To think 'character' properties aren't all they're cracked up to be?

[LellyGreen]

We live in a Victorian house. Its cold and drafty, we've had various issues with damp and leaks, the ceiling on the landing collapsed three years ago, we got it fixed for it to happen again last year and we had to have the whole roof replaced. There are weird alcoves in the lounge on every wall that has stopped us from being able to hang the TV on the wall like we wanted to. Solid wood floors in every room that haven't been maintained well by previous owners and dons hard hat I've wanted several times to tear up and chuck carpet down because they're in such bad state. The room sizes are very generous, but they're too big and apart from a few more sensibly sized rooms they feel cold and empty. Our hallway is 5mx5.5m!! Who needs a hallway that big? It just looks like a big empty room. Anyway.. it's just been so much hassle. We go to do one small job and it turns out it's actually a huge job, every time. I've always vowed to never buy a new build because "they have no character" but I've done it. I've gone to the dark side. I have bought a new shiny new build and I couldn't give a toss about the character I'm losing and I can't wait to be in a house that is warm, and doesn't feel empty all the time! I get a lot of it is down to developers, I've heard the persimmon horror stories of paper thin walls and box rooms.. but I'm firmly in the new build camp now. Pick a good developer (ideally a small/local one) with a good build quality and generous room dimensions and don't look back!! Character is a pain in the ass and over hyped. You can add character to your beautiful new house that isn't full of hidden problems.

AIBU? If you're avoiding new builds purely because of these reasons everyone goes on about.. I highly recommend viewing one for yourself. You may be pleasantly surprised

You can add character to your beautiful new house

Nope, you cannot

My cottage, built in the 1800s, is solid as a rock, warm in the winter and cool in the summer. Not a 'money pit' as some clueless posters love to spout.

I would never trade character and beauty for a soulless box, especially when I can have all the mod cons I need in my gorgeous old cottage! My home must be somewhere that makes me happy. How can a new build, that is the same as millions of other houses in the country, make anyone feel happy I will never know. I guess those people take convenience (which I have anyway ) over aesthetics

@Bluntness100 and I'd just like to defend my parents and say I suspect they couldn't have afforded a modern house either way and some of their opinions formed from lack of choice, the town I'm from was largely older houses, a Victorian was (and still is) the cheapest housing option, so it's too harsh to say they never should have bought it, because that was probably the way they could have bought and it's not up to anyone to tell them they don't have a right to buy, they did what they thought was right, buying a large house for their family.

We do have thick stone walls though that retain heat. Or the cold!

A friend of mine grew up in a house with lovely thick stone walls. His DF was always going on about how the thick stone walls retained the heat. Problem was he never put heating on so there was no heat to retain!

All houses have character because they reflect the age they were built in. It doesnt matter whether it was 1600s, 1900s, 1960s or 2000s. You may not like a particular character but that doesnt mean it isnt there.

There are parts of my victoriana fisherman's cottage that I absolutely love and parts which are a pain in the arse!

We have stripped most rooms now back to the brick, put in damp protection to stop condensation and wall insulation.
But I still have the bathroom to go which is a real headache as it's very very old plumbing.

I still wouldn't buy a new build though as to me they are very expensive for what you get (by me at least 50k more than if you bought an older house for something which is smaller)
Several friends have bought new builds on plans with the no this is it etc etc only to move in and they change the development add more houses get overlooked by neighbours etc.

It's all personal my house isn't drafty and I have a wood burner for extra cosiness.

YANBU. DH grew up in drafty old homes and he refuses to buy an old character property because he insists that whilst lovely to look at, they are miserable and expensive to live in. We ended up building our own home instead. It’s not a Victorian or a Georgian, but the finish is very high quality, it’s super energy efficient, and we made sure the room proportions were lovely and generous with lots of storage rooms/closets and high ceilings. We are not on an estate either; we live in the country with a stream and forest behind our house. We could stand naked on our back terrace and nobody would see us.

I think new builds on MN have a bad reputation because some of the companies produce poky, poorly-designed, cheaply-finished identikit homes that won’t last. They are crammed into identikit soulless estates that are not easy to access for amenities. Clearly this is not all new builds, though. People who project a level of snobbery about it on the basis of some shoddy building companies, I think, show a lack of imagination. 🤷‍♀️ New builds can have plenty of character if you design them well, as I believe character in homes comes with designing a house to meet your personal needs. A highly functional and beautiful kitchen with lots of natural light where your family can gather and chat whilst you cook. Cosy little window areas designed for people to enjoy reading books. A functional and modern utility room with a laundry chute and good lighting. Bedrooms with good proportions and generous closets. Built-in storage for your belongings. A sitting room with lots of books and a fireplace. A place to comfortably accommodate guests. These are not things that are limited to old homes; you can create those things in any new build, and you can make them warm and inexpensive to run to boot. Live where you want to live and buy what you want to buy, I say!

