I just have to get this off my chest. I overheard a conversation today that shocked me. I am not much for running out and buying things new, usually if I look hard enough I find what I want used and at a greatly discounted price! Having said that, two women were talking about how the one had put an offer in to buy a new house. The other said that her family had looked at it too. She continued by saying that they look at new houses often and are thinking that maybe it is time to buy something newer. This person lives in a house that is less than 10 years old! It just struck me that it is bad enough that some people buy a new car every year or two. Now a house that is 10 is old? What happened to HOME and all those family memories, nostalgia, tradition... Now home is just another temporary stop until something better comes along. I don't know I may be just crazy. Home is were the heart is and mine is staying put!(After all if I ever get all this fencing done who would want to start over?)

Tami in WI

-- Tami Bowser (windridg@chorus.net), August 08, 2000

Answers

Crud, a ten year old house is just starting to get broke in good! I grew up in a home built in 1876, and I loved it. Old homes have a charm and life of their own, that a new home will never come close to. Why would she buy now? Aren't the intrest rates going up?

-- Leann Banta (thelionandlamb@hotmail.com), August 09, 2000.

We own a 23yr. old house and as far as I am concerned it's a cracker box! No charm, personality or sprirt! Soon we will build a house with old wood, brick, fixtures, trim, etc and I can't wait~We want a home not a building thrown together! They bulid all these "new" houses without pride or love!!Such a shame.

-- Debbie T in N.C. (rdtyner@mindspring.com), August 09, 2000.

How terrible! We live in an almost 150 year old house and have had so much fun with it's history! We have so much of the original furniture, the piano, chairs, a hand pump and even two charcoal portraits. There is much much more, too. New houses are all the same; no character at all!! Thanks for the story!

-- Abigail F. (treeoflife @sws.nb.ca), August 09, 2000.

We rent a house that's over 100 years old. It needs a paint job badly, but the landlord is too busy. Actually, I can't live in a new house-new building syndrome-allergies, etc. I think city houses should be in the city. But it isn't just homes that have been lost along the way. We now have fast food, healthy choice, soccer moms, dads and moms working 2 jobs so they can keep up with the Joneses who are keeping up with the other Joneses. Someone on a newcast the other night said that it's been decided that it's good for families to have their supper at home together... I grew up in the big city, the last time I was there I realized just what people to with their time. They spend money.( yes, there's church, school, good causes etc.) Look how many fast food places there are in just 2 city blocks. Shopping malls, strip malls, stores in the parking lots, all the property along the main streets are now zoned for business, and they just keep building. When we were little, we went for drives in the country, there's nothing but stores etc. there now. I guess people don't take those drives any longer. There's a commercial for new homes with country quiet all around-that'd be funny if it wasn't so sad. Tami, don't you feel blessed to have the desires not to have all that stuff most people think they have to have to sruvive. (forgive me for ranting and rambling)

-- Cindy (atilrthehony_1@yahoo.com), August 09, 2000.

Tami, although I live in a house that's only 40 years old, we are adding ourselves to it. We have added a wood cookstove into the dining room, will be redoing the kitchen so we have better work areas, moved a woodstove down into the living room, fruit trees and herb gardens around the outside(we have a rip-roaring 9/10ths of an acre), as well as a nice big garden with perennial veggies (horsradish, sunchokes) around the outer edge. I figure that when the time comes to move out (when we're old and gray and had enough of Connecticut consumerism), we will have quite a homestead - and the odds of finding someone to buy it for its redeeming qualities as such will be pretty remote!!! I imagine when the next owners move in, they'll rip it all out and turn it into the convenience palace so many build nowadays. Makes me sad to think of it. I just hope and pray that one of my boys'll buy us out and continue the traditions. That is, if we don't first haul our butts outa this state and to a place with a reasonable amount of land and a reasonable tax base.Hey, wishin's free!!! :-)

Judi in CT

-- Judi (ddecaro@snet.net), August 09, 2000.

Cindy, I saw on a web page the other day these statistics...Amount of rural land turned over to development each day, 9 square miles. Number of acres blacktopped each year, 1.3 million acres or equal to the state of Delaware. People shop 6 hours per week on an average and spend just 40 mins. playing with their children. Sad, huh? But you know, it's so nice to come to this forum and "meet" people who don't follow the trends and live their lives so simply and richly. It's so nice to know, that not everyone has gotten caught up in the "trap" and know what's truly important. Thanks everyone!

-- Annie (mistletoe@earthlink.net), August 09, 2000.

