Review: "Cheap Old Houses" by Elizabeth Finkelstein and Ethan Finkelstein

Cheap Old Houses by Elizabeth Finkelstein and Ethan Finkelstein
Published October 2023 via Clarkson Potter
★★★

3.5 stars. If you've ever dreamed of buying a falling-down house and restoring it, this is a book for you. The authors run the Instagram account Cheap Old Houses, and this book covers a set of (you guessed it) cheap old houses that have been bought and rehabilitated.

The personal stories are interspersed with information about certain aspects of old houses—Elizabeth Finkelstein is a historical preservationist by training, and topics include newel posts, fireplaces, vintage stoves, and so on. I was in it for the house stories and pictures, and my only real wish here was that there were more—more stats about the individual houses, more photos (especially 'before' photos—the photos in the book are mostly 'after' photos, including a lot of detail shots, with the occasional 'not finished yet' picture). I'd have loved floor plans and answers about what someone living in a 15,000 square foot mansion does with all of those rooms!

I hope this is the first of many books, though—I'd love to see further, more specific books on the topic. This one breaks down the sections by type of house: mansions, farmhouses, time capsules, cabins, and unconventional homes (conversions); I cannot tell you how much I would love an entire book about conversions. (In another life I want to live in a converted church.) But it's a nice mix...and now I can hope that some of the people profiled here will write their own memoirs about the experience of rehabbing a house, because then I can live vicariously through them.

I'd strongly, strongly recommend reading this in a format that allows for colour—a black-and-white ereader is not the optimal vehicle for this book.