Steve is right about ancient being relative. The tract homes in our Southern California neighborhood were built in 1958, yet the first thing the folks who move into our 'hood do is level the existing structure and, in some cases and unfortunately, put up a McMansion. One “interesting” thing we have here in California is Proposition 13. Passed in the late 70s, it basically froze property taxes of the original owners at those levels. So, as long as you’ve been in your home or factory (even Disneyland!) since Prop 13, you’re taxed at those levels. Now here’s the fun part: when you rebuild, all ya gotta do is leave one element of the orginal structure–like the garage door, for example–standing, as you build around it. You wind up living in a 2015 home taxed at 1970s rates. BTW, and in case you didn’t figure it out, new buyers are taxed at current property tax rates, which isn’t exacty fair for the young folks. There are occasional efforts to redo the tax code, but no politician dares touch that issue.
Tac, since you mentioned Jolly Ol’ England, my good friend, the late Rob Walker (of the Scotch family) lived in Nunney, which is in Somerset as only a few Brits know, and had a “castle” on his property with a hole put into it by one of Cromwell’s canons. Or so Rob said. Rob also would pronounce “No,” say, when expressing incredulity, like “Nee-yoh,” turning it from a one- to a two- or three-syllable word. Great chap.