My previous house was an old house.
It needed a LOT of work. We have since moved and have a much more modern house, with the front shell of an old house.
I live in a newer house, and it still requires work and maintenance. Roots from an Oak tree broke a sprinkler line and spent the better part of a sunday afternoon cutting away roots and replacing PVC pipes.
I do have a dream of moving out to the western part of the US and getting a nice log cabin, away from peeps on a nice chunk of land.
But then Covid happened and peeps from Cali jumped all over them. And still are.
The backup plan is now back east, in the mountains, but less log cabin and more just an older home, tucked away on some land.
While I cringe at working on the house I live in now, its mostly because its already in great shape and I don't want to screw anything up. I do not plan on retiring here though, and will eventually sell it.
But wherever I end up will be the home I retire in, and I don't think I will be concerned as much about the look of it as I do the with the one I have now. I can't explain it. I guess with me being where I am in my life, I do want something nice. I have family and friends over often, and that sort of thing.
But in my later years I am not going to care about that as much, and whatever I buy is going to be more about the location and being away from people than it is about the actual house, so I am expecting a lot of work, and aren't worried about the craftsmanship like I am now lol.
I have been following real estate pretty closely in some states for the last 3 years, going down the rabbit hole on digging wells, off the grid living, etc etc, and was really forming a distant plan to work towards and Covid really screwed it up.