How much have you changed your house since you bought it?

[corporategirlie]

Lives here 3ish years and I was in a lucky position to be able to do a complete renovation to the kitchen and bathroom. The bedrooms, hallway, lounge have been painted and flooring replaced but nothing major.

The two rooms in the attic have just been repainted but still same flooring which I hate.

Btw - now older reaching retirment, a lot less income as we both left work in our early 50's - ideally a house that had a new/modern kitchen and bathroom already done would be nice the rest is easy.

New flooring and decorating throughout.

New bathroom and kitchen

New boiler

New patio

New conservatory

New door and windows

New flat roofs and guttering

New bricked drive

It was a rented house before we had it and was in a really state. Only thing about doing everything at once is that it all needs doing again at the same time later on!

In our current house we've wallpapered 2 walls and painted 1 room. We've been here almost 2 years and would love to have more time to do cosmetic changes, the house is very neutral and we most definitely aren't!

Our last house though, every single floor covering was changed, every single wall was either painted or papered, we knocked down 2 walls, rebuilt 1 and installed a woodburner. We also spent 15K doing the front and back gardens. It was a proper fuxer upper and I loved the final look!

Oh and new bathroom, new kitchen and new boiler!

We've been in our current house for 6 years
We haven't done much really. We've done a fair bit in the garden and done general decoration but nothing really major
Our last house was a 1920s semi and needed everything doing. This nearly broke us with young kids and we moved to this one having a small baby and another 3 under 8's.
Current house is about 25 years old so whilst it's a bit tired it's completely livable and that's whats made us lazy i think!
We both work and just have really busy lives and no time to sit and plan out new kitchens etc. We do do more in the summer months and we will do more of the garden this year but because it isn't that bad, we just tend to live with most things. All our annual leave goes on covering school holidays and weekends are taken up with clubs, parties and general housework. No time for anything

Installed 2 bathrooms, a kitchen, a log-burner, lots of painting and decorating. Garden designed two areas and built raised beds and a fruit cage.

Converted a barn into two self-contained guest cottages with their own private patio areas.

Finished the cart barn (installing windows, doors, a floor, light and power and the exterior cladding.

Relaid 200m driveway.

We bought someone's work in progress...

We've been in this house for just over a year and it's pretty much looked the same. It had an extensive renovation 10 years ago by the previous owners and is mostly still looking good. Kitchen and bathrooms look fine. The garden looks slightly different as we put tiles down for the dcs and lots of outdoor toys. We plan to redecorate DC's room this year with new floor and repainting walls.

In our previous flat we put new floors down and repainted before we moved in, but then didn't change anything for a decade.

Everything, except the roof which was new on and the driveway that will need done at some point and the windows on the front elevation which will have to be changed for double glazing from single glazing....

So extension on back, knocked through to attic, new plumbing, newly decorated, downstairs loo put in, front and back gardens re done, new carpets.

It was basically a total renovation.

We are not planning to do a tap more once the double glazing is finished. It'll still look exactly the same in 25 years when we sell it and people will post it on Mumsnet going look at that extension and the navy kitchen - it's like stepping back into 2024.

20 years in this property and previously renovated three other houses, because we bought the worst houses in the best locations. We do as much as we can, so floors, kitchens, bathrooms, tiling, decoration, roof and gutter repairs, flat roof over porch renewal, pointing, installation of plumbing and electrics (calling in the experts when needed to connect / certify). Laid patio and drive, cut down non native trees, demolished dangerous garden walls, filled in huge pond, lagged the garage and installed electrics, new water supply line, new oil tank and oil supply line, repaired windows, replaced old wood conservatory with aluminium / brick one. You do what you have to, luckily have been able to save huge amounts of money by doing a great deal ourselves, but have put up with a lot to get to where we are today.

We've been here 6 years, it was in a good state when we moved in and the previous owners had put an extension with a kitchen diner, utility room and bathroom in it a few years before we moved in so in most rooms all we've done is paint and put in new blinds or curtains. And rewire the upstairs (which hadn't been done when the downstairs was updated), put in smart radiator thermostats, repaired the broken drains (that was fun), pull down an overgrown tree that was blocking light.

We want to think about underfloor heating, solid wall insulation, a heat pump, solar panels, and probably replacing the old double glazing from the 80s which is noticeably poorer than the newer double glazing. And gradually updating the bathrooms and replacing the laminate, LVT and plastic carpet with natural alternatives like real wood, cork, sisal, wool. Nothing in the house is unliveable but I still have a long list of modifications to keep the house up to date and environmentally friendly.

2 years in to a major refurb of a listed building. Took a year for all the permissions. We've:
Re-wired
Added lights to rooms that didn't have any
Re plumbed
Heat pump to replace oil boiler
Underfloor heating
Specialist insulation to floors and walls
New flooring
New kitchen
New bathroom
New shower/toilet room
Painted/decorated
Changed driveway layout
New fencing

To do
Extending utility area
Insulating roof and updating roof lights
Completing top bedroom
A lot more painting and decorating and carpeting

New windows and doors

Been here 2.5 years. In that time we have:
Taken up shiny grey acrylic carpets in hall, kitchen-diner, both receptions, stairs and landing, replaced with dark oak Karndean
Stripped rank, smoky layers of vile embossed silver and black wallpaper and other atrocities, and painted every room
Stripped out cold, dark, shiny black-and-white gloss kitchen with enormo-island and replaced with lovely warm wood worktops, open shelving, big wooden table, larder cupboard etc. Replaced windows and doors in kitchen.
Demolished light-sucking conservatory/'smoking room' and replaced with lovely wooden pergola and south-facing terrace. Relaid patio.
Replaced UPVC front door
Re-insulated loft and replaced loft hatch
Replaced flat roof over converted garage
Re-fenced entire front and back garden

Still to do:
Install downstairs loo and utility
Replace upstairs bathroom
Rep!ace boiler and install radiators that actually work
Replace fireplace in sitting room
Possibly extend over flat roof garage for 3rd upstairs double bedroom
Put in dropped kerb at front - currently have a huge driveway that's unusable due to no dropped kerb 🙄
Sort out crappy front garden built mainly on rubble and plastic bags

Once all that's done I'll happily stay here for many years to come! It was such an ugly house when we moved in, but it's getting there slowly...

