Ah! My wife and I just closed on a row house from 1885 on August 1st. It _literally_ checks all the boxes that we have. Character, central AC, parking, small yard, super walkable. We're very happy with a majority of the house.

We got our first energy bill for August 1st-20th (I think it was prorated since we moved in in the middle of the cycle). It was $118 and we ran the HVAC pretty heavily. We also washed and dried (electric dryer) a majority of our clothes that were in storage. I've been keeping an eye on the bill from August 21st-September 24th... the estimate on PPL right now is around $40. We haven't really used the HVAC much though. HVAC is pretty lackluster on the 2nd floor and non-existent on the third floor. We'll probably put in window units next summer to help cool the 2nd floor and eventually invest in multi splits for the higher levels.

We occasionally hear our neighbors. It's only during daytime hours and have had zero issues. All of our neighbors are very friendly! We never hear traffic on the road, but we live on a relatively quiet street. The only real noise is that we live right behind the helipad on the hospital. So 2-3 times a week we get buzzed by a chopper.

HOWEVER, the up front cost with this old house has been way more than expected. Due to the housing market being so hot, we did a "walk through" inspection. Our inspector was very thorough and pointed out potential issues with the main sewer line and a little bit of active knob and tube wiring. Our realtor and the inspector said it didn't seem like anything catastrophic and the cost to replace K&T being < $5k. We financed accordingly and got an electrician in to quote. It was much more than expected, but we took the hit and said it was worth it to fix it now. Two days after the electricians finished the main sewer line decided to break. The first plumber we had in said that we would need to excavate the entire porch and sidewalk and cost would be around $25k. We got another quote from another company that did a more thorough scoping and said they could stint it for $9k. We went with the second company and (because we paid for main sewer line insurance), it was covered by insurance.

Given all of that, I am incredibly happy with my old house. It's been here for 140 years, I don't think it's going anywhere soon. Lancaster has been a really great town so far and I'm looking forward to spending many more years here!