What work does your house NEED?

[Trycod]

Am I the only one living in a hovel?

Kitchen is 25 yo, poor condition. Doors falling off and bowing due to water damage.
All the cream carpet is stained (embarrassingly carpet is only 5 years old bought super lux before having kids/dogs)
Outside crazy paving is actually dangerous - needs replacing entirely.

Getting me down. Have had to delete instagram.

Ours needs a chimney taking down as it is unsafe; our kitchen is about 40 years old but because it’s quite big, and we don’t know exactly what we want to do yet, we won’t be replacing it for a good few years; our bathroom is from the 80s and we need to decorate the back room and upstairs!!

I’m chipping away at what I can myself; aiming to have the back room decorated in a month. We will paint our kitchen this summer (it’s solid wood so although tired, should last) and I’m hoping we’ll find the money to do the bathroom over the next 12 months!

It’s only 18 months old so nothing major .. that’s said the snagging list still isn’t complete so we are chasing all the last bits before the 2 years runs out!

I couldn’t deal with something that needed tonnes of work it sounds very stressful

Instead of deleting Insta why not follow people doing renovations that show where they started and their progress through their reno? I find seeing a house in an absolute state and then the work being done inspirational. In our house we have done so much work over the last decade and we are almost finished now. As this is house number 5 for us and almost 30 years sharing a house together we are both sick of choosing materials, light fittings, paint colours, tiles, flooring etc. But I enjoy watching others go through really horrid mouldy houses and transforming them. Great inspiration for when our children buy their first homes. This is a good one

The living room needs completely re-plastering, may need asbestos removal because of 70s artex ceiling, needs rewiring and some carpentry, the gas fire needs replacing... basically needs gutting and completely renovating.

Our bedroom needs mould removing, redecorating, wardrobes replacing and new window units fitted due to blown seals.

It doesn’t need anything but I have a long list of things I’d like to be done.

I need a new family bathroom, the current one has been gutted and abandoned, leaking showers sorted in ensuites, two leaky toilets fixed, wooden window frames stained , concrete back yard sorted, new radiators in several rooms, overgrown hedges and trees sorted, new fences, new entrance gates etc
I'm estimating about 15 k minimum of work.

My home needs
A new boiler (it is ok for hot water but stops working when the heat is turned on)
New carpets
Kitchen
Windows need replacing
Some decorating

Sadly I am not in a financial position to do any at the moment.

Moved in my house 11 years ago, still has the carpets they left upstairs in 3 of the 4 bedrooms. Still have their bathrooms and en suite, I have put in a new kitchen and decorated downstairs but pretty much the rest of the house needs attention.

we have a leak somewhere on our chimney
the fascias (i think that's the word, wooden bits under the roof) are peeling and rotten
two of our double glazed units are misted up
we have a scruffy lean to that is on the point of collapse
the wooden porch posts are rotten

i can turn my hand to painting / putting up shelves / making curtains or cushions but these are the things that are beyond my abilities and i have no money to pay someone to do them

Instead of deleting Insta why not follow people doing renovations that show where they started and their progress through their reno? I find seeing a house in an absolute state and then the work being done inspirational

It's only inspirational if you have the money to do the work. Otherwise it's just downright depressing.

Ours NEEDS one window urgently fixing as it's a security risk. I want the downstairs wooden flooring sanding back and retaining/waxing, and the walls repainting - which we will do ourselves. I'd like the kitchen replaced, but that's really just a preference, and will have to wait as the current one is tired but in working order, and we don't have the money at the moment to do this.

We differ in our opinions about what needs doing. We have a 30 yr old boiler that's being replaced in a few weeks. He's accepted that it's better to get it done rather than wait for it to fail in the winter.

Kitchen is 18 years old and tatty In places but there's no way DH will go for a new kitchen anytime soon (he likes to wait til things fall apart before replacing)

I'd love built in bedroom furniture but he says the pine wardrobes are perfectly fine (I hate the bloody things)

We need a new shower screen and the garden needs an overhaul.

The kitchen isn’t a kitchen it’s a store room with a whole in the chimney letting in rain and uneven brick flooring, a few mice lurking I’d think too. There is no heating, water or electrics.
The external facade has cracked brickwork and the timber framing is rotten in parts. The lathe and plaster was over plastered so needs removing, insulation inserting ( there’s none) and then lime rendered.

The bathroom has no finished floor, it’s currently made up of random boards taken from elsewhere.
We have several structural beams held up with scaffolding.
Theres a window missing in one room so it’s got temporary boarding and bubble wrap for insulation. The external framing is shot and falling to pieces and needs a specialist lime plasterer to sort it.
Another window fell out during the first clap for carers due I’m guessing frame rot. It’s boarded and I’ve just started a reconstruction of that.
The downstairs toilet is just about holding its own on rotten floorboards.
Someone removed the structural support to a huge chimney that we have just uncovered and we now have a temporary acro prop just in case the whole thing collapses.
The ceilings of our bedroom and two others have cracks that are getting worse. We can’t overboard( listed) so looking at pulling and pinning from above.
The bathroom window doesn’t close if we try it looks like the frame has come apart so it’ll probably fall to pieces
A framing element of one of the oriel windows fell off ( just missed the car) during a recent storm.
The lime mortar on all brickwork has weathered away.
About 50% of the house needs painting including all doors and windows ( except the metal ones )
We've just found woodworm

Apart from that’s it’s all lovely 😊

We need a new roof,the rendering on the extension is buggered and we need to redecorate two bedrooms because of water damage.

