We where " lucky" in that we lived in a small four room, 100 year old timber framed cottage. You could just put in a bit of pipe or replace one rotten bit of timber with a less rotten piece.  We purchased it in 1981 for $4000 ( in a remote country town ) and recieved the first home owners grant for $6000       It was priced at land value, minus the demolition costs of the cottage.

 I was just a lad, but I pulled it down to a bare frame of three rooms and rebuilt the whole thing myself using parts from another old house I demolished for free. By the time we finished it was a nice little place that we sold ten years later for $75,000 when we traded up to something bigger.