Stars of the new series Cheap Old Houses talk about what inspired the creation of their viral Instagram account. Elizabeth and Ethan Finkelstein join host Marianne Canada to talk about their obsession with historic homes and how they hunt for cheap old houses that are all on the market for under $150,000. The couple talks about how their show dives even deeper into their affection for old homes and advocacy for slow, intentional restoration that stays true to the home’s character. Daniel Kanter, self-proclaimed serial renovator gets honest about his journey renovating an 1865 Greek revival house, the ups and downs of committing to a historic home, and his number one piece of advice for someone who is considering purchasing an old home.
Stars of the new series Cheap Old Houses talk about what inspired the creation of their viral Instagram account. Elizabeth and Ethan Finkelstein join host Marianne Canada to talk about their obsession with historic homes and how they hunt for cheap old houses that are all on the market for under $150,000. The couple talks about how their show dives even deeper into their affection for old homes and advocacy for slow, intentional restoration that stays true to the home’s character. Daniel Kanter, self-proclaimed serial renovator gets honest about his journey renovating an 1865 Greek revival house, the ups and downs of committing to a historic home, and his number one piece of advice for someone who is considering purchasing an old home.
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Follow Cheap Old Houses on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cheapoldhouses/
Learn more about Cheap Old Houses: https://www.hgtv.com/shows/cheap-old-houses
Follow Daniel Kanter on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/danielkanter/
Check out Daniel’s Blog: https://manhattan-nest.com/
Find episode transcript here: https://hgtv-obsessed.simplecast.com/episodes/whats-it-really-like-to-buy-a-cheap-old-house
[MUSIC PLAYING] MARIANNE CANADA: Hello and welcome to HGTV Obsessed, your podcast for all things HGTV.
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Today, it's out with the new and in with the old because we have the creators behind the viral Instagram account turned new HGTV show, Cheap Old Houses. Elizabeth and Ethan Finkelstein are talking all about their love for finding cheap old houses and how the show dives even deeper into historic house obsession for their fans.
And then right after that, we're talking to Daniel Kanter, a designer who bought his own cheap old house and ended up on the first episode of the show. He's going to outline the challenges and rewards of living and renovating his 1865 Greek Revival home. Let's waste no time and get right into our first interval with stars of Cheap Old Houses. Here's my interview with Elizabeth and Ethan Finkelstein.
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Elizabeth and Ethan, welcome to the podcast.
ELIZABETH FINKELSTEIN: Hi, Marianne, thank you so much for having us and talking about cheap old houses.
MARIANNE CANADA: I'm so excited to have you here. We were talking about this a little bit before we really officially got started. But I have been a fan of your Instagram account. I feel like since like the early days we own a perfectly great house that I have no intention on selling or moving out of, but there's just something about those cheap old houses.
ELIZABETH FINKELSTEIN: I know. I feel like our feed exists solely just so people can send the houses to their-- or sister or mother or husband or whoever it is that they house dream with and say, wait a minute. And reimagine their life four times a day in different ways. And then you see this big house in the middle of nowhere and it needs you. And you can afford it.
ETHAN FINKELSTEIN: It's super cheap.
ELIZABETH FINKELSTEIN: It's very alluring. There is an escapism about it. And what's so fun is that-- and you'll see this on the show-- we've met so many people who have actually just made the leap and done it. And it's amazing to see it all come full circle like that because it's not really just a dream. There really are people doing this.
MARIANNE CANADA: Let's go back a step. Elizabeth and Ethan, you're both the creators of the massively popular Instagram account, Cheap Old Houses. If you, guys, are not already following, go give it a follow and you too can daydream about who you might be if you bought a house in Peoria.
And now you're the stars of the show by the same name that just premiered on HGTV and Discovery Plus. But I want to know, how did you guys happen to find yourselves with a mutual love for old homes? I mean, what's your origin story?
ETHAN FINKELSTEIN: So our origin story is kind of funny. We met and within weeks of us dating, basically I asked Elizabeth to move to an old farmhouse that was in my family from the 1700s. And it's on 150 acres. I didn't even know if it was official at this point. But it was kind of like, do you want to move to this farmhouse with me? And she was kind of like, I don't know-- what were you like?
