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Original poster

What did you discover about your house after moving in?

131 replies

Woodstocks · 17/06/2023 16:04

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?

OP posts:
maximist · 18/06/2023 00:27

I found a loft I didn't know about! It's over the extension part of the house, which has a lower roofline than the original house, and the hatch was tiny, so I assumed that it was a very low unusable space, but it turned out to be high enough to stand up in at the middle and was fully boarded. It's very useful for storage.

I'm still hoping to come across the access to the cellar one day.... 😅

ILoveMyCaravan · 18/06/2023 00:30

It's a fucking money pit...

caringcarer · 18/06/2023 00:59

Unpleasant neighbour opposite.

InTodaysNews · 18/06/2023 01:01

An additional bathroom, complete with toilet, sink and power shower just off the kitchen.
We initially thought that the small walk in cupboard from the kitchen was just that, but behind the door to that is another door that leads you to the large bathroom.
Neither of us noticed the other door on viewing due to the other door blocking it when you open it.
The estate agent hadn't noticed either.
Nor did any of us notice another large bedroom upstairs ( it's a bungalow ) which was accessed by what we all thought was just a normal loft hatch, but when you opened the hatch, a built in ladder came down.
We had a proper staircase put in, rather than using the ladder.
So we actually bought a four bedroom, two bathroom place for the price of a three bedroom, one bathroom place. Bonus.

pinkrocker · 18/06/2023 01:24

I found one of those pull-out storage units in the fitted kitchen months after moving in, the type that you store herbs and spices in. I'd been staring at it the whole time. It doesn't have a handle, it's push operated. Nice bonus.

FatherJackHackettsUnderpantsHamper · 18/06/2023 02:16

Flea infested carpets, cat hair stuck to the greasy kitchen walls ( cat use to sit on top of the old fashioned gas stove) and a large burnt patch in the lawn. Well most of the lawn actually. They'd offered to sell us some wardrobes which we didn't want ..... so they burned them.

We were 'strongly encouraged' to buy the carpets from the sellers (by them, when we came to view) - they wanted £3K for them! You'd still have looked at them in disgust if you'd seen them in a skip - manky, stinky, thread-bare flea-ridden things; more holes than actual carpet.

When we declined their 'kind' offer, they warned us that they'd have to take them with them and we wouldn't have the 'benefit' of them. Unfortunately, they didn't, so we had to get rid of the nasty things ourselves - lovely, decent brand new carpets for the whole house only cost us a bit more than £3K in total!

alwayscrashinginthesamecar1 · 18/06/2023 03:37

I'm in Australia, and shortly after I moved into my house I got a notification that he had left a parcel in the meter cabinet which is outside on the side of the house. When I opened it up I almost had a heart attack, as there was a fucking gigantic spider, about the size of a cat! It took me a minute before I realized it was a toy! I've left him there to surprise any meter readers. 😁

noodlezoodle · 18/06/2023 06:44

ArticSaviour · 17/06/2023 21:44

  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

I have so many questions about your vendor! Bet there's a panic room hidden in there somewhere too Grin

Nannyfannybanny · 18/06/2023 08:11

The elderly owners had both died , the son whipped round painting everything with mat white emulsion, when I stripped the bedroom wallpaper,I found it was vinyl, painted, underneath that was more painted vinyl wallpaper, couldn't use a steam stripper...it loosened the plaster. Ended up with months of agony, tenosynovitis,hands in splints. Our first house together,we were only the second people living there as well, couldn't get down the garden for 6 weeks it was so overgrown. There was an Anderson shelter and a lot of car!!!! Only a 3 foot side gate,so God knows how anyone got it there.

Nannyfannybanny · 18/06/2023 08:13

Some friends found a stream running through their cellar. They have a pump permanently running.

SirSidneyRuffDiamond · 18/06/2023 08:19

A friend moved into a large house in Belgium and found a dismembered car in the loft. It turned out to have been stolen too.

HawdMeBack · 18/06/2023 08:36

Not this house but the last one - when we viewed there was, what looked like a free standing chest of drawers against the wall at the foot of the bed. When we moved in we were surprised to see the previous owners had left them. When we tried to remove them, we realised they'd been screwed to the wall and decorated around so there was a big patch on the wall with old, discoloured paint, screw holes and no skirting board 😒

Lengokengo · 18/06/2023 09:38

A side patio in the garden.

The garden was fairly well maintained, but it had been lived in by tenants for 20 years, so no fundamental gardening and a thorny pyracanthas was allowed to get enormous and completely obscured an entire patio, which we now use all the time.

FlamingoFlock · 18/06/2023 16:37

In our previous house (rental) in the loft, a single cushion and a tube of vagisil. That's all that was up there.

useitorlose · 18/06/2023 16:54

That as a new build it was very energy efficient, well insulated and easy to keep warm in winter...but conversely, the master bedroom was 30-32 degrees even at night in a heatwave.

Hellokittymania · 18/06/2023 17:02

I found some cupboards in the bathroom that I hadn’t realized were there, some hooks on the walls, that I hadn’t realized were there, they put in lightbulbs for me (I am visually impaired and there were no lights) and I found some random objects that had been left in the kitchen, including a place to put cutlery, a dishwasher rack to put dishes to dry and some glasses.

on the flipside though, I also learned that the boiler had not been serviced in nearly a decade, and one night, after coming back from a long trip, I had no water and found out that the boiler had given away. I now have a new boiler, and it is an improvement and works automatically.

UtterDoughnut · 18/06/2023 17:15

A gorgeous safe (empty) that previous owner left because it was too heavy to move, pretty parquet flooring under the carpet, and a Wendy house at the bottom of the garden... wired to the house (badly) and made of asbestos.

DisgustedOfTidmouth · 18/06/2023 18:31

useitorlose · 18/06/2023 16:54

That as a new build it was very energy efficient, well insulated and easy to keep warm in winter...but conversely, the master bedroom was 30-32 degrees even at night in a heatwave.

Our house is like that.
Previous owners had installed a ceiling fan in the bedroom.
We moved in October and thought it was "a bit Hugh Hefner" but my god were we glad of it by May.

MyMachineAndMe · 18/06/2023 18:34

That there aren't nearly enough plug sockets and the doors are really narrow, which made delivering a large settee so much more difficult than it needed to be...
That the internal door handles are cursed - in the 10 years we've lived here we've had to replace one a year.

ChocolateHelps · 18/06/2023 18:56

A Mrs Beaton household running book under the stairs

Mammyloveswine · 18/06/2023 18:58

The electrics were fucked... ( no idea how not picked up on surveys etc!)... rising damp despite damp course certificate...

PlatBilledDuckypuss · 18/06/2023 19:09

The gas pipes in the kitchen were not connected up. Previous owners cooked on an electric stove. We didn't.

instantpotnoodle · 18/06/2023 19:23

Really looking forward to moving next month 😅😬🥴

Friarclose · 19/06/2023 01:12

My mother told me when I was an adult that the previous owner of my childhood house had hung himself...in my bedroom 😒

Imissingrid · 19/06/2023 01:57

A concealed gun safe. Empty.