everyone wants to live in an old house with vintage furniture but also with running water and electricity and WiFi
What’s interesting to me, as a historian who has made a few TV historical dramas (including one about 1066!) is that audiences often say they want historical accuracy, but almost all of the most successful and beloved films & dramas are full of anachronisms and creative reimaginings
I think that what a lot of people want (I know it's true of me) is to live in a house that has the fancy stuff, like the pretty mouldings and trim and the wrap around porches and the fireplaces and the turrets and the bay windows and a room on the sunny side of the house called a Solarium.
And no mice.🐁
Carrying 25kg bags of coal up five flights of stairs because the central heating pump was installed undersized got real old real fast.
I grew up in a house that was ("only") like 50 years old when we bought it, so before living in an old house, I'd also like to add "roof does not leak" and "furnace does not make that terrifying sound" and "the sump has a damn LID" to the list of wants
There's nothing wrong with wanting some things from the past without other things. There's no reason it should be considered a package deal.
It was very amusing returning to Yorkshire from California and seeing the differences that foot thick stone walls made compared to all wood construction in WiFi coverage
Exactly!
Just like I want a classic car, but with AC, power steering and a modern stereo 😂
I mean i do.
Well, for "old house" read Victorian, which Americans think of as old, and for "vintage furniture" read second hand from the charity shop, and the WiFi is intermittent because Yorkshire stone walls are Yorkshire stone walls
The quoted post reminds me of how we used to say the Renaissance festival was “the Renaissance era but better – you know, with cold beer, and plumbing.”
Living in an old house seems overrated. I know that the new construction in the US is basically made out of cardboard, but whenever I hear/see the gov PSA "If your house was built before 1978, you might need to worry about lead" I'm glad I my place is newer than that.
It's always hilarious to see how places adapt old buildings for modern needs. If you need to pee while at the Palazzo Ducale, you stand in line next to a canal (the lapping of the water does not help with the need to pee).
When they did that Victorian House show several years ago? THAT was an eye opener! OF COURSE you would still want modern day beauty products, as opposed to washing your hair with fermented horse fat or whatever.
true AND no one wants to track the maintenance for the painted lady w/restored modern interior (rebuilding the original doorbell from a kit in summer 2020 it hit me: even if I "had the time" to do the upkeep, this house had STAFF when it was built & they were skilled trades that don't exist anymore)
Found this living in Amsterdam. Everyone wants the dream of living in a canal house, but no one wants the terrifyingly steep stairs, wonky floors or weirdly angled beams that cut rooms in half. Even then my renovated 1920's place had a pitch so steep in the lounge, my ikea bookcase couldn't stand!
See also: I want my fancy vintage dinner set, but I don't want lead poisoning.
