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AIBU?

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Original poster

To hate the removing of character from old houses?

401 replies

Mushrooms0up · 10/01/2022 17:35

I probably am being unreasonable as it doesn’t actually have anything to do with me. But there is a gorgeous house near where I live on a private road which came up for sale a while ago. It needed a bit of TLC but looked like a lovely, lived in family house.

It’s just come back on market for a lot more money, and I’m so sad at what’s been done. The marble tiled flooring just doesn’t match the house and the character and it just seems so sterile :(
If you like that kind of look why buy a period property? What do you all think?

Here’s the before:

www.rightmove.co.uk/house-prices/detailMatching.html?prop=73256386&sale=91032045&country=england

And after: www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/118542002#/?channel=RES_BUY

OP posts:
Thread gallery
20
sippedanotherrumandcoke · 11/01/2022 09:31

I can't see the before the link doesn't go anywhere, can someone repost?

BalladOfBarryAndFreda · 11/01/2022 09:40

For all who can’t see the before the link (which works fine for me)

To hate the removing of character from old houses?
To hate the removing of character from old houses?
To hate the removing of character from old houses?
BalladOfBarryAndFreda · 11/01/2022 09:41

Next lot

To hate the removing of character from old houses?
To hate the removing of character from old houses?
To hate the removing of character from old houses?
BalladOfBarryAndFreda · 11/01/2022 09:45

My internet is playing up now and I can’t post the rest. Grr

BalladOfBarryAndFreda · 11/01/2022 09:46

Try again

To hate the removing of character from old houses?
To hate the removing of character from old houses?
To hate the removing of character from old houses?
BalladOfBarryAndFreda · 11/01/2022 09:47

Last one

To hate the removing of character from old houses?
ponkydonkey · 11/01/2022 09:47

I can't see the before photos 😢

BalladOfBarryAndFreda · 11/01/2022 09:49

I’ve literally attached them all on the thread above your post, @ponkydonkeySmile

sippedanotherrumandcoke · 11/01/2022 10:42

Thanks.

Bleurgh!

I think a mixture of the two would've been so much nicer. Never mind...

SleepOhHowIMissYou · 11/01/2022 10:54

@sippedanotherrumandcoke

Thanks.

Bleurgh!

I think a mixture of the two would've been so much nicer. Never mind...

Absolutely. There's a fine line between sympathetic period decor and the house looking like a staged room in a museum.

I do think it's cultural. One of my daughter's (rude) friends once asked me if we couldn't afford new furniture. Ours is a rather eclectic mix from Jacobean coffers through to 1920s Art Nouveau pieces and her house was very similar to the refurb shown here. I told her we preferred old furniture and she looked like she didn't believe me.

sippedanotherrumandcoke · 11/01/2022 11:02

Ha! I grew up in a house like that and all my mates had houses with matching sofas and arm chairs (and warm double glazing) which I CRAVED when younger and one asked me why my furniture was so old!

Hey-ho... taste is subjective, I suppose. I bet the owners will be rather upset to see their house getting trashed on mumsnet 😬

noworklifebalance · 11/01/2022 11:08

I voted YANBU - hate the ripping out of fireplaces, ceiling roses, cornicing and flooring.
However, bathrooms? Unless it had a fireplace in it or some other feature, most are just room and I am ok with those being “modern”.

housemaus · 11/01/2022 11:41

God that's depressing. There's loads I'd change about the original - too much yellow and red for me, bathroom is dated, etc. It's not like 'looks old' is necessarily desirable, but the bones of the house are good and the existing features make it what it is.

No hate to people who like the new style of the house because personal taste is personal taste, but... buy a new build then? It doesn't suit the age of the house.

(Not to mention getting rid of that beautiful wooden floor and the coving which were a feature of that age of property. Like buying a Maserati and putting a mobility scooter engine in).

The problem as well is that that all-grey-high-gloss look is already dated.

We're currently looking to buy our first house (finally) and we've crossed off a fair few that would have otherwise been great because of the cost or hassle of:

  • getting rid of high gloss kitchens and marble tile floors (which I don't want for multiple reasons),
  • having to rip stupid fake paneling off everything, having to re-add coving and original style skirting (instead of completely square modern)
  • getting rid of minimalist built in 'entertainment' walls with fucking LED lights in
  • getting rid of bathroom suites that are completely square, including toilets
  • removing those fucking ugly stainless steel upright radiator things.

My kingdom for a sympathetically renovated old house :(

housemaus · 11/01/2022 11:44

THIS house! Same area, plenty of very modern touches (full glass banister thing to what looks like the cellar, clearly a new kitchen) but kept the feel of the original - picture rails and coving, style of bathroom etc.