ELIZABETH FINKELSTEIN: Well, I wasn't ready to do the move to rural New Hampshire yet. But in a few years, I probably would have been. But I was taken by the fact that I was, like, here is a fellow old soul like who-- anyone who would ask me that understands me to my core.
I grew up in a cheap old house that my parents bought and restored with their own two hands. So I experienced the concept of home growing up as a place where you engage in endless projects. So old houses have just been in my blood. And I knew from a very young age very, very young that they were magical, and they are inspiring, and they are-- they're fuel for a child's imagination.
ETHAN FINKELSTEIN: So this was really our creative passions and wanting to get to a cheap old house. Now, my grandparents' house was $600,000 for this house. So it was not as young 20-year-olds. We were not capable of buying this house. But we were still on an epic search for a cheap old house.
MARIANNE CANADA: I love that. I have to say, Ethan, I really like your game there. I don't even know if you're my girlfriend yet, but do you want to buy a home together? That's bold.
ETHAN FINKELSTEIN: Well, it was on the market. And I was so scared that someone was going to purchase it, and it was going to be ripped away from my family. My mom is one of eight kids. And they were all in different places about what they wanted to do with it. So I'm, like, this is a limited time opportunity.
ELIZABETH FINKELSTEIN: Oh, I think but it brings up a point in that everybody-- and I think this is part of the allure of our feed. Our feed is about nostalgia at its core. Everyone has an old house in their life that meant something to them. When we tell people what we do, they say, oh, my aunt had a house, and they tell me all about it.
And there's something about these houses that just really speak to people. And people remember and people always seem to be searching for after they've been inside them. They want something that gives them that feeling of home. There's something so homey about an old house.
MARIANNE CANADA: Well, you're speaking my language as someone who bought my grandmother's house and renovated it. And I'm living in it right now next door to my parents who bought my great uncle's house. So we have the family compound.
ETHAN FINKELSTEIN: You're living the dream.
ELIZABETH FINKELSTEIN: And you are wonderful. I love that. I love that.
MARIANNE CANADA: Yeah, it's special. It's just you cant stomach the idea of anyone else living in this house. I mean, this is our family's house.
You, guys, have a staggering 1.6 million followers and growing. And the account for those who aren't familiar with, it features old homes and various conditions that are all in the market for under $150,000. What inspired you to start this account? I mean, did you ever expect it to grow this way and turn into your career?
ELIZABETH FINKELSTEIN: We absolutely never thought it would turn into a career. We thought it would be a fun side project. I think why we started it is, first of all, we've always been looking for our own cheap old house. We live just outside of New York City. And we're being robbed every day in what we pay for our house. And we don't want that anymore.
And I think that anybody that's in the age group of people who are on Instagram, millennials, feels already saddled with student debt. They're paying a ton in rent. And I think that they think that maybe owning a home is a pipe dream for them. So there's that.
And then at the same time, there are all these beautiful historical homes for sale all over America that need people to restore them. And we're, like, let's bring these two forces together. And we started Cheap Old Houses really for fun as a place to just kind of put these houses.
I don't think we are surprised that people take to it. I think there is something very exciting about looking at before photos on a platform that's mainly after photos and using your imagination in that way. We never thought we'd have 1.6 million followers in a million years.
I mean, I feel like historic preservationists if that's what you want to call us or usually at the bottom of the power ring. So it's funny when you are able to have a voice in a field you feel very strongly about. It's exciting.
MARIANNE CANADA: It's so special. But I also want to know, how do you find the homes? Because it's just very wide reaching. I mean, it's all over the country. Do you have a team of people? Do you have people submitting things? How do you find all these cheap old houses?
ELIZABETH FINKELSTEIN: I scour the internet every single day, and I look for them. I look for houses that have original features. I want original everything. I am not interested in houses that have been gutted or flipped or anything.
I'm interested in things that still have character, whatever condition it's in that someone can restore because it's hard to get that stuff back once it's been taken out. We also have a very amazing engaged audience of people who are on this ride with us and send us houses all day long. So a lot of it comes from our community.
