California Archives - Old Houses Under $50K

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Welcome to Old Houses Under $50,000, a blog specifically aimed for all of those special individuals and families who are addicted to old houses. Do bullseye moldings and newel posts get your heart pumping? Do you pine at every neglected, pre-1940s home you see, wishing you could get a peek of the interior? Do you stop at every abandoned house you pass and wish you could fix it up to its old glory? Old homes have a mystery, history and character that newer homes just can’t match. They ignite something in us that physically draws us through their front doors.

I know. I grew up in Idle Hour in Oakdale, New York, the former estate of William Kassam Vanderbilt. A 900-acre tract along the Connetquot River and Great South Bay of Long Island was my playground. Narrow meandering streets with wooden bridges running over man-made canals, a turn-of-the-century conservatory, a clock tower, a carriage house, and brick chicken coups and stables rehabbed into homes called The Artist Colony dotted the lush land surrounding Vanderbilt’s 1899 mansion. The estate had long been broken into half acre plots with an eclectic array of newer homes, but my best friend lived in Vanderbilt’s old billiard and pool hall.

It’s no wonder then, with an early appreciation for wrap-around porches and stained glass windows, that my husband, David, and our seven kids, have always loved, owned and restored old historic homes.

We are not realtors, simply curators of old homes, sometimes serving them up with a slice of history. So dream, browse, window shop. You may just find your “perfect” fixer upper for under $50,000.