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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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
GirlInACountrySong · 10/01/2022 19:14

it isn't even grey!!
some of the furnishings are greys few bits of decor....but most of the paintwork is a mumsnet favourite, white!! though i cant be use which shade of white!

A580Hojas · 10/01/2022 19:14

Horrible (after photos) just horrible. Those patches of astroturf are just monstrous. And, no, I'm afraid I won't #bekind.

Bluesarestillblue · 10/01/2022 19:16

Oh no... it just looks like a new build now. I like the bedrooms better now: but they could have done a lot better with downstairs

Hydrate · 10/01/2022 19:17

Omg whoever did that is a total fool! UGH!

Lunaballoon · 10/01/2022 19:19

YANBU but not unusual I’m afraid. I’m keeping an eye on property websites with a view to moving in about 5 years.

There seem to be precious few “normal” homely properties that haven’t had the heart ripped out of them. I do like contemporary design but I don’t want a home that looks like a car showroom.

Hydrate · 10/01/2022 19:20

If I hadn't seen the before pics, it would not have seemed such a shock.

SarahAndQuack · 10/01/2022 19:21

I don't personally like it, but it's not like it was amazing before. Nice enough.

I learned recently that about 1 in 10 houses in England are Victorian. It's not rare or special. I love Victorian terraced houses, they are my absolute dream and I really wish modern developers would take note of what a gorgeous mixture of practicality and good design they are. But I do also think people can be very precious about 'period properties'. It's a fashion at the moment, fine. But there are so many ways of signalling your middle class credentials, and IMO this one is a bit over used.

Hedgesgalore · 10/01/2022 19:21

Flicking through the after photos was just painful Sad

Hate the shiny floor tiles. The new bathroom is underwhelming, the open plan kitchen/seating area even more underwhelming. Both needed upgrading.

I hate fake grass so the garden was better before for me.

Ducksareruiningmypatio · 10/01/2022 19:22

Fucking hell that is tacky

rainbowdancegirl · 10/01/2022 19:22

I think I'm the only one who loves the 2nd photo, I do like that sort of decor anyway. The first picture is not my taste at all.

Dillidalli · 10/01/2022 19:22

Normally I like a bit of modernisation but this is awful. The overhaul is so modern it’s bordering on tacky. I’ve seen new builds with more character. Yanbu.

Crayfishforyou · 10/01/2022 19:23

They’ve ruined that house.

godmum56 · 10/01/2022 19:24

@Weredone

I clicked on this expecting some modernisation *@Mushrooms0up* but this is horrific Sad why wouldn’t they just buy a new build?! They’ve destroyed all the original features!
ermmmmm location? I mean I hate it but not my house, not my business
SoupDragon · 10/01/2022 19:25

That is fucking hideous!

SoupDragon · 10/01/2022 19:25

All the warmth has gone.

Robin233 · 10/01/2022 19:27

Can someone just put up one photo of the the before PLEASE?
I love new build and after look ok ti me.
I just can't get the before link ti work

LizzieMacQueen · 10/01/2022 19:29

@nearlychristmas21

Is it just me who can't see the house in that first link? It just takes me to Rightmove to search for a house...
@nearlychristmas21 and me and a few lost souls on this thread. Now I'm more intrigued by why that is? An old browser? (God i have no idea but i do have the rightmove app and I'm on an iphone)
Staffy1 · 10/01/2022 19:30

They have even managed to ruin what was quite a pleasant garden and is now horrible.

jamandmarmaladethesecondcoming · 10/01/2022 19:31

YADNBU - Its now been turned into a chav's pad

Westerman · 10/01/2022 19:31

What is this obsession with everything grey? I find it a depressing colour.
The house looked so welcoming in the before pictures. I wouldn't give them £875 for the refurbished version, let alone £875K.

Darbs76 · 10/01/2022 19:32

They have ruined it. But omg is that how expensive houses are in Manchester? I thought it was cheap up north? That’s more than my area in Surrey

L0stinCyberspace · 10/01/2022 19:32

You're definitely not BU. I saw something similar near me and every time I pass it I feel a bit sad. It was a gorgeous, old Georgian house, with a green gloss door the colour of which you rarely see anymore. The old slates were removed and replaced with horrible fake looking slates, limestone flags laid, the garden ripped out, a horrible double glazed front door put in. It looks a mess.

CalmDownBoris72 · 10/01/2022 19:33

Totally with you OP, I love to doom scroll the Instagram before and after- there are some complete monstrosities, especially on lovely arts and crafts style houses.

refraction · 10/01/2022 19:33

@rainbowdancegirl

I think I'm the only one who loves the 2nd photo, I do like that sort of decor anyway. The first picture is not my taste at all.
I agree with you. The first lot are scruffy and old fashioned and it looks like it smells foisty.
stuntbubbles · 10/01/2022 19:34

I keep seeing more things that annoy me, like the styling/furniture arrangement in picture 4: no side table next to the massive and oddly placed teal sofa – yet one across the room from it. The orange chair next to the giant TV, where no one will ever sit. The playhouse outside the window peering in like a strange purple ghost.

It’s all so badly done and so cynical: put these expensive things in it and sell it. When homes are for living.

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