I love old houses too. My first house was a 1927 craftsman bungalow and my second house was a 1898 victorian/colonial revival. And here in Fl there are lots of older 1920's houses. However once we started looking the majority had been completely ruined by "renovations". Moldings taken out or painted over, rooms added onto rooms, etc.

Those houses that hadn't been ruined, had floor plans that just would not work for 2 almost seniors looking for more open space. And if we found a house that worked in terms of floor plan, it didn't work because it would have a step or two going up or down into a room, which at our advancing age is a hazard.

We had looked for almost 2 years. Finally, this past year we decided to build. We're building a new craftsman, moldings and all. And like Joseph said, it will be up to current hurricane codes, and will be safer in terms of two old geezers.

here in Fl there are lots of older 1920's houses. However once we started looking the majority had been completely ruined by "renovations"

Ain't that the truth! Sigh. I'm constantly finding very promising looking cottages that you walk into and suddenly you're in a NY loft.

Ah, my dream is to be able to just build exactly what I want! Everything would have character but not be falling apart lol

The problem with Vegas is that it's mostly post-1950s housing boom stuff, a sea of subdivisions, and a few areas of custom homes for casino bigwigs.

The "old town" has been bulldozed for casinos and parking, or is a total slum.

Buy for convenience to work, schools and shopping and a decent floor plan.

And check zillow and ask your realtor for "quirky". You might get lucky.

The old homes in LA either cost the earth or were in a war zone. : (. I now live in Texas. They seem to understand preserving history to some degree or another :).

Everything I know about Las Vegas housing I learned from Flipping Las Vegas. :-)

CA is more of a mix. Plenty was built during the various booms that have almost nothing to recommend them (at least, for me.) But there are the older pockets that are wonderful.

And, as Paula T said, they are either really expensive or in markedly undesirable locations (though that changes with time, e.g., the Mission in SF).

My dream is 1) to find a house built before WWII that hasn't been ruined and a great candidate for restoration 2) be able to afford it.

Buy a ranch home....then add the details you like to give it that old-fashioned charm. Sarah Susanka does this quite often in her Not So Big House books, but she builds new homes with those details.

This gives you the convenience of one story living (which is nice as you get older) and easy access to the outdoors from any room. Also, you can decide if it's built-ins, window seats, trim, hardware, glass knobs on cabinets....what are the details you want in your home?

Here's a link to some good ideas....just scroll past the ads! LOL

http://www.beneathmyheart.net/2012/01/how-to-add-old-house-character-charm-to-your-newer-home-step-5/

Another thing I would consider is the landscaping. I know Las Vegas is hot and most people don't have lawns, but consider a climbing rose on a pergola over the patio.Find a rose that likes heat...there are roses for almost any climate.

And maybe an herb garden by the kitchen. Many herbs like heat and take less water than grass : )

This rose is supposed to be in Las Vegas (according to caption)

And here's a very large herb garden, but it gives you an idea....

I already did that. It's a tract house disguised as a cottage.

I love your garden Lavendar Lass! It is very beautiful! I started gardening as a child with my mother in the Mojave desert (CA side). Now I have more rain in "dry and hot" Fort Worth! LOL! I went from 9-15" of rain to 30". It's almost swamp like to me. Vegas has the perfect weather for roses. The wet here encourages black spot and such. I never had that in the desert! Thank you for sharing :)

Agree 100% about the roses - they are all over here <3 I absolutely plan to put some in, preferably old fashioned types. We've actually done a lot of research about gardening here & it can be done. That will be DH's project.

We would LOVE to buy a ranch! We haven't found one in the areas we are looking though. Or we've found very upscale ones out of our price range. And everything newer is on smaller and smaller lots. And HOAs. It's crazy here. We've definitely decided that we won't be buying our forever home at this time.

Keep looking. Maybe join a garden club and find out if someone is planning to sell in an area you can afford. If you aren't in a huge rush to buy, you might stumble on to something wonderful : )

Its doubtful you'll be able to find what you want in Vegas. The situation in Reno/Sparks is pretty much the same. I was happy to find old military housing built in the 50s in Stead - that sort of thing is about as close as you'll get to "old".

The floor plan is amazing in this house. It was built for Air Force brass. There is a great room (and by that I mean a GREAT room, I've never seen one this large outside of a McMansion), a small but very workable walk-through (but not galley style) kitchen, 3 good sized bedrooms, actually larger than the spare bedrooms in my current dwelling. Only one bath but its about twice the size of contemporary bathrooms (excluding so-called "Master" baths).

We are having to replace the furnace and the ducting as its not up to modern A/C (plus, decades of smokers), but the work is going to be minimal due to the excellent central location of the furnace. The ductwork is minimal, no really long runs anywhere.

We think the garage - which is oversize horizontally but shorter than usual vertically - had to have been added on at a later date, as I just can't see a vintage Buick getting through the small low entryway.

Just look for the better examples of 50s style building, they're not all awful ranches with long dark hallways. If I have to live in Reno, at least the house is pretty well laid out, all things considered.

We found this old house in Liberty Hill, TX that we sooo loved. It had a huge basement, which is almost unheard of in this area, and below that a root cellar!. We wanted it. It did not meet our needs, but we could have fixed that. The problem was, it was in an old old area of a small town and the money we would have had to sink into it would have been easily 150k.

Sometimes getting an old house just is not worth it. The surrounding neighborhood would simply not have supported the value. Sure, if you have more money than God.. heh. but, in the end, if you are like the majority of us, you have limits and you never want your house to be the most expensive house on the block.

Don't think of a 90's house as what you settled for, think of the house as a diamond in the rough and while the previous owners could not bring out it's shine, because you bought a smart deal, you can make it glow.

Russ