The ‘joy’ of an old house?

We live in a house that is over 100 years old – before you ask, we didn’t move into it when it was first built! It’s certainly a solid well-buiot house, but then I guess it’s had to be, to have survived this length of time.

Since we moved here we’ve been slowly working on putting our character/stamp on it as we’ve redecorated and/or modernised a room at a time. That all sounds great doesn’t? However our plans for what we’re going to do in the house next have often had to change because of problems encountered in the house, sometimes unearthed while doing other work. As one of the workmen said to us on one occasion, that of course is the the problem with old houses, sometimes you never quite know what you’re going to uncover when you start lifting floorboards or replacing sockets or switches etc.

Don’t get me wrong, I love the house we live in, but it does get very frustrating when what should be a simple straightforward job, 9 times out of 10 ends up uncovering something else that either needs urgent attention, or needs to be added to the growing list of tasks that need to be addressed at some point in the future.

Would I prefer to stay in a new build property, probably not as this house holds so many memories for me as I spent many of my younger years living here with my parents. Although some would say at least in a new build we’d be able to our own new memories, which is true, but we can do that in this house too, they are just additional memories to those I already have.

I therefore conclude that it definitely is a joy to live in an old house.

BTW This picture of an old house is not our house!