MARIANNE CANADA: I'm curious, what are some of the most popular homes you've ever posted on your account, and does your audience-- and I know this from getting a sneak peek of your show-- does your audience tend to engage with a certain type of old home? What is just Cheap Old Houses gold?
ETHAN FINKELSTEIN: So Cheap Old Houses gold are 6,000 square foot manors or mansions and epic properties-- school houses, libraries, lighthouses that are super affordable. You're looking at this crazy structure.
And it's sometimes super colorful. Sometimes it's super detailed. Sometimes there's just like woodwork coming out of its ears. And then you're looking at the price and you're, like, $42,000 for a 6,000 square foot home?
MARIANNE CANADA: It just does not compute.
ETHAN FINKELSTEIN: Right. So we featured a mill in Maine that was I think '80s in the $80,000 range that had multiple barns on it, that was on a lake, that had like a river running through it. And you're, like-- it's incomprehensible some of these houses.
ELIZABETH FINKELSTEIN: My favorite ones I think Cheap Old House gold are the ones that are, like, little time capsules. And I think I want to feel like someone left the house in like 1952 to go to the dry cleaners or wherever and then they just didn't-- and everything is in the house, just left. Because these houses in a sense are a window into the way average people in America lived. A lot of these houses are very fancy. But a lot of them are the kind of house that you'd look at and you'd say, oh, that was totally my grandmother's kitchen.
ETHAN FINKELSTEIN: And I think for a modern generation, like, our generation, we are always just looking for the next design inspiration. And there's so much cool design inspiration in some of these time capsule houses of how people were actually living at that moment. We are constantly just on the hunt for that cool new next thing. And there's so much to look back to that can inspire us today.
MARIANNE CANADA: I was so excited when I first heard that your famous Instagram account is becoming a show. And it's a really unique show for HGTV because you're searching for homes to feature on your account. You're diving even deeper than that. I'd love for you guys to talk a little bit about the show and how you're able to give the viewers so much more than just swiping through a photo gallery on Instagram.
ELIZABETH FINKELSTEIN: Yeah, well, I think from the get go, we were never going to fit the mold of a lot of house shows that sort of renovated an entire house in a season. Because really what we do on our feed is preach slow restoration over many, many years. It just was never going to fit into that format.
And it took us a long time to find a production company and a network that wanted to celebrate what we do and what we do well and what we preach. So I think what we landed on is perfect. It covers all the things people love about the feed, which is the real estate and searching for the cheap houses, finding the cool things in the houses, and educating people about what those are, and getting excited about the little details. And then the people who have purchased the house and restored it, and seeing their story.
I mean, we know over a hundred people who have purchased houses off of our Instagram feed. So there's all these facets to that. And what's really fun is you still get the before and after in the episodes, like, three times because in each of the houses that we visit, you get a 3D rendering, which is-- I didn't trust that would be as satisfying as it turned out to be.
MARIANNE CANADA: It is. When it just rolls out across the room, it's incredible.
ELIZABETH FINKELSTEIN: You look at these houses that have been stripped of all their detail, and it's very hard for most people to envision what they are. And then you see the rendering and you're, like, oh my gosh, like, that's what it used to look like and that's what it could look like? It's really satisfying.
So we do that for those two houses. And then in the third part of every episode, we go visit someone who's restored an old house. And so you get to see their before and after photos. So you get that satisfaction. So if you're a before and after type, you're going to love this show as much as a person who just wants to learn about why crown molding exists in certain types of houses.
MARIANNE CANADA: Yeah, you really do. You learn so much. I mean, I have worked for HGTV for almost 15 years now. So I consider myself like fairly well versed in home styles and design trends. But I found myself like taking notes.
I was really into it. I do want to talk a little bit, though, because there's so much romance with these old homes. Like I said, I love a good ruin. I love a good lost cause. Can you bring us back to Earth a little bit. When it comes to how much work is really involved with these historic restorations because it's not just slapping some paint on the wall.
