In May, the premiere of the HGTV program, “Who’s Afraid of a Cheap Old House?” with hosts Ethan and Elizabeth Finkelstein, showed millions of Americans the unconventional dream home of two scenic artists in Whitehall, NY.
“Whitehall had its share of struggles; issues with water, businesses staying afloat, a lack of jobs, but now they have a spectacular environment downtown, ripe with opportunity and beautiful bones, it’s really amazing,” said Elizabeth.
The magical transformation of a $99,000 firehouse into a gorgeous home the community can be proud of is just one of the local properties featured in the program’s eight-episode season chronicling the emotional highs and lows of renovating older homes.
Plucky Preservation
In 2016, the Finkelsteins started an Instagram account, Cheap Old Houses, to showcase America’s hidden property gems (for under $100,000). Born out of CIRCA, a curated online real estate marketplace founded in 2013 featuring everything from tiny cabins to sprawling multi-million-dollar estates, Cheap Old Houses inspires the once disillusioned to purchase and preserve historical fixer-uppers. Hundreds of people have purchased and restored homes they saw on the Instagram feed and in the e-newsletters.
“It was a fun thing we decided to do - that during the pandemic - spun out of control,” said Elizabeth. The account also gave the couple something they’d been missing – a real sense of community.
Today, Cheap Old Homes has more than 2.8 million followers while CIRCA Old Houses has become a National Trust of Historic Preservation listing partner garnering two million page views/month.
Said to be “hacking the housing market” the Finkelsteins’ online presence spawned a newsletter; two other nationally-broadcast television programs; appearances on programs including the Drew Barrymore Show, Good Morning America, and the Daily Show; as well as features in publications such as Architectural Digest, Forbes, House Beautiful, and the New York Post.
Courage Central
Before immersing themselves in preserving properties across the country, Elizabeth, who grew up in an old home in Glens Falls, became enamored with local architecture, earned a Masters in Historic Preservation from, then taught at, Pratt Institute, and worked to preserve NYC’s East Village row houses and landmarks.
Through her experience, Elizabeth discovered that when areas under stress are reclaimed and restored, they eventually become the most desirable places to live in the city. Saratoga Springs has undergone a similar transformation.
“Saratoga really was the first historical downtown I ever knew, and I fell in love with it,” she said.
Today, the couple lives just 25 minutes from Saratoga and with so many affordable homes available in the Capital Region, all of the “Who’s Afraid of a Cheap Old House” episodes have been filmed within an hour and a half of the city.
“Saratoga is where we live, where we play - it’s all things for us,” said Ethan.
Heroic Historians
After working for years to create a “more beautiful digital world” as the Creative Director of Color + Information in Brooklyn on accounts including L’Oreal, Mariott, Jeep, and Viacom, Ethan said he was feeling burnt out. Now, having traveled the country and has become “mega-famous,” Ethan said filming “Who’s Afraid of a Cheap Old House” in the Capital Region and helping first-time homeowners (like they were when they started out on this journey) feels like a full-circle moment.
“Many times, what we create digitally goes out into the ether and disappears after. Moving over into the physical environment (and working with dozens of brands to assist homeowners) then being able to drive by with my son or a friend and see what we’ve accomplished, is an amazing feeling. It gives permanence to the work we do on Instagram, which is often so fleeting.”
Cheap Old Houses: An Unconventional Guide to Loving and Restoring a Forgotten House, released in October 2023 featuring a collection of restored homes across the country, showcases the 1795 Danascara Place, a Montgomery County home bravely rescued five years ago, on the cover. The book is a resource that’s “very evergreen,” said Elizabeth, who was also a real-estate contributor to Country Living Magazine for eight years,
The Finkelsteins’ next book signing, July 20th at Owl Pen Books, 166 Riddle Road, in Greenwich, includes a tour of the property’s circa 1800s farmhouse. To reserve tickets to this event,, go to https://www.cheapoldhouses.com/book. Cheap Old Houses can also be found online and at local bookstores including Northshire, Battenkill Books, and Barnes & Noble.
For more information, follow Cheap Old Houses on Facebook, Instagram, and go to https://www.cheapoldhouses.com
