What did you discover about your house after moving in?

[Woodstocks]

I recently moved into a new house and as it was still the height of the market, there wasn’t much time to decide and investigate. What crazy things have you discovered in your house after buying it that wasn’t obvious when you first viewed it?

I live in a large fixer upper dating back to the 1800's. Upon tearing up old floor boards to fit new central heating pipes, we found the remains of a very old doll. It creeped me out as it looked like it had been defaced in rage. We removed carpet from one bedroom, and remarked how good the original timber floor boards were. I put up some curtains and went to get some tools from another room. When I came back, a name was chalked into the floor boards. It was a nickname of someone who was in the house at the time so that freaked me out. I recently met a family who used to live at the house decades ago, and they told me stories of stuff going bump in the night. But the biggest potential bump in the night for me was the discovery of a external wall without a lintel to support the weight of the extension above it. Rooms have been built on over the years. I have no idea how that room had not fallen down, as the stress factors were running up the wall forecasting impending doom.

I bought my first home at the end of the 80s, at the age of 24, on my own. The previous owners made it known that they were Christians and regular church goers.
A couple of weeks after I moved in there was a down pour and I discovered that the kitchen roof was leaking badly in about 5 places.
They had also removed the fire which I had to buy back from them. When it came to refitting it, it was discovered that they had done a botched job and it was condemned until I had to have some extensive work done.
Over the years I had to fix all the ‘improvements’ they had done themselves, some of which were dangerous.
I still can’t understand how a couple in their 50’s, with daughters my age, who looked upon themselves as upstanding Christians could let me move in to a house knowing there were many hidden problems and have no conscience.

That's amazing !
We found dodging wiring, so not to great.

Whoever buys our house if we ever move will find the same thing. We had two windows in our ridiculously tiny bathroom, so when we refitted it and put in a walk in shower, we covered over the side window. Can be seen from the side of the house, but it's not immediately obvious

That the wallpaper was literally holding the walls up - every one had to be replastered 😔

One side of the double kitchen sink wasn’t plumbed in! And a boarded up window in the bedroom wardrobe that would have let light onto the stairs.

An electric garage door!
Picked up a remote and wondered what it did. What a treat that was!

That it was chock full of asbestos despite being built since regulations had come in. A previous occupant was a builder - think they did their extension with some leftovers from sites…

Seriously? We buy doer-upper homes. The invisible kitchen was irrelevent; I always design my own.

Location. Utterly stunning. Uninterrupted outlook across meadow and sea bay to castle, mountains,other islands. On a quiet dead end lane to farm. 5 mins walk to village (out of sight) with all facilities . Large garden, workshop.

It was originally designed (1960s) and built for himself by a professional builder, and the sheer quality of design and structure stood out from the tired fittings and vendors hideous decor and taste. The light, the room layouts and proportions. Brilliant storage.I knew the minute I walked in, it was going to be mine. The (Scottish) closing date was one week away (blind auction), there were five other bidders, I won.

We found dodging wiring, so not to great.

We once bought a huge old wreck of a house in Glasgow where all the power sockets and switches were modern. But it turned out some of them were just stuck on the walls, unconnected to any power cables, some main rooms had no electricity at all. Well, that explained why the emigrating sellers had taken every single lightbulb .. so we didn't find out " it's been rewired" was a big fat lie until they'd left the country.

Fridge wired into mains

Shower plumping was actually pipes hanging across kitchen ceiling which they just put a false ceiling on top off

Windows were self fitted by previous cowboy owner ( see above) , when we stripped the wallpaper we discovered a half brick missing that had been removed to fit the window and papered over rather than replaced

Many spare tiles behind the kitchen unit kick-boards, touch up paint cans in the garage for every room and a handy drawer inside the bottom stair. The house was also immaculately clean.
Less useful was the scarcity of plug sockets.

Oh, also a welcome to your home card and a couple of bottles if wine!

That one of the remote controlled garage doors didn't have a remote control an you can't buy new ones. Obviously not the worst thing that can happen, but I'm still annoyed about it.

Moss used as insulation.

Wallpaper attached to the original wooden walls.

An old doorway between two rooms hidden under panelling.

House is 250 years old. Quite disappointed we haven’t found more, but haven’t renovated it all yet

Still have a few weeks to move in, though noticed on old Zoopla listings the house has a hidden office under a stair cupboard. It's not on the floor plans.

I love this!

We have a set of 3 switches outside the bathroom- one is the main lights/extractor fan, one it the light over the mirror and the other…no clue! Have been here 7 years.
However, we had a slow leak in a pipe so the kitchen ceiling fell down on Monday (yes really!) so I will ask the builder if he can work out what it’s for. Every cloud and all that.

They should have replaced the fuse board with a consumer unit and they should have bought a fire door that meets the new requirements and the boiler is over 20 years old and I cant afford a new one.

The door is costing me over £2k and I will have to pay in instalments .

We moved into our house in 2003, when doing everything online was just becoming a thing. We discovered it wasn't registered in any of the address database, so online shopping, getting car insurance etc was impossible. It took about 3 years to sort this out!

That in the early 1960’s a man beat his wife, his mother in law, the wife’s teenage daughter and their two young children to death in various rooms in the house after she wanted a divorce. I was told by a neighbour a couple of months after moving in. That was nice.

1. The main fuse box was in the kitchen, behind a false wall at the back of a cabinet. If you needed it in an emergency you would have to empty the cupboard first.

2. the bread bin was cemented to the kitchen wall. The rest of the kitchen took about half an hour to knock out with a lump hammer. The bread bin took nearly an hour.

3. two panic buttons linked to the house alarm - one in the hall we knew about but there is also one under the bed in the main bedroom

4. a safe embedded into the floor under the carpet in the cupboard under the stairs

That it was previously attached to the house next door (terraced Victorian dairy)
Which means I can hear the neighbours through old bricked up door up stairs word for word 😬

That's an awful thing to find out!? Do get vibes?

No, I don’t. I did have a few sleepless nights when I first found out and I did find myself overthinking. It happened such a long time ago, I just try not to think about it too much.