Well,it sure is good to know that I am not the only one that feels this way. I must say that I may sound hypocritical when I say that we are building a new house. Yet the reason for doing so is that we couldnt find any old houses with land that met our criteria and price. We had a 160 year old house that we sold because we were moving out of state and then my husband got layed off a week before the closing-I cried at the closing! It was cheaper to build than buy existing because we are doing nearly all of it ourselves. On the other hand we are building a 200 year old house with many recycled parts. I not only have one house history, I have all sorts of histories depending on which room your in. I do love old houses, but dont begrudge anyone who wants a new one-yet I loath track homes. I also feel there is a strong tie to family and traditions in our home and I hope our kids will always be able to come back and say this is HOME. (Even if they are griping about the child labor we have used to build it.) Maybe I am too sentimental, but I just cant see it as a disposable comodity that you change every 5 years to get the newest model. My sister lives in Denver and said the average home price in July was 268,000. Just who are these average people living there I wonder? Mortgages starting at over $2000 per month! I will stay where I am and try to tread lightly on mother earth and hope to teach my children the same. Something else I read on that note is that children that grew up in families that had just immagrated to the US were more likely to be careless with their money because they felt they and their children deserved more than their parents had. "We could never afford that when I was a kid,now I can so I will buy it..." I try to remember to explain to my kids that it isnt always that I 'cant' afford it, its that I choose not to buy it. Anyway I will put away my soap box for the evening. Tami in WI

-- Tami Bowser (windridg@chorus.net), August 09, 2000.

Befroe I bought my land and built my house on it, i almost bought a house that was BEAUTIFUL, with an amzing garden and a stream running through it. I could've afforded it, just, but I wouldn't have been able to afford anything else. It was perfect (except for those orange kitchen counters...), but you know, it was done already. it didn't need me. It was the kind of place you worked up to, it wasn't where a firsttime owner started out. I feel much better building my own place, putting myself into it, making my home MINE.

-- snoozy (allen@oz.net), August 10, 2000.

Annie, thanks for printing the stats, although they brought tears to my eyes. All that land being used just to satify somebody's greed. I know people need jobs, but this just isn't the way to do it. Most women like to shop, well I'm not most women, I only like to shop at a health food store, a book store, or produce market. The thought of spending 6 hours shopping is nauseating, even if I didn't have chemical poisoning.(makes it very hard to stay in a store). Guess I'm ranting again.

-- Cindy (atilrthehony_1@yahoo.com), August 10, 2000.

I too, think it is sad that people can never be happy with what they have. My daughter is a perfect example. They have a beautiful 5 year old house and they are remodeling the kitchen because it doesn't suit them! I would be happy with their old kitchen! I didn't raise her that way. I love old houses too but like the post above, we found it much cheaper to build our own house using our own labor. Our home and 90 acres is paid for. If we had bought an old home on this amount of land, we would have had to go in debt.

-- bwilliams (bjconthefarm@yahoo.com), August 11, 2000.

Tami, I am sure that you like I have relatively little contact with folks who live debt free. Even the idea of purchasing a house that will cost hundreds of thousands of dollars when and if you ever pay it off is a nitemare to me. I don't own new vehicles for the same reason, I could own and pay for 4 trucks like what I drive for the price of my daughters note on her car. The very scary thing in all of this to me is when does it stop, I know my children are not going to be leading the less is more movement. They want new vehicles though at least they do talk about fuel economy. But when given the chance (with their own money of course) they still pick the name brand. Wonder where these children that are going to save the earth, protect the inviornment, and want global peace, are coming from. I tried my best and none of mine will be helping. Vicki

-- Vicki McGaugh (vickilonesomedoe@hotmail.com), August 11, 2000.

I had a new house built and got sick from the chemicals. We spent the first 5 years fixing what the contractor did wrong and am now doing the landscaping and little by little, getting the fencing up. I wish I had gotten that established farm that I thought was a little too high but now would have been a bargin in the long run with just time and energy saved.

-- Dee (gdgtur@goes.com), August 11, 2000.

Tami, while that conversation would have me shaking my head in disbelief also, to each his own. People who run around wanting more more more are never satisfied, and they dig such a hole of debt that they enslave themselves to their salary.

Most of us here at the forum aren't like that, and I would venture to say that our priorities are upside-down to the newcarnewhouse people. Those fancynewstuff people would wonder why I haven't replaced my old double-hung windows with plastic tilt-ins yet. (I wouldn't even walk through a house under 75 yrs old, I was looking for an old house with character).

I hear you about the fencing! By the time the pasture is fenced with cattle panels that will hold the goats, the fence will be worth more than the grainery!

-- Rachel (rldk@hotmail.com), August 12, 2000.

We live in a 100 year old home, It sequeaks when you walk up the stairs, its not perfectly plumb or square and its not as big as a new home would be but I wouldnt trade it for the new santized for your protection homes being built now. I wonder how many of the homes being built now will last 100 years. Many materials are designed with a finite life and will not be available when they need replaced.

-- Gary (gws@redbird.net), August 15, 2000.

We are VERY lucky. We live in Southern California, the land of materialism and greed. The least expensive house that we would buy here STARTS at $400,000!!!!!! Think of an exotic car, it's here. Think of flash and glit, it's here. Why do I say we're lucky? We found a 650 sq foot cottage for rent at $700 a month. With all the nauseating glit and greed all around us you can bet we're saving like crazy to buy our dream homestead land back east where we can build our log home and live the TRULY good life!

-- John H. (jonhickson@aol.com), August 15, 2000.