the outside space was a rambling mess of weeds/overgrown hedging 🙄

Inside we are gradually restoring some character (fireplaces, panelling) and outside too (eg, replacing the inappropriate windows), but unfortunately in the 1990s a previous owner actually sold the stone tiled roof, replacing it with slate and we don't currently have the funds to restore that 😮

Imho, the garden is as important to the building and ensuring that matches or at least complements the building style is important, so we're creating a kitchen garden, mini orchard, large pond, cottage garden borders etc. That all adds to and enhances the period charm 😊

Late 1500s here. It used to be the village pub until quite recently and the room that used to be the kitchen has hooks where they used to hang meat, and one of the cupboards has a weird set of stairs going nowhere. It’s the only house I’ve lived in where I feel tall.

It is expensive though. I asked the thatcher if he lived in a thatched house himself and he said “no, I’m not that stupid”. 😂. Romance costs!

Fascinating thread. My house in comparison is the newest of new builds (1930s)!

@TheAntiGardener - no, not Macc, I’m on the border of Oldham and Rochdale! It really surprised me when I found out they wove silk as well as cotton, wool, and something called fustian. The man who built my house was called Hiram Tonge - you don’t get names like that nowadays do you!