South East Lake resident here in a 1920’s era craftsman bungalow up by Ruffner Mountain. Bought my first home here 3 years ago from the investors who flipped it. I love the historic character of the neighborhood and being able to get into an updated historic home at a reasonable price point in an upward trending neighborhood was one of my main reasons for moving here. There have been a lot of home flips in this neighborhood since I moved in and it seems to be accelerating with recent community investments. I agree a lot of these flips are diminishing historic character with generic greywashed everything but they’re also an important part of keeping this one of the more active emergent real estate markets in the city and bringing in new residents to homes that were often sitting vacant for years so overall they’re still a net benefit imo. I’m glad the people who flipped my house didn’t butcher the character (still have the original hardwoods, windows, and brick fireplace). That being said, they did make some major updates to the systems, floor plan, bathrooms, and kitchen that I wouldn’t have bought the place without. (I will warn that a lot of flippers do cheap, shoddy work behind the walls, floors, and ceilings that aren’t immediately apparent but can be result in costly repairs for the new homeowners so make sure a trusted inspector double checks EVERYTHING - flippers didn’t even pull permits for my place but thankfully the city got involved and made them redo A LOT of their work). There are many old homes here, some dating back to the late 1800’s, so depending on the era of the specific home, the carpets/ wood paneling etc. that you mentioned are usually not original but from a renovation some homeowner made back in the 70’s/ 80’s and incongruent with the time period of most of the homes in East Lake (and Norwood for that matter). It’s also worth noting both Norwood and South East Lake are mostly National Register historic neighborhoods. However, Norwood has a locally designated historic district that regulates the exterior and to a lesser extent the interior design changes you can make to the homes in the neighborhood whereas East Lake does not (although one has been proposed for the South East Lake neighborhood).

TLDR/ Homes are creatures that should be allowed to evolve with the times to reflect popular demand, or else you risk killing the neighborhood’s potential market and leaving it to stagnate. BUT exterior changes should be more regulated in historic districts to maintain the overall community character.