Last week, a historic home had to be torn down in Webster City.

It was a sad day. I had spent time socially in that house nearly 30 years ago, and loved the people who lived there.

It’s not that people didn’t try to save it. But once a house is abandoned or neglected, it’s hard to make up for the years of neglect.

Sounds almost like relationships.

House ownership has a cost that doesn’t stop when you pay the mortgage. Whether your home was built last year or 150 years ago, daily, monthly, yearly maintenance is essential.

It can be a losing battle when the repairs outpace the investment and there are times that you just can’t save these structures. As in the tear-down last week and others in the months to come.

I love old homes. They have a charm that can’t be replaced.

Our city has plenty of homes that were built over 50 years ago. And they are the best investment in my view.

They have wood that is real, the plaster walls that will hold a heavy picture and floors that have beautiful grains in the wood that need a deft hand to care for them.

They have yards with trees tall enough to climb, with scuffed shoe marks dating back to when climbing trees was the best form of fun.

There are stories that are embedded in their walls.

That’s hard to replace with a home built out of plywood and plastic.

I live in a home that was originally built in 1916.

I’ve worked a lot on this home. My parents and friends helped save this house that was destined for demolition in 1998. We physically moved it into the countryside from it’s original site on the corner of the HyVee parking lot.

This was a joint project with my parents and we all put in countless hours working to prep the house for the move, then to get it ready to be livable again.

At first we thought we could buy it, move it, remodel it and rent it. It would solve some financial issues. But it didn’t go this way.

My mom fell in love with the house.

My dad fell in love with the view and the property.

The end result was a nicer home than they had ever lived in. It ended up being their final home.

I now have the memories of my parents living and loving the animals and birds they saw from their dining room table.

Every minute was worth it.

Our family grew up constantly upgrading the family home that was built originally in 1902. I’ve repaired and fixed problems with the home my grandfather built in 1910. I also helped repair replaced a home in Webster City that was built in 1953.

They all have something in common.

They have great bones.

I owned two when I was in my twenties. I was the first owner of both.

There were additional expenses from the beginning. Sometimes big, sometimes small. I learned that no matter the age, work on a home is constant.

I also learned to do most of the work myself. I learned how to caulk around windows. I learned how to sand and prime wood. I learned how to take old materials and make it look better. I couldn’t afford to hire work to be done except for the plumbers and electricians.

Both my parents are now deceased, but I have great memories of my dad sitting on the porch enjoying the beauty of the countryside, watching birds and wildlife gathering in the country.

I have photos of my mom standing on stepladders, cobwebs in her hair, pulling nails out of the wall.

I have memories of painting the ceiling tiles, patching holes and re-insulating the house with sprayed in insulation.

It’s been over 25 years now since I walked along the side of this house being moved into the country lot.

It would be nice to say everything is perfect, that we were able to finish it out the way my parents needed it to be. But that didn’t happen.

But it was safer for my parents than the home they lived in for 50 years. They loved the character of the home, and they made it theirs.

I’ve lived in this home now for nearly 10 years.

Each year, there is work to be done.

All things in life need maintenance; houses, apartments, bodies, hair, feet, lawns and employees.

All our historical buildings in Webster City; in our downtown, in our parks, in our neighborhoods, they all need to be maintained. But so do our newer buildings. There always need be a plan and a budget to keep them maintained. That includes not only our homes, but our schools, our businesses, our apartments, our garages, our governmental properties.

So as I ponder the plight of our business owners and property owners, I think about the process we went through.

You have to start somewhere, you cannot wait for someone else to do that.

Tackle the most important things first, then a bit more each year. Every home is like this, every business property the same.

Just because it’s old, doesn’t mean it isn’t valuable.

Just like us.

Kolleen Taylor is the Community Editor for the Daily Freeman-Journal.