I have name changed for this, as it is potentially outing.
My parents bought their current house when I was still at home, around 20 years ago. They are 60 and both work cushy professional jobs, with pre salary of about 100k together. (House is worth 400kish- would be much more if done up)
They have no mortgage, or if they do it is very small (think 200£ a month). I'm not sure as it isn't something we talk about often.
It is a medium sized victorian semi in the countryside, in a nice village. 4 bed, 3 receps, so not a sprawling house.
Since moving in, they haven't spent a single penny on renovations or works. All of the carpets, bathrooms etc are exactly as they were.
Many of the carpets were dated when they moved, they now have holes in them. The sitting room carpet is literally in shreds and looks horrific. They don't have one bathroom that works properly. Water from the bath tap is used to flush the loo, and all three showers are broken, so baths only.
The house is freezing, and every single piece of furniture is a hand me down from family, lots of it cheap 70s chipboard type.
The gardens are all overgrown, it used to have a lovely orchard and veg patch. The paint on the outside of the house is going green, and the roof is looking dodgy.
It genuinely is getting to the stage of "homes under the hammer" renovation levels.
Why won't they spend any money on the damned house ?!?!
They don't like having friends over or family anymore; which is probably because of the house. When I pester them to do the house up, they just say they don't really care about it.
I live a couple of hours away, but tend to not go home now much as it is such an awful environment to live in.
Any spare money they have is spent on going on holidays abroad, probably four times a year. (No where expensive though).
The only other things they have to spend money on, is around £8k a year to dbro at university.