Some of the windows have seen better days too and if we have any more taken off the front door our neighbour's cat will be able to walk through the gap between it and the frame.

New roof - in a terrible state.
new garage roof - leaking badly.
double glazing - blown glass, draughty and some don’t even close properly.
some damp work.
some replastering
new bathroom - ancient, damp & barely functional.
new kitchen - ancient, barely functioning.

we’re hoping we’ll have finally completed the list by the time we retire! 🤣

Oh and there is plenty else we want to do, such as decorating etc. but the above is what really needs doing.

Things that NEED to be done sooner rather than later:

Garage needs rebuilding, old prefab abestos ridden thing, windows have caved in and covered by a tarp, wholes and leaks in lots of places.

Front path is old concrete and completely full of uneven bits

Couple of the windows need replacing. Front door lock is dodgy and so fornt door needs replacing really as old and replacing the lock when we moved in didnt really help.

Would LIKE to:
replace the old kitchen and upstairs bathrooms but they are functional.
replace the old brown beige carpet on the stairs and in the kids rooms
finish boarding the attic so we can better use of it

Need a leaky tap fixed and the handle from the garage door snapped off. ! The couch is on its last legs, but we’ll carry on with it until it fully collapses. The whole house also needs a good scrubbing

lucky really, for now. We have a manky bathroom that is not a need to replace as it works fine. Also the cream carpet upstairs is stained, but again is not a need to replace. Although I wish we could

New roof, probably a rewire. Various plumbing. All needs painting. Repointing. Redo the driveway

I need a new kitchen floor, it's lino stuff and it's ripped and discoloured. I'm saving up for proper tiles.
My bathroom really needs redoing too.

Guttering needs fixing on the loft dorma, shower unit needs sorting/ replacing its leaking, door needs putting on understairs cupboard and slirting board inside the cupboard needs to go on. Bits of decorating

I have a 1930 terrace and the list is endless...

The surveyor missed quite a few things when I bought the house and the sellers hid some things as well (like the fact that the boiler had stopped working since the survey was done).

So far:

-What I managed to do myself : painted all the rooms, removed all the carpets, changed all the curtains and curtain poles, painted all the original wooden floors and stairs, painted the kitchen tiles, painted all the kitchen units, removed old shelves, the garden (weeding and planting new trees, vegetables and plants, decoration.

-What I had to hire tradesmen to fix: new boiler, restored the bits of original floorboards that needed replacing/fixing, full rewire, boarding/plastering an ugly 80s fake brick wall in the living room, removing a condemned gas heater, some new gutters, drain survey and replacing a a broken kitchen drain gully, fixed leaks in loo cistern and one radiator, flushed and checked all the central heating system, new floor tiles in corridor, new flooring in bathroom, asbestos survey, fixing a cupboard door.

No I am saving like mad because I think the old roof will need some work sooner or later.

I am not bothered about the older kitchen and bathroom. As long as things work that's fine by me...

There's a slow leak by chimney stack in daughter's room. Taken roofer nearly 5 months to fit us in...he says he is fixing this week.

The exterior paintwork upstairs needs scaffolding and repairing (sash windows)

Front path is cracking and trip points in old terrazzo (but I don't want to rip it out, it's 120 years old!!!!)

The 30 year old bathrooms are actually holding up well, as is the 20 year old boiler, and the 35 year old electrics.😀

Needs new external render, new front door and windows, and a new boiler.

But I live alone, public sector salary, and my direct debits and supermarket bills have gone up by £2000 in the past year. Next year’s remortgage will push me up by another £1200 IF I get a decent rate. I don’t have a hope in hell’s chance of saving up to get these done.

So I have the estate agents in next week to value it for sale and I hope to move somewhere slightly newer and smaller.

Damp damaged plaster on end wall needs replacing.
A couple of occasionally leaky towel rails need replacing.
Shower room needs gutting - shower is falling apart and leaks and the toilet bowl is cracked. We've use the shower cubicle for storage since moving in. DS2 is severely autistic and will only use that toilet and not the one downstairs so no idea how we're going to carry that off.
Grotty stair and landing carpet needs burning. DS2 isn't having frequent accidents any more so we're finally able to consider it.
Several blown glazing units in the dining room. These are the newest windows in the house, which is annoying. Only 2 out of 7 are intact.

Garage roof is leaking and full of asbestos.

Central heating needs repiping as it's copper pipes buried in concrete and there's a leak.

Kitchen window double glazing has failed and full of condensation.

Repointing needs doing.

Drainage at front needs sorting as front garden slopes down to house and there's regularly a large puddle at the front door.

Rewiring probably needed.

Artex ceilings and bitumen tiles under carpet probably full of asbestos.

Downstairs loo needs replacing as cracked.

Door locks are dodgy and doors probably need replacing.

New kitchen would be nice but I think it would be better to move.