08/23/2026
Something I see way too often with older Tampa homes is the difference between renovating a house and preserving a house.
A lot of these old bungalows have survived for 80, 90, even 100+ years with original wood windows, siding, trim, baseboards and architectural details that were part of what gave these homes their character in the first place.
Then someone comes in to renovate or flip the house and the focus becomes making everything look new. Original wood windows get replaced, old siding gets covered up, and the original baseboards, window casing and trim get ripped out and replaced with the same off-the-shelf Home Depot trim you could put in any house.
To me, that's when you start taking the authenticity out of the bungalow. Those old oversized baseboards, original window and door casings, wood windows and exterior details aren't just decoration—they're part of the architecture of the house. Once they're gone, you may still have an old bungalow, but you've removed a lot of what made it feel like one.
But what bothers me even more is what sometimes happens underneath all of that.
I've opened up older homes and found damage that was covered over during a previous renovation more times than I can count. Rotten wood, water damage and structural issues that could have been addressed while everything was already opened up were simply covered and forgotten about.
Years later, someone ends up having to open it all back up again—and what could have been a relatively straightforward repair during the original renovation has now become a much bigger and more expensive problem.
I'm certainly not against updating an old house. These homes need to evolve and they need to be maintained. I just think there's a big difference between updating an old home and erasing what made it special in the first place.
Once the original character of a 100-year-old bungalow is gone, you can't always put it back.
