Anyone live in a very old farmhouse? Am I mad to consider buying one??

[Whatser]

We're house hunting for a bigger house at the moment and I've fallen in love with an old farmhouse we went to view last week. It's late 18th century and in very good condition considering its age. I've lived in old houses before and I loooove the charm and character that they hold, but I've never owned one.

Obviously I know that they come with their own expenses, are costlier to heat and require regular maintenance etc. Thankfully, DH is very handy and enjoys a project/challenge, so I think we can tackle a lot of these things ourselves.

Am I mad to consider it? Give me your honest unblemished experiences please 😄

The house is something like this, but isn't this exact one:

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/134373674#/?channel=RES_BUY

DH has spoken to a friend who lives in one, and they told him that their house is a money put but they still wouldn't swap it for anything 😄

I was going to say, freezing money pit.

My FIL lives in one and it’s a never ending tale of refurb and maintenance. Beautiful, but he’s loaded (proper 8 figures loaded)

Hmmm we definitely are not 8 figure loaded unfortunately, so that might be an issue 😪

The main things I can think of are maintenance and heating. There's probably other stuff I'm missing though.

Mine is also a money pit, I don't have a single straight wall, floor or ceiling, I don't need to worry about ventilation since its draughty and I can't seem to find all the draughts. But I love it and wouldn't change it for the world (maybe move it somewhere drier and warmer like France)

The middle of a heatwave probably wasn't the best time to view it in hindsight, if it had been any bit cold or draughty then I may not have loved it so much!

If you've got the cash and the know how on fixing things, then go for it!

Heating bills are expensive. Is it connected to the mains or is it oil / sceptic tanks? They're expensive to run / maintain when they need replacing.

My grandparents have one and its stunning, but a wild money pit. £££ every year in repairs / energy bills and that sort of thing!

We live in one. It's huge, breathtakingly beautiful and a wonderful home, but our bills were nearly £1k a month last winter. The garden is also massive and has a stream running through it. I love it here but we will have to downsize at some point before we get old.

Looks amazing! Money pit- probably! But so fun to live in!

Baroness I would love to move to France but dh and the kids would never go for it. We stayed in a 1600s farmhouse in France a few years ago and it was stunning 😍

Bibbity it's oil heated but connected to mains for septic and water.

I feel like the house has drawn me in!

They are cold and things like low ceilings/doorways etc are common. My mum bought a 400 year old farmhouse when I moved out and it was lovely once it had been done up and she was very happy there, the only other thing I would mention is if you have children, most of them are not child friendly at all and it's harder work to make them child friendly, as in lots of them have very steep staircases, no bannisters, open fireplaces etc so something just to bare in mind

We live in one, it is expensive to heat, a million wooden window frames to paint every few years, issues with cellar and salts but I’d also never ever move. No neighbours for at least a mile either way which is also a massive plus.

We live in a farmhouse probably a bit older than that but it's small, well-insulated and pretty simple to maintain - touch wood! The advice I'd offer is to check what the drainage situation is. If you're not on mains drainage, you'll need a septic tank or water treatment plant and they require a bit of extra maintenance; nothing dramatic but if it has an old septic tank that needs replacing (new legislation is phasing them out), factor the cost of that into any offer.

We bout one a year and a half ago and then found out we were pregnant a week after we moved in. I absolutely love it here but it is a money pit and not very child friendly. And because it's a money pit we're struggling to save the money to make it more child friendly. It's bloody cold in the winter and bloody hot in the summer but it's beautiful and has a huge garden and is in the countryside and it's everything I ever wanted from a forever home.

How isolated is it?
School run?
Snowed in likely?
Cold?
Listed?
I love old houses with character but I wouldn't live so isolated unless I was actually farming I don't think
But that is me

Yes to freezing stress inducing money pit.

Full of character but after 20 years I am now dreaming about a easy to maintain, actually possible to heat modern house in walking distance of facilities.

