[SueW170]

Originally Posted by speedmonkey

I think that some of the facilities looking older is neat. It allows for a more rugged looking theme. Some of the best furniture you can get your hands on comes out of where a guy is making chairs. Handmade furniture is the highest quality you can get. Perhaps the building with a patched roof was sitting empty and abandoned and someone decided to buy it and make it profitable again instead of "clearing a path for progress". Just a few ideas. The older facilities work great in the farm that I have designed to look like and old west town, they work great!

Just saying that not everything has to be shiny and new looking to be productive and easily worked into a theme that is really neat!

Good points. In fact in the basically rural area where I live, people have done just that -- buy property with an old barn or shed, fix it up, and turn it into a place to house a cottage industry making specialty items. And, yes, definitely hand made furniture can be some of the finest (and most expensive) available. In RL, I have a small table and two chairs made of un peeled (bark on) brush maple. Perfect with my wood stove in my sitting area. It would be fun to do an entire farm layout as an old, back country farming area and small town. You just may have given me an idea for a 7th farm if and when it becomes available.
I was just thinking that for a current day small town, the buildings like the textile mill and clothing factory look more appropriate. ... But, hey, great thing about FT -- something for all of us