ELIZABETH FINKELSTEIN: It absolutely 100% depends on the house. So we show houses on cheap old houses that are move-in ready. And they might be in a place where the real estate prices are lower than in other parts of the country, or the seller really needs to sell it for some reason. And then we have the far extreme of what we do where you have a crumbling old mansion in the middle of nowhere that needs a new roof and foundation.
ETHAN FINKELSTEIN: And no windows and no doors.
ELIZABETH FINKELSTEIN: And there is a house for everyone within that trajectory. So anywhere you land on the cheap old house spectrum, you're going to find something for you. Every house is unique. Every house has its problems. Every person buying a house is unique. Every person has a different budget, has a different skill set, has a different level of patience, a different level of time.
I don't think we are suggesting that somebody who is already completely overburdened in their life and has no money saved to do this, do something like this. I think like anything else in your life it's a goal. We told ourselves that we wanted-- we have been saving money for a cheap old house forever. And we found it, and we're working on it.
And like anything else, I think you just have to save money and be realistic about it. I think that the fact that you can get these houses and not go in with a closing costs that's going to put you over the edge before you even started your first project, that's a real feather in your cap. So I think that we live in an age where people believe their house has to look like an Instagram feed the first week they've lived there.
And you're probably going to have an ugly kitchen for 12 years. And you just have to be OK with that. But that's part of the fun. We just redid our kitchen in our house. And it took us-- we lived in the house for many, many, many years before we did it. And, of course, we wanted to do it sooner, but we had to save up to be able to do it.
And I'm so grateful at the end of the day that we waited. Because I think the kitchen I would have put in the first year would have been the wrong kitchen for the house. And now that we've lived there for so long, I know exactly what kind of kitchen this house needs. So it's about learning about your house and listening to your house. And slowness isn't always a bad thing.
MARIANNE CANADA: Yeah, I think that's great takeaway. Just set yourself up for success, be patient, and have budget because the cost of the house is just the beginning.
ELIZABETH FINKELSTEIN: Yeah, and there's a-- one of the really cool things about the world we live in today versus when my parents were restoring their house is that there is a huge online community of people also doing this that can help you out. And that when you're having a low day, like anything that's hard-- you always have low days-- the community will lift you back up and support you. It's like a built in support system that's amazing.
ETHAN FINKELSTEIN: And to extend beyond that, I think everyone who is featured on the show is an electrician, a schoolteacher, a postal worker, someone who works a trade or a business or an interior designer. I mean, all of these people are real people who do it. And they also are active online.
You could actually even reach out to the people who we show the reveals and go talk to them about, oh, I can't even believe you did this to your house. How did you do it? What did you spend? Give me some ideas.
To Elizabeth's point, there's this community that is amazing. And there's hundreds if not thousands of people who are online sharing their experiences at the same time. And you can talk to them. And everyone featured on the show is a real person who did this, not with extraordinary means.
ELIZABETH FINKELSTEIN: I think that's my favorite thing about the show is the authenticity of it. There are very few production tricks, if any, going on here. I mean, besides cleaning up some of the houses that we went into to see for sale-- they're actually for sale-- they are in the state they're in when we walk into them. And the people whose houses were visiting at the end, who restored their house, we're not changing their furniture or changing. This is their house.
And I think it really makes people feel when they're watching it that you too can do this. That's my favorite part of it. I didn't want to make a fake show. I didn't want to put something out there that you couldn't-- that wasn't actually real. And this show is very, very authentic.
MARIANNE CANADA: Yeah, it does. I feel like so much of television and social media it's very like aspirational, but it's not attainable. But this does feel like if you're willing to put the time and the effort and the work in, it feels within reach.
I was really excited to see Daniel Kanter pop up in an episode. I have followed him since he lived in Manhattan before he made the move. And I have watched him do the work on that house. And just sometimes you're just peeking through your eyes, like, oh, my gosh. Is he going to be able to pull this off? Is he in over his head? I mean, he always brings it together. It's just fun to watch someone on a journey.
