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?

My last house was worth 200k. We spent about 20k over 4 years from complete disaster state, 80% rewire, sorting building regs etc. Was sold as a 5 bed, but actually building regs wasn't in place on loft conversion and we stole a pokey single to put in a decent family bathroom upstairs.

Rebuilding cost for insurance purposes was about £240k according to the survey...

There's a big difference between a generic estate 5 bed (4+ box/office or 3 doubles 2 singles) and one of the big executive homes. Add in listing and it costs more still!

There's a 650k 2 bed in the nearby posh suburb. Very poncey grand design architect designed thing. Suspect maintenance on that would be more than a 15 year old 5 bed!

@Kaktus

Even with 3%, in 10 years that’s 120k. We’re currently pricing up a huge 2 story extension and that won’t be more than 50k. 1% is ample.

If you have a conventional house, that's fine I expect. If your house is older or individual, it probably wouldn't be enough. A two storey double garage extension with a studio apartment above on my house was priced at £60k, 20 years ago. And I live in an area where labour rates are reasonable.

I suppose it is ‘conventional’.... it has a roof, walls and windows anyway.

I meant, not to put a fine point on it, a developer's house.

No, not one of those.

The house I grew up in was a 300 year old listed cottage built from the stone of a local castle when it was abandoned (villagers stole the bricks to build their own houses!). My dad still lives there. Out of interest I just asked him how much as a % he put aside/spent on repairs/improvements. He said most years around 0.5%, then a bigger expense such as new custom made sash windows every so often. As an average around 1-2%.

Which is similar to what we save, but it does tend to come in big bills, infrequently. And most unwelcome when they happen.

It really depends on the condition and degree of modernisation it's in. We're in a large, very old 5 bed detached house and it has cost a lot over 7 years we've been here, but we have literally done everything to it. New kitchen, bathrooms, flooring, plastering, electrics, boiler, new roof, new windows, 2 extensions, complete re-landscaping etc... The actual day to day costs aren't too bad since we've fully modernised it (ie combined gas and electric about £90/month). We're always doing improvements, but it's what we love spending our money on!

YANBU. We live in a 4 bed, 4 bath house. It is time consuming to clean.

BUT I have my own double bedroom and ensuite. Both DCs have their own rooms and a shared bathroom. Cloakroom downstairs. DH has his own bedroom and ensuite. He is a messy bugger so I love havingy own space!

Particularly as DH works from home full time and I work 3 days a week term time only, and so we are often all in the house, the space is brilliant. We definitely use it all and make the most of it. Having my own room and bathroom is awesome.

A two storey double garage extension with a studio apartment above on my house was priced at £60k, 20 years ago. And I live in an area where labour rates are reasonable.

But people have been talking about maintenance/repairs and not one-off improvements that you specifically plan, budget and save for. You don't urgently need a double garage extension and certainly not every single year. You'd end up like that priest in Father Ted - the boring one with the monotonous voice - with your house in a great big doughnut shape

If you've got the money from which to arbitrarily put aside 3%, 5%, 10% or whatever of the notional current market value of your house - even if you bought it as a wreck in 1960 for a pittance and it's now an extremely sought-after luxury mansion - you probably aren't the sort of person to need to put the money aside at all, as you can just send a servant to your huge underground money vault with a shovel and several sacks should you ever need to unexpectedly spend a fortune on the house.

There are pros and cons. Obviously you will have more rooms both to clean and also to heat, but you will have space to 'put things out of site', so there is less panic / stress as you can keep your 'living room' free from whatever might be left out - be that something to do with a hobby, or some washing that is drying.
All this depends though - as a rule, people buying a 5 bed house tend to be people with 3 or more dc. So, once you have more space, it can be easier to stow things away and keep the place tidy. Could be argued you have more hands to contribute to tidying and cleaning, but could also be argued you have more people making a mess.
Then, it depends what condition it is in, and, when you do things, how much you want to 'restore' and how much you are happy to update and help the house evolve (for example, replacing a wooden sash window with a wooden sash window is hugely more expensive than replacing it with more modern style of windows).

As well as heating bills, your council tax will likely be higher.

OTOH, a large house of that age usually comes with a large garden which might mean less 'going out' to entertain children or to meet friends which you now might do in your garden.

Or you might now have space to work from home as opposed to commuting or hiring office space.
You are more likely to have space for things like dishwasher, additional freezer space or a second fridge, which can help in terms of buying in bulk and batch cooking and so forth.

So many variables.

We have two children and five beds. DS and DD have a bedroom each. We have a bedroom. MIL has the one single and there is the proper guest room.

Of course it’s more expensive.

Higher utility bills.
There’s literally always something that needs doing. By the time you’ve finished the last job something else appears. It’s truly never ending and my husband hates it. It’s very much like Tom Hanks’s “The Money Pit” sometimes!

It’s great having all that space though, and not having to worry about wear to put things when you buy something new.

We are a family of 3 and we live in a 5 bed.