AIBU to think a big house is a lot of work and expensive to run.

[Thingsthatgo]

We have outgrown our little terrace house, and have found somewhere to buy which I love. I am very excited about having more space. Other than when I was a child and living with my parents I have always lived in places that I have considered too small; tiny basement flats and little terrace houses.
Is a big house going to be a huge amount of work/upkeep? My dh is great around the house (better than me), so it will be shared responsibility, but I want to be prepared for the money and expense involved. It is 100 years old, and will be expensive to heat I imagine, plus more council tax. What other things might I need to consider?

The age of the house and the major parts in relation to maintenance:

Windows
Doors
Floors
Boiler
Kitchen
Bathrooms etc

What are they made of, easy to clean/repair...?

One of the best things I ever did was replace all doors, architrave, skirting etc with oak. It was oiled 8 years ago when put in and never had to touch them since
The joy of no gloss painting!!
Same in kitchen, we have skirting tiles to match the floor

Decking outside is hardwood, was about 4 times the price but a quick oil occasionally and no sanding or painting

Get a robot vacuum!

but the joy of having spare space to hoard junk in spread out and enjoy

A robot vacuum. That is an amazing idea! Are they any good? I also love the idea of oak everywhere, but we will need to save up because we will be broke when we move in.

What is big in this instance? Once you've got past the extra heating and council tax, you're probably into the territory of maintenance and that depends on the state of the house.

100 years old: what kind of repair is it in, how are the windows and roof, does it have insulation in the loft, does it have damp, does the brickwork need pointing?

What size is the garden, do you have trees and a fence to maintain?

We have a largish house with a big garden - we are constantly doing something. Wouldn't change it though.

Have you checked the lofts are lined and insulated?
Have all the windows and doors been replaced with modern ones?
How high are the ceilings?
How old is the boiler? And the radiators?
Has the wiring been renewed?
Is the hot water tank modern & foam insulated?

It's not necessarily how old the house is, but whether it has been maintained properly.

A good guideline is to budget 10% of house value per year for upkeep/repairs.

We moved from a 800sq ft terrace to a 1250 sq ft semi chalet bungalow.

Yes, there is a lot more to keep clean - it feels twice as big in that respect but also more options for unobtrusive storage.

We needed more furniture but stalked ebay and gumtree for some of that. Got some real bargains. Our dining table and chairs were £80 and are solid oak. DH works at an ercol Windsor desk that he bought for a similar price.

We've saved a fortune with out collective DIY competence and knowledge of when to call on an expert. We were looking at £2k to put decent autistic teenager mess and noise proof flooring down in our dining area. Ended up doing it ourselves for 1/3 of the cheapest quote.

A lot more external maintenance because we have a lot more windows and roof because our house is squat, wide and deep. Costs twice as much to heat and will cost us a lot more when we get around to replacing windows as they are huge.

@ElanaD ??? Seriously? The average house does not cost £25k to maintain!!! Or did you mean 1%?

A good guideline is to budget 10% of house value per year for upkeep/repairs.

Seems high. Even a 200k house would then need 20k a year maintenance. I read something similar once but the figure was 1 to 2 %.

What’s big op? I think this is about context. A hundred years old isn’t really an old house to be honest, (ours is four hundred years old) and usually Victorian houses are solidly built, often with double glazing etc in.

@ElanaD

A good guideline is to budget 10% of house value per year for upkeep/repairs.

10%?

That's more than our mortgage costs and almost half our household income. And we don't live in a particularly expensive part of the country.

A good guideline is to budget 10% of house value per year for upkeep/repairs.

Bloody hell. This is not a good guide! This is terrifying and if I didn’t already own a house and know this was patently not true I would be put off buying!

Be prepared for shite insulation if it's not been done previously.
We're in an older house (over 100 years) built of stone.

I'm going through it room by room and it's ridiculous what's on the other side of the wall coverings.
No insulation just the inside of the external wall, no wonder it's fucking freezing in winter.

Crack insulation and draft excluding and old houses don't cost much to keep warm.

After bills and maintenance you've got the extra expense of needing furniture, curtains and carpets. You can save quite a bit if you buy a sewing machine, you can buy fabric and thread in large amounts on Ebay.

10% Fucking hope not (looks at falling down large house).

Our household income is not 10% of our house value!

10% a year??? Nope.That would be almost 30k a year for us - so a new kitchen and new windows every year, with ££ left over for decorating

10% of the value of the house? That makes no sense. Maintenance costs only vary slightly around the country but house prices vary significantly!

Anyway- to answer the OP. We have a large hosue that DH bought before he was even married. It was too big then and it is too big now and I would not chnage it for anything in the world.

In winter we have to shut parts down because we cannot afford (or choose not to afford) the full heating bills. But I like it and would consider always spending money on a house rather than other things like cars.

Thank you all. We are going to a 5 bed from a 2 bed, so quite a big jump. We have considered all of the things mentioned so far. The roof looks good (but we will have a survey). Brickwork done recently. Some of the windows need replacing and the electrics will probably need doing (budgeted for those).
Insulation will be a priority too.

I imagine “10% of the house on maintenance “ may have been true in 1970

We live in a 100 year old house, it’s not cold at all but it has decent double glazed sash windows, well fitting doors and decent loft insulation. All these things make a big difference.

I suppose it depends how big.
I’ve lived in tiny city center studio flats, a huge 8 bed house and everything in between.
Currently live in a large ish 4 bed detached house. Yes it’s more more to clean and maintain than a studio flat, but it’s not all that onerous. Our council tax is high.
We absolutely don’t spend anything like 10% of the house value on maintaining it annually. Closer to 1%.

Obv depends on the state of the house when you move - wiring, heating, plumbing all have some increase in variable cost as your house gets bigger.
Internal fabric of the house, and externally brickwork - painting/pointing, windows and doors, roofing, guttering.
Driveway
Garden/patio
More mature trees/hedges that may need maintenance?
Buildings insurance, and maybe contents as you'll just have more stuff in it.

We moved from a 2 bed flat in London to a 5 bed house, that has a study and 4 bathrooms.

At first I said I'd take pride & joy with the housework but slowly it just got on top of me and I couldn't just blitz it in an a few hours like I was able to in the flat- we now have a cleaner come to us weekly that takes the pressure off, I still clean etc in the weekend but it's so much a chore now.

As others have says council tax will be much higher too, so budget for this.

Cleaning, it never ends.

Always something to maintain/clean and costs more as there is more of it.

Windows, doors, bathrooms, electrics, garden, kitchen, gutters.

If you can do major work before you move in or move out. We moved out for a re wire and re plaster it's incredibly messy.