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That's just proper craftsmanship. As opposed to that, the term "house" means any shitty cardboard box in the US. Which is as intended because the cardboard box vendor makes money with resales each time the weather gets bad.

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It is very likely to be victim of survivorship bias here. It's not that there were no bad houses back in the day, they are just not here anymore. So it is easy to believe people built better houses in the past.

I generally agree with the point you're making, but to be fair, there are plenty of 200-year-old houses in my neighborhood in the U.S., and few younger than 100. And unlike the canal houses in Amsterdam, all were originally built as residential structures rather than commercial, which I think speaks even more highly to their ratio of craftsmanship per cost.

In our case, however, we're lucky not to be sitting on top of a swamp!

I think you make the real point. These "houses" were highly overbuilt warehouses for stacked storage of relatively heavy trade goods on multiple floors... with an intentional overhang for winch loading.

But also, houses built before the end of WW II were often built significantly better than now (e.g. with more "European" standards) to last for a century or more. Since then the commoditization and rapid suburban building (and now multi-story mixed use "urban" condos as well) are meant for maximum profit and 30-50 year lifetimes, just long enough for the mortgage to be paid.

That sounds more like "get off my lawn" than objective truth. I grew up in a house built in 1914, and almost 10 years ago I bought a brand new house. The new one is built better in nearly all regards.

Beyond that, most people are comparing old houses built by well off people vs modern middle class houses. If you look at "middle class" houses built 300 years ago they were basically shacks.

At least those shacks didn’t ‘cost’ a $million so the developer’s REIT could show 12% returns on quickly degrading crap. At least they have to meet some modern codes, but that doesn’t mean they won’t fall apart, leak and mold, or burn quickly.

You should compare your modern house to a commercial building with steel beams or concrete slabs, if you want a real comparison. Those ‘houses’ were not built for people to live in, but for commercial storage and transport. Of course they were expensive and well built... the owners were wealthy and the warehouses profitable.

Most (older) residential buildings also have hoist beams, mostly to get furniture in and out when moving. Because older Amsterdam houses have narrow stairs and no elevators.

http://shadowsofaforgottenworld.blogspot.com/2016/06/hoistin...

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