For those of you that live in a Victorian terrace...

[Wondermule]

Do you regret buying it? I know houses are all different but just trying to get a feel for how high maintenance they are.

And if you do regret it, what sort of house would you go for next time?

TIA

I love ours. I like that it’s close to town and there won’t be any further development around us because all the houses are already built! When we bought it, for the same money we could’ve bought ex council 60s houses which were much further out of town, but still walkable. Or larger new build houses completely out of town and had to drive everywhere.

Our last house was a Victorian terrace.
Pros: lovely fireplaces and open fire
Quirky features
Pretty
Cons:
Very small rooms
No hall
Noise...next door had a screamy baby which sent me bonkers
Awkward to get anything into the back garden

We now live in a 2000s detached house.

They look nice but you don't live on the outside of your house.

The two things that surprised me are:

1. How noisy they are. I presumed they’d have much thicker walls and be quieter than a new house
2. The heat loss despite being attached in both sides.

Previously lived in semi detached Victorian house bloomin cold
But now in terraced house, luckily our neighbours are quiet..., warm and cool in the summer, few mice over the years 😬
But we have a garage at the back of the garden that leads out onto the street behind, you need side access if your going to buy one!

They must vary a lot. Here the rooms are very spacious with high ceilings and wide halls.

They're fairly easy to heat although obviously not as good as a well-insulated modern house. My friend's old detached house is much colder.

You hear nothing from neighbours.

Downsides are that the gardens are very small and parking is on street.

However, most people who move into them stay for many years because they're lovely.

I had one. I only moved due to mobility issues. It was cheap to run, couldn't hear the neighbours and far bigger sq ft than modern houses and a large yard.

Thanks everyone. I have lived in Victorian terraces before but some years ago, I love the ‘idea’ of it and also the original features. But where I’m looking, the gardens are very small and there is no garage/driveway. I’m wondering whether the ‘hygge’ (can’t think of a better less pretentious word, sorry!) of living in a Victorian house outweighs the parking/garden issue 😬

1890s end terrace. Love it. Definitely don't regret it.

We looked at new builds in the same price bracket however they were inferior. The high ceilings and depth give it a really roomy feel. It feels well constructed and we very barely hear our neighbors (family with 3 primary age kids and 1 secondary). It's well sound proofed in each room where as my friends in a new build can hear everytime the other unplugs something to the point that they can't plug anything after the kids go to bed.

Maintenance wise, we bought a house needing renovation and so we've done stuff on it, but once done seems fine.

We once bought a 30s semi that seemingly didn't need any work and ended up needing practically everything and for no real benefit.

Not Victorian but Edwardian. Love it. Would hate a new build or a suburban semi.

We moved from a Victorian terrace but not because we disliked the house, we wanted a better area and parking!

We moved to a 1930s detached so we didn't dislike the old style of the house! Rooms are bigger than modern homes.

I'm in a Georgian terraced cottage and I love it!

Dh owned one when we met and we lived there for a few months. It was lovely, very low maintenance (we live in a pre-tudor farmhouse now so things are very different). Just make sure you get a survey done before you buy because there are often hidden things you need to know about in older houses. Also be aware of potential restrictions to extensions and renovations.

No, it's my favourite house so far

We're currently in a new build, and I do like that it's noticeably warmer in winter, but we've lived in a lot of houses and the ones I've been happiest in have been Victorian terraces, love sash windows, they've all been in friendly streets, real sense of community, love a cute fireplace.

Love it but expensive to heat

Most of you live in posh terraced houses! The Victorian one I lived in had neither high ceilings nor bay windows. It did have the original sash windows though, which made one of the bedrooms pretty much impossible to keep warm (rented house, so we couldn't change it) It had a 1960's extension, which included an upstairs bathroom.

We were lucky with our neighbours, but I could have told you where the toddler next door was in the house. And whenever their heating turned on (there was a sort of crash which reverberated through our house too.

It was OK to keep warm at the back, as the house was narrow, but long, with neighbours both sides. A very long garden (150 ft); we were lucky to have a house 15' wide, most were 13' and some only 11'.

Parking was a nightmare - residents only, and one permit per house, but you could only park on one side of the road, and our car was longer than our house was wide. We often had to park some distance away.

We chose to move before we had a family (not least because we were in a position to buy). We now live in a detached modern home, with parking and a garage, and that suits us.

love it.
but we have a repair fund of about 1k a year for repairs and maintenance that we use up almost every year. bigger things like new roof would need to come out of credit card or other koan.

Love it, and no issues with noise. Although it looks joined onto the house next door they are separate buildings (so two walls between us) but terraces vary a lot and some do have noise issues.
We do have a passage for side access too which makes a big difference. It must be annoying to bring wheelie bins, bikes etc through the house if you have no rear access.

Rented one for the last 5 years and loved it so much we've just bought one. The street parking gets busy but it's never actually been an issue for us, we've never had to park far from the house. We have a very large noisy family next door and all their kids have SEN that causes them to be loud so we do hear them but it never bothers me, its muffler, doesn't keep us awake. The newer build semi detached houses I've lived in were much noisier and had loud road traffic, Victorian terraces aren't usually right next to a main road. The small yard is the worst thing about most of them but they can be nice if they aren't north facing. Some have basements too.

My favourite houses are Edwardian though, I'm not keen on 1930's houses which seem the most popular, we have three kids and they always tend to be two rooms and a small box room and less value for money.

I’ve lived in 3 and regretted them all. All had major problems with noise. You could hear TVs, light switches, phone conversations and all normal noise. But we had the misfortune to live next to neighbours who liked loud music, parties, arguing and it made our life a misery.

This is my third Victorian house and I love it. I love it’s history, I love the fireplace. We have extensively renovated though with a modern extension out the back so our kitchen is huge. We also sound proofed downstairs along the adjoining wall in case of noise from neighbours. It wasn’t expensive. All in all, old houses are just so much nicer than bland more modern ones in my opinion

Love ours! Thick walls! High ceilings. Large rooms. Quirky features. We do have a hallway. No parking but where we are there's no problems finding a space less than a minute away everyday. We have access to the garden from the back and a side passage.

I grew up in a Victorian terraced house and now own a smaller one built in the 1860s. I love the architecture, it’s really romantic and detailed. The Victorians knew how to put thought and care into their designs and I appreciate aesthetics. I love how breezy it is in the summer, even when the temperature is 30+, the high ceilings and decent sized rooms that give a sense of space, a useful cellar and gorgeous flooring using natural materials. I like the random angles too.

That said, it can be chilly in the winter and we have had to fix some roofing since moving in. It’s a fun project though - I’m trying to source an original tiled path and replace the ugly windows put in by a previous owner with sashes