To hate the removing of character from old houses?

[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

I didn't really like it before either. Not particularly special, the "period fireplaces" are just fireplaces, not particularly ornate or nice and its really impractical and pointless to have a fireplace in a bedroom today.

@dopenguinsdance

It's Didsbury chic, innit? www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/107722268#/?channel=RES_BUY Other South Manchester suburbs are available.

At least that is a new build! They could have bought that instead….

I don't like the decoration of the house in its original incarnation, but it is a million times better than how it is now. It isn't even that that house is now soulless and lacking in character, but the sheer lack of style in the refurbishment. I always think no taste is far worse than bad taste, and the house is a great example of no taste/sense of style

Still, it's a veritable blank canvas for new owners to come in and make something of it, hopefully by ripping it all out and starting again.

The other house linked further upthread has been modernised in a far more sympathetic and stylish way.

I really thought I was going to roll my eyes at you when I saw the pictures, but the second one is beyond horrible.

I apologise for judging you prematurely.

I also think parquet flooring is horrible. Just because it's old doesn't mean its worth keeping

I can't see any before but it's not a good refurb at all. Very near where I used to live too. I was in a flat in one of the old houses opposite Everett Rd for a while. By total chance I later met the grandson of the man who owned the house before it was converted. It was it in Manchester and in no way connected to my time there.

Is it just me that can't see the first pics?
Pic 2 look classic Didsbury to me.

Well it’s a bit grey and bland now for my liking but apart from some rather orange parquet flooring, and a few fireplaces in the before pics I’m not really seeing all the “wow” that everyone else seems to be raving about.

Most of the before pictures just look like a dated, tired and very brown/orange house. The bathrooms were awful and the kitchen was naff, with terrible flooring. It’s not like it was a proper period property.

As I said, afterwards is not really my taste but I’m not getting all the faux snobbery and outrage in this thread. It was just a dated, tired looking house.

@Robin233

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

.

Before for those asking

That looks awful, I'm with you op

The first lot are scruffy and old fashioned and it looks like it smells foisty.

The second lot look sterile and soulless and as if they smell of antiseptic and bleach.

And these

This is an Arts and Crafts house in north Manchester that needs a LOT of work. I’m tempted, but it’s not in a great area, and it’s listed so would be so stressful to do. But the right person could do something really special with it.

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/115905707

The first set of pictures got it completely right - a lovely home with original features and modern fittings that didn't detract from the building's character. The second set of pictures shocked me - I didn't think it wold be quite that bad. Everything of character gone. That is a real shame. It just proves that you can't buy taste.

[quote WhatDidISayAlan]This is an Arts and Crafts house in north Manchester that needs a LOT of work. I’m tempted, but it’s not in a great area, and it’s listed so would be so stressful to do. But the right person could do something really special with it.

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/115905707[/quote]
Its grade 2 listed- so not an issue

[quote WhatDidISayAlan]This is an Arts and Crafts house in north Manchester that needs a LOT of work. I’m tempted, but it’s not in a great area, and it’s listed so would be so stressful to do. But the right person could do something really special with it.

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/115905707[/quote]
That has the potential to be absolutely amazing in the right hands.

It could be beautiful.

I would live in it 'as is' over that bastardisation of the Didsbury effort

Shame about the artificial grass and losing one bedroom.
Is Jesus worry that people could fall easily on tiles floors but I don’t mind how it looks tbh.

I like some modernisation in homes. My job used to involve working listed properties and sometimes I just wish some of them could just be modernised.

@SoupDragon

The first lot are scruffy and old fashioned and it looks like it smells foisty.

The second lot look sterile and soulless and as if they smell of antiseptic and bleach.

Rather clean than bacterial

@GirlInACountrySong I’ll be surprised if she doesn’t turn that into a soulless grey box.

@eagerlywaitingfor

I know what you mean OP. There was a gorgeous between-the-wars semi with bay-fronted windows and a period front door near me. I never saw the interior, but I'm familiar with similar houses. They absolutely gutted it, destroyed the lovely mature garden and it is a shadow of its former self. The heart has been ripped out of it. There were 30's windows at the front with stained glass panels at the top that matched the door, and the whole lot has gone and been replaced with modern windows with grey frames. The front door looks like a factory fire door now. It's wicked.

I hear you. I live in a road of between the wars semis with the sort of windows you describe and it’s depressing to see how many have removed the stained glass panels and replaced them with plain or leaded glass.

Oh goodness, I really dislike the after. It was a beautiful house in the before pictures. I don’t understand why people do this - just buy a new build if that’s what you want.

@TheHoptimist

It depends entirely on what the Grade II listing applies to. They rarely apply to the whole building and every original feature within, it’s usually a handful specific named features of special interest in the actual listing document, so there’s not a lot to stop it being ‘developered’.

I’ll stop posting links to random houses soon but this is also on the market round the corner and a much nicer upgrade IMO

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/113328941#/?channel=RES_BUY