Old houses

Every year or so we come across the idea of buying a house. Every year it is the same. We jump to the computer and start browsing the best looking old houses. You can already say how impractically we approach this issue. We never learn. And it becomes more apparent if you realize that I grew up in an old house (in the pictures) and thus know all the disadvantages of such a living. Yes, very old houses are usually beautiful but they are also cold, they heat up badly, they are wet on the ground floor, they are dark, falling apart all the time and last but not least they are usually haunted. But anyone who visits is amazed what a unique place you live in and that I will never get tired of.

The uniqueness starts with the fact that my parents bought this house very cheap 40 years (what? I was going to write 20) ago. Something like 1000 dollars, it was like a year salary back then, so such a purchase was pretty good. No one wanted old houses, there was this strange spirit of instant renewal and getting rid of the old orders, guess where people got it from. Luckily, my dad had an architect to help him with it, at the time these houses were rather ruined than repaired. Still, I would have some objections but lets leave it.

The pictures show the oldest parts of my parents house, the entrance hall and a kind of spare kitchen that used to be black when we moved in with an ancient stove. That is gone now, my dad made the furniture, it cost him just few crowns and I like it more than any amazing catalog kitchen that are seen everywhere. Anyway, we don't use this kitchen very much. So these two rooms are dated back to 17th century. The vaults are rather rustic looking and the entrance hall used to be higher, they built a low cellar underneath the floor sometime in the 19th century. I wish I had some old pictures of the house from before we moved in.

I could go on and on about our house. How I didn't like it at the beginning how I started liking it how we were playing in the attic with my cousin and were exploring the nearby houses through their attics. What amazing stuff there was in the attic and how all lost it. Crazy.

I still call it our house, but I actually only visit here since I have been living with my family in Prague.