We haven't changed a huge amount. New roof, new kitchen, new garden.

We try not to do anything TBH, the previous owner was a bodger and everything was done wrong. When we have to do any work it takes twice as long and cost three times as much because we have to fix the problem as well as the mess the previous owner made.

For example, when changing the shower we discovered that the floor joists had been drilled out completely to run the waste pipe through. So half the upstairs floors had to come up to replace the joists. They were so badly massacred that they couldn't even be braced.

We were replacing the kitchen and found out the gas supply was tapped into with an old radiator pipe, completely illegal work which had be stripped out and redone.

@TheChosenTwo thanks for replying. I completely get wanting a big garden! And, yes, having a builder in the family must be fabulous.
I asked because I am buying a Victorian terraced cottage that I don't want to change because I like the original features and want to keep the sense of history. Wherever I live, I do a lot of painting and changing the colour of interior walls though.

Added a garage.
New flooring and carpets throughout.
New kitchen.
Three new bathrooms.
New fireplace.
Painted and decorated throughout more than once.
Reconfigured the driveway and rear garden.
Demolished an outhouse.
New fitted wardrobes.
New boiler.
New windows and doors all round.
New internal doors.
Dodgy brickwork and roof tiles replaced.
Loft insulated.

Been here 18 years.

Been here a year. It's 100 year old semi and was lost done up in the 90s. Wiring and piping is fine and it has already been extended to the loft and the back. We had big plans to freshen it all up but got pregnant with DD2 immediately after moving in - oops. So now we have money sitting in savings to do the work but no time, energy or frankly interest in actually doing it. Got to live in a magnolia haze for the foreseeable future. Wish we could have bought a turn key type property but all that ever comes on here are houses where people have died/gone into care. So we still got comparatively lucky.

We have done:
Reroof - that was the big one
Removed old gas fires and installed log burner
Sorted the outside for the kids (patio needed redoing as it was sinking, improved drainage everywhere, returf)
New radiators throughout
And just little things like new light fixtures and curtains to feel like we're making a little progress at least

13 years in our house:

new kitchen
new bathroom
loft extension - was planned from day one as it was cheaper than buying a house with one extra bedroom
swapped gas fire place with woodburner
painted throughout
new fitted wardrobe
build-in furnitures in dining room and living room

Outside - we have a patio directly at the house and an upper deck at the end of the garden. The upper deck was transformed into a covered rabbit palace and with the rabbits now all gone, it is now a second patio for DD and her friends.
Garage (just storage) is about to be split into a storage area and a model train room for DH. I get the old train room in the house as my "den"

Loads! We bought it so we could extend. We have done extension, total refurb, new windows and doors, landscaped both gardens, we just have the bathroom to change next and we will be done.

Been here 12 years. Renewed all windows and doors, conservatory roof, windows,side panels, soffits bargeboards. New gas boiler, moved to loft. Dodgy gas fire and horrible fire place removed from living room,has supply removed from kitchen. DH has replaced internal doors with oak ones,all the radiators,new kitchen and bathroom. Removed 1960s fitted wardrobes. New carpet throughout, now laminate. Every room has been redecorated twice. Lot of work in the garden, that's our big thing. 2 more greenhouses,shed, summer house. New front drive, outside painted.

Oh had solar panels installed 2 years ago. We have always bought 'doer uppers'

12 years, insulated, redid both bathrooms. Recarpeted everything with a carpet. To be honest the wallpaper is still up in three rooms from when I bought it but everything else has been stripped/ painted.

New laundry
New bathroom
Flooring
Painted
Roller shutters
Replaced air conditioning in lounge room, added 3 new ones in bedrooms.
Added ceiling fans to bedrooms, and lounge room, dining and study.
Added built in robes in 3 bedrooms.
Added a wall/door in lounge room to make a separate study.
Got solar panels installed on the roof.
Added dishwasher
Added security doors to 4 external doors
Built new patio

Changed pretty much everything. Two storey extension, added staircase, moved kitchen, bathroom and cloakroom, added ensuite and utility, extended living area added upstairs bedrooms, extended porch. Everything decorated, wood flooring through downstairs, re-fitted kitchen, bathrooms, wood burner fitted, new boiler, etc. There are one or two original walls!

120 year old house, lived in for over 30 years by previous owners.

Every room has had something done to it. New radiators, new megaflow to replace water tank, 2 new bathrooms, loo downstairs, turned round stairs to attic rooms to make more accessible, kitchen extension, replacing old leaky conservatory, whole garden redone after building, new front door to replace rotten one. 2 ceilings boarded over as about to come down.

Took 2 years, thousands, and we aren't going to do anything else for the next 30 years.

Very true.
Ours is older still, 1568 date over the door, listed.
Been here forever. Only things changed new boiler, some carpets, rewired, roof mended as needed, bathroom suite, kitchen units, greenhouse & coldframes. Apart from that it’s been maintenance of existing fabric of the house, expensive.