Mountain Girl

Last summer we purchased a home in one of the oldest neighbourhoods in Calgary that was just shy of 100 years old. We fell in love with the character and location of the place and the fact that anything we need is in walking distance, or a 4 block radius from the house.

Plus down town or "work" is only 15 mins on foot. The house has been rebuilt from the inside several times, and quiet surprisingly has received a relatively clean bill of health from all survey's that were conducted before we purchased the property.

This is our second house in Canada, the first being 15 years old. I am just curious as to the age of home that expats are drawn to, because I have certainly seen the "bling" available in show homes, but is the workmanship better? or are these new communities built too quickly and will not stand the test of time?

Almost Canadian

I doubt very much that the level of workmanship is dependent upon the age of the property but on the skill of the builder that built it. However, I would imagine that the materials used have improved significantly over time.

woodworm

ours was built in 1840, but we took 4 years to renovate it from the ground up, so that now - apart from the structure itself- it is a brand new house.

AmyDavid

After seeing the size and meatyness of the wood taken out of our house when renovations were made, and the skinny whispyness of the wood brought in, I would have to argue with that!

Almost Canadian

In the olden days if it looked right it was assumed that it was. This is why an old roof in England will have purlins that are way too large. Nowadays, there is much better understanding of the relative strengths of materials.

The strength of an old style roof was very much dependent upon the skill of the carpenter to cut the timbers correctly. Today, a trussed roof retains its strenth, largely, independent of how competent the carpenter is.

Insofar as breather papers and insulation, etc is concerned, the new materials are far superior to materials used in the past and are not likely to kill you if you breathe them in.

The preservatives are way better these days and the impregnation methods used are far superior.

Souvy

Built one afternoon in 1987. Like most of the others around here, the only thing holding it up is prayer.

Alan2005

I've always been under the impression that old canadian houses are like triggers broom.

Almost Canadian

How many heads and shanks did that one have?

AlexInBC

Built in 1980 by our now next-door neighbour, when he was only 18 years old It was his first log home (that's what he went on to do for a living) and he had some help from his dad and a couple of neighbours, but did most of it himself. Seems pretty solid workmanship, but a bizarre internal layout!

ann m

Thirteen year old house and we put a new roof on last October

The rest seems in pretty good order though

terese677

what a beautiful house

ann m

That is cute. That's just the archetypal house that we all consider when we want to move to Canada.

Partially discharged

Good one...ours is 1 year older and at times I think it was built on a Friday afternoon before a long weekend.

Does your neighbourhood have that lovely charm of above ground poles etc that don't seem to be a feature of similar age neighbourhoods here on the not so dark side.

Coffeepot

Ours is around 210 years old, was formaly a hotel then a pub stopped being a pub around 40 years ago, still had barrels etc in the gardens,
Its built over 3 floors, we haven't opened the cellar ( ran out of money ) but am dying to see whats down there apart from water
Put on a new slate roof last year as well as linked up to the barn ( former brewery )

Built to last, although we have taken 9 years to renovate it unfourtunately the coach house is not in such good repair thats an ongoing project or folly for the next lucky owners ( can't have all the fun can we )

I love old houses, lots of hard work but oh so worth it

triumphguy

31 years old. Seems as solid as the last house which we had built. And except for a few weeks we hardly needed the furnace on the winter. I've had to replace the water heater, and will eventually get round to new windows in a few years.