Jim,
>> It was still in excellent condition 35+ years after those pictures!
Of course a 35-year-old house is an infant in the UK. I know a lady in Devon who lives in a farmhouse that is over 1000 years old. Very comfortable, and expected to last at least another 1000 years.
"... They ne'er cared for us
yet: suffer us to famish, and their store-houses
crammed with grain; make edicts for usury, to
support usurers; repeal daily any wholesome act
established against the rich, and provide more
piercing statutes daily, to chain up and restrain
the poor. If the wars eat us not up, they will; and
there's all the love they bear us."
-- Shakespeare: Coriolanus, Act 1, scene 1