We have ours under control now. DH has renovated the whole house single handedly over the last 15 years and enjoyed it mostly!

He can now plaster, repoint, do electrics, plumbing, tiling, flooring, carpentry... you get my point it is his hobby and has enjoyed learning about building/ house renovation.

He has a stressful highly specialised job so this is relaxing for him.

I do think you need to be interesting in renovating and not see it as a chore or a problem. It hasn't been that pricey to renovate as buying a bag of plaster costs next to nothing. The only outlay was a new roof which he was keen to do himself but I dissuaded him luckily!

We couldn't move now as we have the house to our exact taste so nothing else compares.

It is also insulated and cosy as the whole house has been taken back to bare bones, repointed, rebar inserted for stability, insulated etc.

We were a lot younger too. Probably wouldn't do it past middle age.

@Linguaphile your home sounds gorgeous.

The problem with new builds is that they tend to be on estates surrounded by other identikit houses. Whereas older houses are generally in the nicer areas.

The first house we bought was a 200yr old cottage. We were young, and romantic and in love with the idea of snuggling down in front of the real fire in our first home together. The quirkiness was part of its charm after all. It was built into a hillside, no pavements, no street lighting, no near neighbours, we loved it. But we underestimated how difficult getting anything done was, how much money we had to spend on a regular basis for its upkeep and how much of our time it took to keep everything in good order. And how hard it was, even getting to it (or leaving) when it snowed, how dirty everything was from the track outside and the fire, even getting shopping from the car was an absolute pain as the parking space was so far from the house.

16yrs later and (after having to spend 10k on a new septic tank because the old one didn't meet regulations to sell it) just after our first child was born we bought a new build. What a revelation. We have been here 22yrs. It's light, airy, spacious, and warm at the touch of a button. The rooms are large (not open plan) and we have our own drive and plenty of parking space. Our time became our own again, we haven't spent a single penny on the fabric of the building, apart from having the fascia boards painted every 5yrs, since we moved in. It's an easy house to live in, it's easy and cheap to maintain, there's plenty of storage, 3 bathrooms and a manageable sized garden. We could walk to school and the shops in under 5 minutes but it's leafy and green. What's not to love.

I absolutely would live in a period property again but only if we didn't have children and we had plenty of money.

New builds aren’t always small and bad quality. We visited friends in their brand new house, they got to choose everything as they wanted. The type of wood for the floors, the kind of cabinetry . There’s so much more light coming into the building because of the huge windows and all open plan with good insulation. I loved how it was all so well designed and spacious. They worked with the building company from the beginning. I was envious , thinking of the list of jobs we have to do on our place.

@Linguaphile Your home sounds like the kind of new new build I was talking about. A new build in nature is perfect .

I hear you op, I moved into a new build in 2017 from a Georgian character flat and have never been so relieved.
I bought the older property after my divorce, didn't have much in the way of spare cash which got less with each of ex's new babies 🙄 There was just one thing after another, in hindsight the sellers I think knew this and were getting out before they had to do it. The last straw was a leak that plumber after plumber couldn't seem to fix. My downstairs neighbour threatened me with legal action if I didn't sort it and I thought the stress was going to kill me especially coming just after a acrimonious divorce.
The new build has had some minor issues but it felt like small potatoes after the last place.

@Serin that very much depends on area, when I lived in London yes that was absolutely the case, but my home town and the two areas I've lived in since, the new builds were the desirable areas particularly my current town as the new-ish higher performing schools are in the new areas, my current town (sadly I admit as I love looking at them if not living in!) doesn't have high end older properties, anything period is usually in the rougher ends of town and neglected. It is a shame though as I love walking down leafy streets with large Victorian houses!

Victorian? Pah, that's a new build! Our home has already been up a good 300 years before yours was even built 🤣

It's a total money pit but it's worth every pound (nothing comes for pennies when it's this old) and one day it will be a real show stopper. One day!

Old houses often dont take modernisation well. Central heating dries out the wood which is a good thing (kills off the woodworm) but can lead to wood twisting slightly. This can then lead to leaky pipes as joints get stretched or twisted. Old style electrical cabling is often insufficient for modern usage. Rewiring means drilling walls, lifting floorboards, generally disrupting the fabric of the house.

Many old houses have already been altered many times. Some of this work will look like botch jobs to our modern eye but at the time were probably of a perfectly acceptable standard.

