What’s the attraction?

On people who take on these fixer-uppers that need so much TLC:

“They are never going to get their money back. It’s about the love, the personal satisfaction of doing the work yourself, the sense of accomplishment, the personal growth.”

On where to find cheap old houses:

“Western New York, the Midwest, the South and rural New England. It’s very hard to find anything on the West Coast or anything in the New York City area.”

On house flippers:

“Oh, don’t get me going. I see no value in taking something that’s been there for 300 years and then walking in and wanting to make it modern.”

On her favorite old house era:

“I love the really, really, really old ones. The walk-in cooking fireplace in the dining room, the super-old early American ones, the saltboxes. They really speak to my soul.”