ELIZABETH FINKELSTEIN: It's really fun. I love the variety of people that we feature on the show. You have someone like Daniel, who's just fearless. He restored the wood siding on the house all by himself. He ran everything through a plane. Or he will figure it out, and he will work on it. And then you have--
There's just all different types of people. And then there are people who are less DIY'ers, more decorators, people who would do it quickly, people who do it slowly, people who are hiring out the work. It's really kind of runs the gamut. And, again, it just goes back to there's not really one way to restore a house. You have to do it your way.
MARIANNE CANADA: Well, and then once you do restore the house, you have to fill it with furniture and decorate it. And we talked about this a little bit before we actually got started about how Elizabeth you grew up in a house full of antiques. I grew up in a house full of antiques.
We talked about our mothers, both have antique potty chairs. What a thing to have in your house. Do you, guys, have any favorite items you're always keeping an eye out for when you're out antiquing?
ETHAN FINKELSTEIN: I think it's really about-- Elizabeth can really speak to this more, but I think it's really about listening to the house first and foremost. Right now, we're really into things that are not so expensive. Shocker. So we are right now into primitive stuff, very old stuff. We're not trying to follow the trends of mid-century modern and bringing that into our federal era house. So we went in search for an oil painting. And we got this really creepy old amazing oil painting--
ELIZABETH FINKELSTEIN: I like oil paintings of old men in portraits. I just really like that.
ETHAN FINKELSTEIN: And the guy goes to us, oh, young people don't like this stuff anymore. I'll give the painting to you, but the frame is worth something. And we're like, OK, cool. We want this to be a secret a little bit in terms of the specific styles that you're picking.
ELIZABETH FINKELSTEIN: I have a real sink problem. And that's a problem because they're really heavy. And unless you have a place to put them, they just take up half your storage space. You will see on the show that I have a mint green sink problem and own a few of them.
I just think going to auctions is the most fun thing in the entire world. And I feel silly saying this. But I walk into an auction house, and I literally feel like I'm home. I get that feeling, like, these are my people. Here I am. Like, I just want to live here and stay here.
And it's so funny. It's such a funny educational evening every single time. And we walk away with things that I didn't even know I needed until they brought it up. And I just watched my hand go up in the air and suddenly I own this thing.
MARIANNE CANADA: That's coming home with me. That antique potty chair is mine.
ELIZABETH FINKELSTEIN: And they're like giving the stuff away. It's crazy.
MARIANNE CANADA: Oh, that makes me wonder. I've never been to an auction before. And now that's--
ETHAN FINKELSTEIN: Marianne, don't even go.
MARIANNE CANADA: Oh, no.
ELIZABETH FINKELSTEIN: There's so much fun.
MARIANNE CANADA: Ethan is just shaking his head.
ELIZABETH FINKELSTEIN: And if it's a good one, though, they'll be making like goulash and spaghetti in the back and, like, pie. And it's like-- it's a whole event. It is so much fun.
MARIANNE CANADA: All right, I've always done more of a yard sale, junk store, like more of a picker. But I could definitely see myself getting on board with the auction life. Elizabeth and Ethan, before we let you go, we have a little rapid fire round inspired by Cheap Old Houses where you have to pick one of these two items. And we've got some really-- we've got some-- I think this is going to be a challenge for you, guys. Are you ready?
ETHAN FINKELSTEIN: Totally excited.
ELIZABETH FINKELSTEIN: Yes, I'm very excited.
MARIANNE CANADA: All right, you can only pick one. But you guys can-- you can have different answers. Original hardwoods or wavy glass?
ELIZABETH FINKELSTEIN: Well, nothing to me beats wavy glass.
ETHAN FINKELSTEIN: Yeah, that's hard. I'll go with the wavy glass too here.
MARIANNE CANADA: Wavy glass all day long. Colonial or craftsman?
ELIZABETH FINKELSTEIN: Colonial.
ETHAN FINKELSTEIN: Colonial.
MARIANNE CANADA: Archway or colonnade?
ELIZABETH FINKELSTEIN: Colonnade.
ETHAN FINKELSTEIN: Archway.
MARIANNE CANADA: Oh, we got a little divisive action happening. OK, mid mod or Cape Cod?
ETHAN FINKELSTEIN: Is it on the beach--
ELIZABETH FINKELSTEIN: [INAUDIBLE].
