Yeah I’ve done extensive work on the house and anywhere that’s original is in great shape. All the wood is old growth. It had termite damage at one point but the termites only ate areas where newer (lesser quality) wood was used.
Heck, even the mirror in the bathroom opens and closes perfectly and it’s 110 yrs old.
The downsides are there was zero insulation in the walls when we bought it and the leaded glass windows are single pane. I’ve mostly fixed the insulation problem but the windows will always be pretty to look at but inefficient.
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Yeah I’ve done extensive work on the house and anywhere that’s original is in great shape. All the wood is old growth. It had termite damage at one point but the termites only ate areas where newer (lesser quality) wood was used.
Heck, even the mirror in the bathroom opens and closes perfectly and it’s 110 yrs old.
The downsides are there was zero insulation in the walls when we bought it and the leaded glass windows are single pane. I’ve mostly fixed the insulation problem but the windows will always be pretty to look at but inefficient.
To be fair, "nothing" is like, the best thing you'll find when you look at the insulation in old houses.
In some cases you can add a separate plain, featureless double pane window behind your original feature windows and get the best of both worlds.