The old houses which are still standing now are the survivors. It doesnt mean that general housebuilding standards of 2-300 years ago were higher (they werent). The badly built hovels of yesteryear fell down. The ones still standing will be a happy coincidence of the ground they stand on not changing, the wood used in framing not twisting too far out of shape, the stones or bricks used being the 'good' batch rather than the 'bad' batch.

Loved our new build. Best thing we ever did. Went with a small developer who have been amazing. It’s been 5 years now and we’ve made loads of money even though we did help to buy. HTB is great if you buy a decent house that is marketable the second time round, I just think you have to make sure you look past the shiny newness. Our house has lovely views. We are finding that now they are no longer help to buy the families are moving out for space and old people are moving in for the views/ low maintenance property.

Our new house is 20 years old (not moved in yet) and in need of a bit of updating so I am a bit concerned but it was only built in 2000. It’s just massive though and I hate being cold.

@VinylDetective

so should never be there in the first place. They should be in a new build that they can afford to live in

My goodness, seriously? We can afford to live in our 400 year old, listed house but it is draughty and no amount of money will change that. It’s a price we’re willing to pay for living in a little slice of history. Perhaps we should never be here in the first place either?

How right you are to have picked up on that ludicrous sweeping statement.

@SurreyHillsGirl

You can add character to your beautiful new house

Nope, you cannot

My cottage, built in the 1800s, is solid as a rock, warm in the winter and cool in the summer. Not a 'money pit' as some clueless posters love to spout.

I would never trade character and beauty for a soulless box, especially when I can have all the mod cons I need in my gorgeous old cottage! My home must be somewhere that makes me happy. How can a new build, that is the same as millions of other houses in the country, make anyone feel happy I will never know. I guess those people take convenience (which I have anyway ) over aesthetics

👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

Calling posters 'Clueless posters' , yet clueless themselves.

@SurreyHillsGirl

You can add character to your beautiful new house

Nope, you cannot

My cottage, built in the 1800s, is solid as a rock, warm in the winter and cool in the summer. Not a 'money pit' as some clueless posters love to spout.

I would never trade character and beauty for a soulless box, especially when I can have all the mod cons I need in my gorgeous old cottage! My home must be somewhere that makes me happy. How can a new build, that is the same as millions of other houses in the country, make anyone feel happy I will never know. I guess those people take convenience (which I have anyway ) over aesthetics

Calm down, dear; your snobbery is showing.

@SurreyHillsGirl
What an unpleasant post. I lived in a Victorian house with lots wrong with it. It cost me a lot of money I didn’t recoup to put right years of lack of maintenance and botched jobs and decor from the 70s. It was a money pit. In what way does that make me clueless.
Some older houses are horrible. I have viewed a lot in my time that I wouldn’t live in. I don’t actually like cottages much - they can be dark and small with low ceilings.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder - you are not the arbitrator of all taste

[quote Srictlybakeoff]@SurreyHillsGirl
What an unpleasant post. I lived in a Victorian house with lots wrong with it. It cost me a lot of money I didn’t recoup to put right years of lack of maintenance and botched jobs and decor from the 70s. It was a money pit. In what way does that make me clueless.
Some older houses are horrible. I have viewed a lot in my time that I wouldn’t live in. I don’t actually like cottages much - they can be dark and small with low ceilings.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder - you are not the arbitrator of all taste[/quote]
Well to be fair to the poster, it would read like you bought a property that you didn’t fully understand what was required to put it right?

Why can’t we accept that some people like newer and some like old. As for all new builds being the same, there are loads of different ones where I live. Larger, smaller, different layouts, all next to each other.

What about Victorian terraces that are all the same. Or 30s style houses that are identical all over the country.

Small local builders probably do a better job than some of the national housebuilders, but there are some larger ones that are better quality. I bet that’s not different from those built years ago.

I find it funny that people presume that all old houses were built by excellent builders and craftsmen. There were dodgy builders in every era. Trollope rails against the nasty new builds in London in several of his novels - these are, presumably, now wonderful character-filled old homes.

Ds grew up in a stunningly beautiful georgian house. His bedroom was in the basement (turns out the floor was laid on dirt) and he had asthma until he left home. He also spent his teenage years learning diy so he could deal with some of the problems in the house - it was a constant work. It took me years to get him to look at an older home and even then it is only 1911 (and we have put a fortune into updating it).

@Bluntness100
We had a full structural survey completed but that doesn’t show all the hidden problems. When we had work done there were often problems the builder hadn’t anticipated.
What I hated about her post was more the sweeping generalisations made about people , and her superior attitude to folk who don’t have exactly the same taste as her. Why the need to insult other posters