ETHAN FINKELSTEIN: Or is it mid mod have the pool? Geez.
ELIZABETH FINKELSTEIN: Oh, this--
ETHAN FINKELSTEIN: This is hard.
ELIZABETH FINKELSTEIN: --is a hard one.
ETHAN FINKELSTEIN: I want mid mod. I want mid mod.
ELIZABETH FINKELSTEIN: I'm going to go with Cape Cod, but we're married, so maybe we can both get our way. And then we have two houses.
MARIANNE CANADA: Hey, that sounds like a good plan. All right, open concept or separate spaces?
ETHAN FINKELSTEIN: Oh, my God. That's so easy.
ELIZABETH FINKELSTEIN: Separate space. I'm, like, anything you say after open concept we're going to pick.
MARIANNE CANADA: You're like doors, doors, doors. Give me those doors.
ELIZABETH FINKELSTEIN: Unless it's a mid-century modern house, which kind of invented the open concept and that I believe in open concept wholeheartedly.
MARIANNE CANADA: There you go. All right, brick or stone exterior?
ETHAN FINKELSTEIN: Stone.
ELIZABETH FINKELSTEIN: This is hard. Stone.
MARIANNE CANADA: Transom windows or pocket doors?
ETHAN FINKELSTEIN: It's like two children. You got to pick one.
MARIANNE CANADA: I know it's really-- we're not pulling any punches.
ETHAN FINKELSTEIN: Pocket doors. Some of the pocket doors we saw were ridiculously amazing.
ELIZABETH FINKELSTEIN: Yeah, only because we sell a T-shirt that says pocket doors, I'm going to go with--
MARIANNE CANADA: Oh, my gosh. I feel like I need that T-shirt. OK, and last one. I feel like this is another tough one. Built-in bookshelves or fireplace?
ELIZABETH FINKELSTEIN: Fireplace.
ETHAN FINKELSTEIN: It has to have a the fireplace.
ELIZABETH FINKELSTEIN: Fireplace is like a must have item for both of us in any house we live in.
ETHAN FINKELSTEIN: Yeah.
MARIANNE CANADA: Well, there you go. Well, Elizabeth and Ethan, it was such a pleasure having you guys on today. I'm just so excited about the show. I hope everyone loves it as much as I did. Before you go, will you tell everyone where they can follow Cheap Old Houses on social media and watch your new show?
ELIZABETH FINKELSTEIN: Yes, so we are at Cheap Old Houses on Instagram and Facebook. We also run cheapoldhouses.com. Back-to-back episodes of Cheap Old Houses are premiering on HGTV and Discovery Plus on August 9 at 9:00 PM.
MARIANNE CANADA: And you, guys, do not want to miss it. It is so much fun, and you'll just be like me, sending pictures of houses to your husband all night. Well, I hope you guys come back. I'm going to cross all my fingers for many, many seasons of this great show.
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I have to say I think that my personal obsession with cheap old houses will never be satisfied until I actually own a Norwegian farmhouse on a fjord, so putting that on the old vision board. But next up, we have someone who I've been following for quite a while who owns his own cheap old house, although, it's certainly over the years. I think probably lost the term cheap with the amount of renovation that he's done on it.
He was on an episode of cheap old houses talking about his own Greek Revival home in Kingston, New York, that dates back to the 1800s. So here is my chat with the delightful man behind danielkanter.com, Daniel Kanter.
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Daniel, welcome. I was just before we got started having a little fan moment because I feel like I have followed you and your work since the beginning. And now you are a self-described serial house renovator. You live in an 1865 Greek Revival in Kingston, New York. And you document all of the ups and the serious downs of your DIY renovations on your blog. So I'd love to talk a little bit about what drew you to this home because it definitely had good bones, but it needed a lot of help.
DANIEL KANTER: It needed a lot of help. First of all, thank you for sticking with me this whole time. It's been a wild decade. I guess I've always been interested in old things. And at some point in late teenage hood, these things called blogs started happening. And people were blogging about their old houses. Those are the only blogs I really cared about.
