They definitely don’t make houses like they used to

If you’ve ever bent a nail just trying to hang a picture frame in old horsehair plaster, yet later left an elbow-sized divot in flimsy new drywall like you’re the Incredible Hulk, you know that houses aren’t built like they were 100 years ago. But is that cause for concern or celebration?

Most construction professionals contend it’s a little of both.

“They definitely don’t make them like they used to, and I think that’s basically a good thing,’’ said architect David O’Sullivan, secretary of the Builders and Remodelers Association of Greater Boston. “Houses are built stronger and safer and certainly more energy efficient.’’

That doesn’t stop us from romanticizing about 18th-century farmhouses and 19th-century Victorians. But our adoration of historic houses is enhanced somewhat by natural selection. The old homes we see today are the ones built well enough to stand the tests of time and taste; neither Mother Nature nor past owners felt compelled to knock them down. “We appreciate what’s still standing because it was built well,’’ said Mike Resteghini of F.H. Perry Builder in Hopkinton, “but they did some lousy building back in the day, too — those homes just didn’t survive.’’

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