The catch is that they’re in bumfuck nowhere, really expensive to heat/cool, and just generally not well suited to modern lifestyles as well as being uncomfortable to live in in general.
It’s designed with surviving attack as the primary purpose, everything else is secondary. Sure, it’s luxurious by medieval standards, but any home up to code in the first world is science fiction levels of luxurious by those standards. Indoor plumbing, heating that hits every room, smokeless lighting, cooling, wall to wall carpeting, smokeless cooking… all luxuries you better hope you can install at all, though you probably can’t do it great, and definitely can’t do it inconspicuously.
And that’s not even hitting on the “too big home” problem. People can manage a bigger house than they need, sure, but only to a point. Even a late 20th century mansion is too much for a person who can’t burn a ton of money heating such a large building and doesn’t have servants to do the various tasks associated with such a large home. Just think of all the cleaning required.
Now if you’ve got a decently large polycule/commune/family where everyone is down to do a lot of chores and doesn’t mind not having running water, then this is for you. Hopefully you’ve got an electrician in there because I can’t imagine it’s cheap to have someone safely wire a house with a stone interior, especially to the standards most people want.
These places are also cons because you can only use local labor. You can’t even DIY it, you can’t bring in other guys from elsewhere in the same county. You must hire Guido and his cousin Antonio for all of it. It’s baked into the contract.
The catch is that they’re in bumfuck nowhere, really expensive to heat/cool, and just generally not well suited to modern lifestyles as well as being uncomfortable to live in in general.
It’s designed with surviving attack as the primary purpose, everything else is secondary. Sure, it’s luxurious by medieval standards, but any home up to code in the first world is science fiction levels of luxurious by those standards. Indoor plumbing, heating that hits every room, smokeless lighting, cooling, wall to wall carpeting, smokeless cooking… all luxuries you better hope you can install at all, though you probably can’t do it great, and definitely can’t do it inconspicuously.
And that’s not even hitting on the “too big home” problem. People can manage a bigger house than they need, sure, but only to a point. Even a late 20th century mansion is too much for a person who can’t burn a ton of money heating such a large building and doesn’t have servants to do the various tasks associated with such a large home. Just think of all the cleaning required.
Now if you’ve got a decently large polycule/commune/family where everyone is down to do a lot of chores and doesn’t mind not having running water, then this is for you. Hopefully you’ve got an electrician in there because I can’t imagine it’s cheap to have someone safely wire a house with a stone interior, especially to the standards most people want.
Stone doesnt really burn, so as electrical goes, its a pretty nice medium. You just need to have the conduit exposed on the wall to do it cheaply.
Plumb it similarly. Pipes along the wall. Could be nice but heating and cooling could get complicated fast.
Wiring a stone building would be reasonably easy, you’d just have to run everything in conduit.
These places are also cons because you can only use local labor. You can’t even DIY it, you can’t bring in other guys from elsewhere in the same county. You must hire Guido and his cousin Antonio for all of it. It’s baked into the contract.