I'll admit right up front that I prefer modern/contemporary for everything to do with a house--the exterior, interior, furniture, art. Everything. Maybe this is why I have so much trouble when I watch House Hunters on HGTV and many of these women are looking for what they call charm. Inevitably charm is some old house that's a money pit. I don't get this.
(Occasionally, it's the man looking for character, but mostly it's been the women on the episodes I've seen. On a recent episode I saw, the wife gave up the house she was hugely excited about for a really super old house that she didn't really like because her husband wanted it. Gah!)
One of these couples even bought a house that was more than 100 years old. All I see is work and potential issues. Maybe I've seen too many episodes of Property Brothers, but who knows what lurks behind those walls? Bad electrical issues, plumbing problems, structural calamity.
No, give me a newer house, one with clean lines and an open floor plan. One with a maintenance-free exterior and all the wiring it takes to handle my computers, printers, and other electronic gadgets.
The other thing about old homes is the bugs. Especially in the south where it's a constant battle against those things. All the cracks in an old house that they can crawl in.... shudder. Instead of just dealing with the occasional scorpion, I'd probably have a house full of them if I had an older home. No thank you. Give me the nice, tight, new construction.
You probably guessed it, but I just saw another episode where the wife wanted charm. The couple passed up the only house that I thought was worth buying for an older one. Fortunately, not 100 years old, but still old. They had to gut the entire kitchen, it was so outdated. All I think about is the fuss and mess and noise and headaches of dealing with contractors.
If what I like isn't viewed as charming by the rest of the world, so be it. I think clean lines do have charm. That's what attracts me so much to
modern/contemporary.