And I don't know why because I was sitting there in a new construction in 1997 house in Virginia. But I was just fascinated with these very enterprising and motivated individuals that were taking on these old homes and doing all this amazing work all by themselves and learning as they went and all of that. And so it became a pipe dream from there.
And I happened to go up to Kingston just for a weekend with some friends. I had no idea where Kingston was or what Kingston was and where are we even going. And we drive into this really beautiful town. And the snow had just fallen. And it was just very kind of picture perfect.
And then I looked up real estate listings as one does. I think this was in the days before Cheap Old Houses, which honestly luckily because my house probably would have gotten snapped up pretty quick. I love the very first listing that popped up. It was this beautiful house. It only had a couple of photos and all the interior photos where-- we've all seen these real estate listings where everything looks like a drunk person took it. I don't even know.
And so we drove by it the next day and just peeked in the windows. And I was still in college and just in nowhere near even thinking about buying a house. But I just became really, really fixated with this one.
And I don't entirely know why, but it was just the sort of thing where it's like, well, that's my house. And it just it felt like it needed me, and I needed it. So I stocked this real estate listing obsessively for months and for no reason whatsoever. And then the price dropped. And then it dropped again.
And I'm like, OK, what if. And so I went to look at it. And as soon as I walked in and saw an unpainted beautiful mahogany newell post and everything else just sort of faded into the background. That was it.
MARIANNE CANADA: Yeah, it's so beautiful. And I mean, you have to have that kind of vision. I feel like so that you can focus on the beautiful and not see-- I'm thinking of a particular bathtub in your home that looked like it was maybe a crime scene at one point. We have to look past all of that.
DANIEL KANTER: I think vision is a kind word. Delusion is another word. I think a lot of us have the same affliction of just not even really noticing how bad certain things are and just focusing on what is great about it.
And so in my house all I really saw were all original moldings. And almost every door was there. And all the original windows were still there. And I didn't even really think about the drop ceilings and the wood paneling and the weird walls that had been up and super nasty kitchen. And I don't know. None of it really mattered until I started working on it. And then it mattered a great deal but--
MARIANNE CANADA: Of course, of course. Well, and you mentioned Cheap Old Houses. And I was just so excited to see you pop up on an episode of Cheap Old Houses on HGTV. So we just talked to Elizabeth and Ethan all about the show. Had you been following Cheap Old Houses already? I'm assuming because I feel like you and I are kindred spirits and obsessed with Cheap Old Houses.
DANIEL KANTER: Oh, yes. Yes, I have followed them for years. I have no idea how I came across it, but I was an early adopter. I think it was so cool to meet Ethan and Elizabeth because the whole account is about houses and these listings.
And I never had a great sense of the people behind it. And, of course, they're the best. Of course, they are. They're so nice. They're super funny, really down to Earth, really sweet.
MARIANNE CANADA: Yeah, like, so wonderful, instant best friends. I mean, I just want to go like traipse around old houses with them. Something they talked about on the episode where you appeared is that you have personally hands on renovated so much of your home, including fixing the siding yourself. I really encourage everyone to check out the show so that you can really understand the scope of this because this is a two-storey home.
And you removed the siding, repainted, repaired it, replaced it where it needed to be and put it back up by yourself. So obviously that was a huge challenge. Can you share one particular project in the home that really challenged you, whether it was the siding or-- you've really taken on some shocking challenges, Daniel.
DANIEL KANTER: Yeah, all of them. I would say have been really challenging. Exterior work I think is always particularly challenging because of the height stuff. So you're up on a ladder. And that is hard. And typically you're doing it in the summer. So it's very hot getting up and down a ladder a million times in August in upstate New York. It's difficult.
That project was really intense because the siding was one part of it. But as these projects often go, it's just a snowball effect. So my house at some point has been covered in vinyl siding. And I've been slowly removing it.
Typically, it's not very good for old houses to be covered in vinyl like that. It's sort of wrapping a plastic sheet around the house. So that was part of the goal. But actually the bigger part of the goal was removing a couple of additions that weren't original to the house and really kind of screwed up the architecture at least by my evaluation.
