The clue is “180 year old” - it’s going to be masonry. I’m willing to bet that yours is framed lumber. The former is like, well, a brick wall, to WiFi signals. The latter is barely noticeable.
Not necessarily. My 200 year old house is wood. Although the plaster still there attenuates a bit.
But I agree with your basic point. An access point in one corner of the 1800 sq. ft. house mostly covers the whole place. I was just at a friend's 2BR Europen apartment and one access point only covered about half the place.
