To be upset regarding new home.

[2023NewStart1]

We’re in the process of moving into new home and I am shocked at the state of the walls. Not sure if we’ve been lucky before (3rd home move in 20 years) or if this is normal so posting here. The house looked beautiful and we thought it was ready to move in as it was exceptionally immaculate but now that the owners furniture and belongings have gone we realised how much it’s going to cost to paint. Every single room including the bathrooms has hundreds of nails dug into the walls! Even the decorator was shocked and said they seemed to have loved their pictures, we hung up a few pictures over the years and never nailed them in but used command picture strips. Only thing that was nailed in was a heavy mirror.

my mum was really shocked too, every single room needs to be painted and it’s going to cost a lot as we don’t know the names of paints used and trying to match up is going to be a nightmare. Mum very helpfully told me I should complain to the estate agent! I’m obviously not going to as the sale has happened and EA won’t really care.

any advice on what we can do or just anyone to sympathise? I haven’t told anyone in RL as it seems like a non problem but it’s really upsetting me as me we can’t move furniture in till decorating has been done. Every single room needs decorating now. It’s going to delay our move as all decorators are busy during this time

Caveat emptor.

^^

Perfectly normal I'm afraid. Move in and do one room at a time after. Surely the home and move is more important than pristine paintwork.....

Weren’t you going to decorate anyway? Painting is fairly straightforward, and you don’t need to colour match - you can buy whatever colour you want to have!

Paint isn't that costly, get your roller out.

Buy pictures and hang them on the existing nails

Didn’t you see the pictures on the walls when you viewed the house? It’s quite usual to paint when you move into a new place, I’d have thought. And it’s not an emergency. You may not need decorators if you can do it yourself.

It was their home, so they could have as many pictures as they wanted. Will you be putting up picture rails? Painting is one of the cheapest decorating jobs, although something you hadn’t budgeted for. Congratulations on your move!

Pollyfill the holes and then paint. This really isn't a big deal

Polyfilla and paint brushes/rollers are your friends here. Move in and do it a room at a time.

We had to decorate every room in our house when we bought it.

Pull out the nails, fill and sand the holes, paint -
just with cheap, white paint for now if you are undecided on colours or are short of cash.

Fill in all the patches of holes, decorators caulk, paint white with a roller or if you CBA do the spray method. Or go 1 room at a time and embrace that you are decorating!!!

Err, completely normal. And it's a bit unreasonable to expect previous owners to not have used nails like it's the weirdest thing in the world.

It’s disappointing definitely, but not totally unusual.

Either hang loads of your own pictures or get the polyfilla and paint out!

We’ve moved into three homes we’ve purchased and two of those definitely had things that had been hidden (but not big enough to have needed to mention - massive carpet stains on new carpets that had had furniture over in viewings, ruined walls like yours etc.). Not ideal, but you’ve got to just get on with it.

We've redecorated every house we've brought. We do it room by room when we've got time and money to do it and just move furniture round as needed. I don't understand why you'd have to delay moving in.

I don't think I've ever moved into a home that doesn't need decorating. Even if it hasn't despereately needed it we've always painted throughout. Paint is fairly cheap and fairly easy - you just do it youself. Also, you don't need to do it before y ou move in (although it makes it easier of course). How do you think people redecorate their existing homes? Move out?

You come across as a bit naive.

Thanks everyone. Yes I need to fill in the nails and get painting. Just want to stress it’s not just a “few nails” it is hundreds in a wall. Their really little skinny ones. I would take a pic but it’s going to be outing. Yes I need to embrace this and get painting! Thank you

We moved house this summer. We polyfilled over 100 holes- our vendors loved their pictures and shelving it seemed. We were quite shocked because the holes left in the wall were massive. We have polyfilled them all now though and repainted most rooms - we wanted new paint colours anyway. It’s annoying but it’s just part of buying a house, it’s just the way it is most of the time

You are very fortunate you have the luxury of being able to delay moving in until you have the new house looking vaguely how you want it. Whenever we have moved we had to live in the new house from the day of the sale/ purchase and then live through whatever disruption was caused by trying to decorate or do whatever needed doing. I think this is the more common experience.

If you want to match the paints you could always ask the previous owners. I think you’re overreacting a bit but I know how stressful moving is. It’s pretty minor though in the grand scheme of things.

Discusting

Everyone decorates when they move in! Blimey op.

Yeah, this is normal. Everything looks tattier once all the furniture and belongings are gone.

I think a complaint to the Estate Agent will just make you the laugh of the day in the office (sorry!).

With all your furniture in, the walls won't look as bad. As others have said, you can then work your way round the rooms over time.

Make sure the house is warm before you paint it. IME it dries awful if it's cold.

Thank you reindeer for understanding. Yes the shock of seeing so many holes. Obviously I knew we would have to decorate but not to this extent.

A picture of a wall would be outing?... OK.