And they were really in very, very poor condition. So to do that, the demo was the easy part. And then you start peeling back the layers. And then you have to replicate what works. So part of this project was I had to completely rebuild the third side of the bay window, which is this beautiful bay window.
And my house is a Greek Revival. So all the woodwork is like really intricate. And it has to be right or you'll know. And so figuring out how to reverse engineer a bay window that had been built 150 years ago with all this custom molding and make it look like it had always been there and wasn't a brand new thing and-- oh, my God-- it was super challenging.
And it's imperfect. I can tell where the problems are. But I think it reads like it was always like that. So I'm real proud of it. But you have to be a little crazy to want to do stuff like this. And part of that is trying it out and houses are not especially breakable. And most things are reversible. And so if you screw it up, you screw it up. But it's good to just try.
MARIANNE CANADA: Yeah, just try it. I mean, that's a really good point. Actually, I feel like people get a little-- they freak themselves out, but it's short of burning a house down. You can fix almost anything. You can always bring in a pro.
ETHAN FINKELSTEIN: I think part of it too is like people often feel they need to know every step from point A to point B. And you really don't. You have to know where you want to end up, but you're going to figure it out along the way. And as things come up, you figure it out.
And you learn. And you research. And luckily we live in amazing time where information is so widely available. And I like to think that my little blog and stuff contributes to that.
MARIANNE CANADA: So I feel, like, especially with the growing popularity of accounts like Cheap Old Houses, I feel like there is a renewed interest in older homes and move-- and maybe moving out of cities, moving to these smaller communities where you can have the opportunity to own and buy something where maybe you couldn't previously. If you could give one piece of advice to someone who is about to buy their own cheap old house, what would it be?
DANIEL KANTER: Kiss your weekends goodbye.
MARIANNE CANADA: That's so true, though. No vacations, no weekends.
DANIEL KANTER: I mean, it really is-- it becomes a really huge part of your life, a big part of your identity. Not all of your friends will be nearly as interested in your house as you are. But I would also say keep at it because it's worth it. And it's a really satisfying experience. It can be a really frustrating experience.
But at the end of the day, you get to enjoy a place that you knew had this potential where so many other people probably didn't see it and know that you are stewarding this house for its next phase of its life. I mean, houses don't really get major renovations more than every 100 years or so. So the work you're doing now is going to shepherd this house into the next century.
MARIANNE CANADA: I love it. It's like living history. Daniel, where can everyone find you on social media? Where can we follow along with all of your work?
DANIEL KANTER: So I'm super active on Instagram. My name is Daniel Kanter. It's just at Daniel Kanter which is K-a-n-t-e-r. Everyone spelled it wrong. And my blog is danielkanter.com. I still post there, although, blogs sort of seem to be on the decline. But I still love blogging. I love writing.
MARIANNE CANADA: I feel like blogging is going to come back. I feel like it's going to be niche. It's going to be not as broad as it was in the past. But I feel like people are here for longer form. So, yeah, definitely check out Daniel's blog. It's so beautiful.
And he's got a tag called Kingston house where you can follow along with his personal home renovation from the beginning. Daniel, it's just so great to talk to you. And I just can't wait to see what you rip up next.
DANIEL KANTER: Thank you, Marianne. And thank you so much for having me.
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MARIANNE CANADA: We appreciate you all listening to this episode all about the love of old homes. And if you are not already, I really encourage you to toss yourself down a rabbit hole of cheap old houses and follow along with Daniel's home renovations. Maybe you'll be inspired to take the leap.
I want to give a special thank you to Elizabeth and Ethan Finkelstein of Cheap Old Houses and Daniel Kanter for joining us today. You can watch the first four episodes of Cheap Old Houses right now on Discovery Plus as a special preview. And to additional new episodes of Cheap Old Houses, we'll drop early each Monday on Discovery Plus through August 30.
You can learn more about all of our guests by checking out our show notes at hgtv.com/podcast. And as usual, if you love today's episode, please head over to Apple Podcasts to rate and review HGTV Obsessed. Give us five stars and don't forget to follow HGTV Obsessed wherever you listen to podcasts so you never miss an episode. I'll see you next Thursday.
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