Yes, a local house was sold. It was a classic New England house with a reasonable amount of mill work. It was redone. All the millwork stripped out. The floors replaced with engineered flooring, the kitchen was streamlined and open. It just looked awful. It sold for an eye-popping sum to people who then dumped a huge amount of money into the yard. Odd stone walls (probably a good $50K of stonework), fire pit, plantings, trees removed and planted, etc.

following

I had a renovation company come and see me and he was showing me the kitchen before and after pictures of a place he'd done, and l pointed to the one l liked and said that's really nice, and he said that was the before.

You don’t have to do trends, you can do whatever you want with your house, including beefy molding and real wood floors. I have a lot of soft blues and yellows with various wood tones. The only gray I allow in my house are the ashes in the fireplace.

This seems to be universal! I flick around the various countries on here and what do I find… gray gray and gray on gray! And don’t forget the LVP….. there’s nothing luxury about it but now every one does it!

I’m not in the market but keep an eye on what is being offered, and what do I see?

I don’t think I need to tell you the answer. 🤦

I have to agree with the op. All these sterile looks interiors that we are seeing on here these days, is really cold and depressing. I could never live in a lot of these beautifully done, but, sterile homes. I like color, and I like rooms, that say, I am happy, and my house is happy, and people that come here, always say, it is a very comfortable and happy place to visit.

I am glad you posted this because I really felt out of place on this site. I was going to leave because I see so many photos of houses that look all the same, and it just seemed like I was a round peg in a square hole here. I love to help, to contribute, to offer different suggestions than what a person might not normally think of. You gave me hope in that I am not alone in loving old house charm.

You are not alone. My first house was a 1927 craftsman style bungalow that the original owner's daughter lived in. Our second house was an 1898 victorian farmhouse.

When we started looking for a house here in SW FL we were stumped. There's a wonderful area with old craftsman and spanish bungalow houses built in the 1920's and we were sure we'd wind up buying one of those. That didn't happen because every single house we saw had been so badly remuddled to whatever the style was at the time the owner had bought the house. So we saw houses where the insides had been redone in the 60's, the 70's, the 80's, etc. And had been poorly added onto so the house no longer had flow from room to room. Anything that had given the house its original charm had been removed.

So we wound up building a new craftsman house. I took my influences from FLW, Greene and Greene and also from my 1927 craftsman bungalow. I love this house and it was good enough to wind up as an article in Old House Journal, but there's just something about an old house.

Photo taken shortly after new plantings in front.

I like color, and I like rooms, that say, I am happy, and my house is happy, and people that come here, always say, it is a very comfortable and happy place to visit.

I am also so tired of white, greige and gray. And before that, I was tired of beige. I need color! Why is everyone so afraid of color? Why is everyone so afraid to put some personality into their homes?

BTW Travis, Love what you're doing!

I am adding one more thing, to your post Cpartist, and thats why does everyone want their house to be a carbon copy of everyones elses? Where has individuality disappeared to?

^^^^ YES!

Now i FULLY understand the gray thing, but it is not always the case. As i said, I believe a homeowner is entitled to do whatever they want with their home, but the previous homeowners painted the barn with flying sheep, nomes and bunnies…

Wanting something a bit dark to cover up their eclectic painting choices, we chose gray for the barn.

As i painted it, neighbors were tooting their horns in appreciation of the gray with white trim. So sometimes gray works, but really any color was an improvement. You can be the judge though.

Before

This is with gray and white trim…

…

LOL, yes, it is much better.

Agreed - I used some Puebla tile and painted my kitchen bright yellow. It makes me happy every day. Lots of good info on this site even if many are stuck in sterile grey land though... Much like cpartist described all the realestate agents are flipping the 1920s houses around me and putting in white kitchens, grey tiles, marble look quartz. replacing old stone fireplaces with ugly grey/white tiles. People are taking down walls and making them open floor plan. They all look the same and I find them quite sad. There aren't that many left with the original unpainted woodwork in place.

Your kitchen sounds very cheerful.

The worst situation I ever saw with my own eyes was an 1800 house here in New England that my uncle was renovating as a general contractor. I will preface this with, he was not very good and so crooked he could hide behind a corkscrew. Anyway, the owner found the original slate kitchen sink in the barn, and he wanted to use a double stainless sink because "it was easier to plumb".

Fortunately, the owner refused, sent it to Sheldon Slate to be rebuilt and in the end made a nice kitchen sink.

The worst thing I ever saw him do, was put in a brick fireplace for an out of state homeowner who wanted a fieldstone fireplace. His reasoning, he got a good deal on brick and it was faster to put up.