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/117984446#/?channel=RES_BUY

(Pricey though. Fucking Didsbury).

Bollocks2Covid · 11/01/2022 11:48

YANBU in the slightest. I love period features and it’s perfectly possible to keep them and modernise a property. I saw one on TikTok a while ago where they managed to modernise it and keep all the Victorian features like pictures rails, fireplaces etc but with a modern twist and it looked stunning. One of my uncles bought a cottage and ripped out the old 1930’s fireplaces and DM and I were horrified. It took away all the character.

I’m also not sure why people are obsessed with open plan spaces, surely it’s a fire hazard?

BalladOfBarryAndFreda · 11/01/2022 11:49

@housemaus

THIS house! Same area, plenty of very modern touches (full glass banister thing to what looks like the cellar, clearly a new kitchen) but kept the feel of the original - picture rails and coving, style of bathroom etc.

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/117984446#/?channel=RES_BUY

(Pricey though. Fucking Didsbury).

Much nicer, bigger and a classic ‘Cheshire semi’.
PinkSparklyPussyCat · 11/01/2022 11:53

That's gorgeous @housemaus. Some of the rooms are far too dark for my liking but the layout and most of the decor are lovely. I really, really want flamingo wallpaper now!

housemaus · 11/01/2022 12:05

@Bollocks2Covid

YANBU in the slightest. I love period features and it’s perfectly possible to keep them and modernise a property. I saw one on TikTok a while ago where they managed to modernise it and keep all the Victorian features like pictures rails, fireplaces etc but with a modern twist and it looked stunning. One of my uncles bought a cottage and ripped out the old 1930’s fireplaces and DM and I were horrified. It took away all the character.

I’m also not sure why people are obsessed with open plan spaces, surely it’s a fire hazard?

It certainly is - we had a house fire 3 years ago in our rental, luckily we spotted it quickly and it was dealt with quickly, so minimal damage.

But the fire crew who came said had we been upstairs when it happened we would have had some pretty bad smoke inhalation issues because even just by the time we'd called the fire brigade and got ourselves out, the entire downstairs was completely FULL of thick smoke due to the open plan layout.

Had we been asleep at the time, we'd not have been able to get out safely by the time we realised - it was only that we were awake and called the fire brigade the second it started that it didn't spread further than it did.

We're looking to buy soon, and 'can close rooms off' is a requirement!

OhPatti · 11/01/2022 12:17

Totally agree. Looked great before, really cosy (and I love the colours they had used), now has a cold/impersonal feel.

VestaTilley · 11/01/2022 12:20

YANBU, I completely agree.

It’s awful when you see everywhere painted white, spotlights put in, all trace of Georgian/Victorian/1930s character gone. Like when people knock through old kitchens and pantries to create massive white boxes that look like laboratories.

If you want the look of a new house then buy a new house!

Cam22 · 11/01/2022 12:28

Post 1:

Oh my goodness. What an utterly ugly “refurbishment”. Why don’t philistines just but new builds?

Cam22 · 11/01/2022 12:28

…buy

ancientgran · 11/01/2022 13:04

I wonder if anyone was outraged when the kitchen was extended? I hate those extensions where you have a big beam across, if you are going why make it so obvious you've knocked a wall down? Judging by the cabinets that was done 20 years or more ago. Anyone think that was awful?

The bookcases in the alcoves either side of the fire block the coving so you have coving round the room and it suddenly disappears.

The bathrooms were vile.

I don't think it was exactly some pristine period piece, the previous changes hadn't been done particularly well but if it suited the owners then that's up to them just like new owners doing it how they like.

ancientgran · 11/01/2022 13:05

@VestaTilley

YANBU, I completely agree.

It’s awful when you see everywhere painted white, spotlights put in, all trace of Georgian/Victorian/1930s character gone. Like when people knock through old kitchens and pantries to create massive white boxes that look like laboratories.

If you want the look of a new house then buy a new house!

The previous owners had extended the kitchen, it wasn't original at all.
AllChange2022 · 11/01/2022 13:07

[quote Mushrooms0up]I probably am being unreasonable as it doesn’t actually have anything to do with me. But there is a gorgeous house near where I live on a private road which came up for sale a while ago. It needed a bit of TLC but looked like a lovely, lived in family house.

It’s just come back on market for a lot more money, and I’m so sad at what’s been done. The marble tiled flooring just doesn’t match the house and the character and it just seems so sterile :(
If you like that kind of look why buy a period property? What do you all think?

Here’s the before:

www.rightmove.co.uk/house-prices/detailMatching.html?prop=73256386&sale=91032045&country=england

And after: www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/118542002#/?channel=RES_BUY[/quote]
How can everyone else see the before pic? I can only see the after.

Can someone resent the link?