Do you ever feel your old house is a liability?

[SecretsOfSunshine]

Obviously not the historic pretty village stuff, detached piles or very old houses… but the typical city stock. Now rolling well over a 100 years. Not much work done in the meantime beyond patch ups. Original roofs etc. Not fancy homes, the city stuff that was whacked up fast (possibly by people who’d never seen a set square or spirit level…)

I sometimes feel it’s just waiting for issues, damp, broken bits. There’s always extra fun to find from lead pipes to lath and plaster ceilings. They are never quite insulated either.

Has anyone moved to a much newer build and loved it?

We are in a new-ish build 1990's - electrics and plumbing need redoing already. Would not recommend.
Former PIL are in the early 19th century cottage built around 16th century cow shed (added a kitchen, a living room and a second floor around the shed (which is now a dining room) in 1816 and a playroom extension in 1960th). It has no foundation, not a single straight angle in the whole property but it is absolutely solid (except sinking into the ground a foot or two every 100 years).

I lived in many Victorian houses, no idea who built the one I'm in now 1896 but it's sturdy as!

I suspect it's because it's been updated and loved.

That's incredible, I can't think of any houses built in 1943 in the depths of WWII when all our resources were going into munitions or army buildings, and the homes immediately postwar were prefabs. Have you thought of applying to get it listed?

We're the opposite. My DH lived in a new build flat and said "never again". There's more work to do on a house built in the 1930s but that's because it's nearly 100, not because it was built on the cheap.. unlike his flat which had things that needed fixing in the 7 years from being built 🙈. If nothing else, it's worth it for the high ceilings that give a sense of space and it's prettier than the newer houses we saw

1943? If her house is 90 years old it would have been built in 1933.

I think there’s a lot to be said for the craftsmanship of old houses. They simply don’t make them like that these days, and I’d love for someone more knowledgeable than me to explain why! Our money pit is fabulously cool in summer no matter how hot it gets!

Sometimes. It's an old rural house, original part is around 1700, but most of it is Victorian. I do love it, but it's drafty, the windows all need replacing and it needs a new roof. We've never had the money to spend on it. Bought it cheap because it needed a lot of work, and we've just arsed around for 25 years doing bits to it that we could do ourselves.

My DS is in a new build that is really cosy when you visit - but it's also pretty soulless and identical to all the other houses on the estate. Very small garden. I wouldn't want to swap, but as I get older and poorer it worries me that we can't really afford to heat it or the bills to run it.

I don't think it would sell easily.

I intentionally looked for a modern-ish flat having lived in a London Victorian townhouse that felt like a complete money pit as well as being big, cold and expensive to heat. I grew up in a 300 year old cottage so the novelty of old homes has completely worn off.
Now in a 1960s semi and very happy. Nice square walls, no roofing issues, nice big windows, easy to heat, it's cheap and comfortable living.

Mine's a prewar ex council house. I replaced the roof tiles and had the loft and slopey roof bits insulated, and I did external solid wall insulation with a grant from the council so it was affordable. That was a good move, it's toasty warm in the old bit of the house now. I put new windows in too, I got sick of repainting the old wooden ones. There are quite a few new builds in the village but the gardens are much smaller than mine and I'm on top of a hill, so flood proof. The 1980s rear extension is colder but not too bad.

Well I think it all depends. All old houses are not equal, and neither are new builds.

Years ago I lived (rented) in a shitty badly maintained Victorian terrace. Moved to a new build because I was sick of the damp and the constant problems. The new build was worse - it was like a pp’s tracing paper house. Thin walls, and although only a few years old, everything had been done on the cheap and was falling apart.

Later I lived in a Brighton regency flat. I loved that place, and put in a lot of time and effort renovating it myself. But it had been built by cowboys as a Georgian holiday home and was never designed to still be there hundreds of years later. It had problems that will never be cured. Walking away was bitter sweet.

I live in a different Georgian house now. This one is solidly built. It’s a money pit, but is toasty warm and doesn’t have issues. It does require a lot of money and constant maintenance though.

I recently bought my DDad a 1960s bungalow nearby. We have had that renovated, and quite honestly I could move in tomorrow! It is light, well proportioned and has cool mid century style. There will be a fraction of the maintenance that’s required by my house. I’m totally retiring to a mid century house; it’s great. I won’t miss my beautiful but demanding Georgian place.

You don’t sound like you live in one, you just want folks to say new builds are better?

You know what, yeah, you’re right. But I weirdly have no desire at all to live in a new build.

Our house was built in 1874. It’s 149 years of bodged DIY, inexplicable draughts, and is one minor repair job after another. To be honest, the whole place needs taking “back to brick” and starting again. However, it’s oozing with character, and I love being the latest resident of a house with 100+ years of other residents before me.

Same here

Have you replaced the roof, @wwyd2021medicine ? We realized after a couple of leaks that it was the only option in our 1920’s terrace. Yes, it was expensive, but we haven’t had any issues since.

We bought in a gentrifying area and so frankly there hasn't been a lot of work done on them in the last 50 years, so lots of them are a liability. The same house in a more affluent area may well have had much more done quickly, and we might not be playing catch up. I do love it and I like our area, but would love a Passivhaus!

Maths fail there. My house is 90, next year. The first owners took out a mortgage of £475 on it in October 1934.

Mine is over 150 years old. It's had a new boiler and radiators, some insulation, a lot of redecorating and plastering, carpets, rewiring, a new kitchen, extensive floor tiling, and new upstairs bathroom. I love and hate it..

The damp in the utility room is a constant battle, it eats cash in heating oil, it's pebbledashed which hides the beautiful original stone walls (pebbledash is from I think the 1980s) which is apparently wrong for the stone walls and is a future issue...if not a current issue, most likely.

Also had to raise the back garden to solve a draining issue. Rebuild the boundary stone walls (a fucking literal nightmare job). It still needs some damp internal walls ripping off and sorting, three new exterior doors at great expense, and something doing to the uninsulated freezing box of an extension. I've somewhat ran out of steam ~and cash~.

Oh and the staircase is a bit rotten, every time I hoover it, woodlice come out. I've had booklice in the utility room (and inside my bread machine!!! 🤮), slugs coming up the sink, a suspected mouse in the loft, sparrows in the eaves. But when the wind blows, and the heating is finally warm, the two foot thick walls and the views of mountains outside just feel so cosy and good.

I curse it though when I'm sucking litres of condensation off the windows on cold mornings with the little hoover thingy 😅

@HamBone
No - not replaced roof as roofer did not think it was needed. The leaks have been around chimneys and tiles replaced and leading done
I have replaced a roof on a single storey extension- v long - and that was 16k. It's not as though we haven't had work done - I set a big house project yearly. New boiler, new bathroom, new downstairs toilet etc

I have realised after many years together that DH is a house snob. I'm trying to talk him round from this in time for our next purchase. He's been looking at listed buildings 🙄

Oh no, you’ve got your work cut out talking him down. 🤣

All I meant was that patching just wasn’t working for us after a few years, new leaks would start elsewhere so replacing the whole roof was our best option. It’s painfully expensive.