You must educate yourself about how to maintain an old house. Modern materials and methods cause terrible damage to the structure. Finding tradespeople who know how to treat the house right is very difficult. Do some reading here:
https://www.heritage-house.org/

If you go ahead, buy thermal underwear and lots of wool jumpers before winter.

Does it work for school/work/shops? What sort of flooring did it have on the ground floor? Does it have its own well?

I live in one. The front is C17, there is an extension on the back from the mid 1800s. The back part is not bad but the front part has walls that are almost a metre thick in places. It is built from cob (a traditional Devon mud/straw/stone building material) and is rendered. The foundations are nothing like as deep as modern houses but it is still standing.

It is never really toasty but in summer it is never boiling either. We have an open fire in the winter which is lovely. There is no gas in this village so we use oil. I always top up the tank in the summer when prices are cheaper and deliveries are next day, rather than in winter. We have our own sewerage system but it is no different to mains drainage from the house. Until last year, the internet was dire and there was no mobile signal. Now we have FTTP and a 4G signal.

Things to be aware of are if it is listed or not. Ours isn't. I think listing potentially makes repairs or alterations more expensive. How is it heated? Is there a reasonable internet connection/mobile phone signal? Are the neighbours nice?

I checked with the EA when we viewed and it's not listed thankfully 👍

It's not isolated and is within a 15 min drive of the school, so that's a plus.

Mobile signal is strong, and there is fibre broadband, which is great as I WFH.

The house is oil heated, but there is also a huge Rayburn stove installed. I need to check with the EA whether that's solid fuel or oil fired. There are also fireplaces in most rooms (old world charm right there 😄).

I hadn't thought about child friendliness, one of my kids is still fairly small so I will need to look at the house again and see what I might have missed regarding that. I know the stairs aren't steep, and there are solid bannisters so at least that's something.

Good to know about the materials whhatevergetsyou. DH has already been thinking and planning what he will be able to do if we do actually go about buying it so I'll send him that link.

Interesting the posters who have said that as you get older, you become less able for the maintenance, we are still relatively young and this would be our forever home, but that is definitely worth bearing in mind.

Those of you who live in these types of houses, do you feel more like the custodians than the owners? Or like the house picked you instead of you picking the house? I'm a bit surprised by how strongly drawn I feel to it TBH.

Parts of ours are pre civil war. When things go wrong, it can be a big job. Eg mice in the attic chewing cables = 3 days of 2 electricians.

Damp. Always. Expensive to heat, I dont like jan - March, very damp and dreary. But gorgeous in the summer and love mid winter with the log burner.

Ours is 1700s and is an expensive cold money pit.

pros are that when it’s stormy we feel safe - it’s stood here for over 300 years
it’s cool in a heatwave as it has old thick walls
it is a beautiful house with lots of quirks and character

cons are it’s a money pit
heating costs are ridiculous
we’ve spent a lot on it

things to check: that the drains aren’t pitch fibre, that the loos aren’t macerator ones, that the electrics and roof are sound. There’s always something and it’s always about a grand.

Check building insurance costs too, ours is over £200 a month because it’s so old.

I love the one you posted but all I keep thinking about is the spiders, they must be huge!

Ours was built in 1778.
We have been here 8 years and absolutely love it. We feel blessed to live here.
It was in very, very poor condition when we bought and it has taken over £100k to get it as we want it. We still have outbuildings to tackle but they can wait.

We can't see ourselves ever leaving.

Haha yosof it's a good thing that I don'tind spiders! 😄

We think that ours was built late 1800s. It is not very big though, just a fairly standard four bedroom fenland farm house. Draughty, difficult and expensive to heat, cool ish in summer...septic tank, oil central heating, log burner and open fire. We are very close to town, about 1.5km, but have fields on three sides. We have an acre of land which is a bugger to maintain. But...I love it and wouldn't change it for anything. My friend pointed out today that our home has become part of my identity, and he is right. I have made our garden in to what it is, I plant things, I chop things down, I just do what I fancy. Our home needs a lot doing to it and it feels never ending, but I love it.