Old housing stock can suck. Unfortunately, you are stuck with it. It could be worse. A friend's grandmother lived in a very nice building in NYC that was powered by direct current for the elevator, he said, and he remembered her Waring (named after Fred Waring the orchestra conductor) Blender that was rated for DC operation. She used to take it to the beach house on Long Island and he remembered it being carried to the car for the trip. She did not need electrical appliances, other than the blender for drinks; she had staff and a beach house when the city became unbearable.
People fortunate enough to live with full house power as was advertised in shelter magazines in the 50s and 60s, could have modern labor-saving appliances. In the south, it was air conditioning that was the big motivation for increasing the electrical service in houses. Other than kids' parties, I don't think we ate outside anymore after we got air conditioning. We still grilled out, but we ate inside. Added circuits in the kitchen for small appliances were another demand. Those kitchen appliance centers by Westinghouse and Sunbeam we have discussed here were attempts to add additional circuits by running just one 240 volt line from the fuse box to the kitchen where it was split into several branch circuits, but having sufficient 240 volt service was key.