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.

New carpets
Spare room/ office needs furniture so that I can be a spare room / office
New kitchen floor
Also the garden needs landscaping ir something doing to it

Something I discovered about our house this week and I can barely type it out as I am so grossed out.

We have a septic tank. When flushing the downstairs toilet the drain in the bath was gurgling and water was rising up to the top of the loo before draining away slowly. We thought there was a blockage and husband put various strength drain cleaners down to no avail and then on Sunday got the drain rods out.

He poured lots of buckets of water down the toilet and working with a drain rod was trying to unblock the blockage..

Bizarrely as he was doing this the carpet in the downstairs landing outside of the toilet was getting very wet, at first we thought it might have been where he was spilling water from the bucket.

Anyhow, he couldn't unblock it and we called a drainage company out, they couldn't unblock it as actually the problem was the septic tank was full to the gunnels (we have never had one before and company said it needed to be done once a year, in fact it needs to be done every 6mths it turns out).

Whilst the drain guy was here we asked about the water in the hallway..

This is the gross part.. under the carpet is a drain cover and the water was the overflow on that drain cover from when husband was pouring water down the toilet. So it turns out we actually have a drain cover INSIDE the house..

Obviously i am going to get it looked at and re routed or sealed off but how grim.......

Nothing has to be done touch wood, mainly just painting and new carpets. But that’s because I spent most of my savings last year on a new bathroom, upstairs carpet, replaced most of the windows and put in new boiler. Also have done a ton of tiny repairs as the previous owners didn’t seem to have done any maintenance at all. My first joyous discovery after moving in was a leak under the kitchen sink and a hob that didn’t work.

Full rewire. Our kitchen is basic and for at least 40 years old is in good nick but the cupboards are tiny and it just doesn't work for us. Bathroom needs tiling as the tiles only come part way up the shower. Guttering and fascias need replacing. The guttering may not be there for the amount they leak. New windows, all ours are coming away from the walls. New back door to the little side bit as it is the wooden sliding one that was built with the 1960s house and gets stuck as it swells up in wet weather. I imagine the roof needs replacing but as that isn't leaking it doesn't make the 'needs' list!

@Badburyrings sorry to hear that, what a gross discovery!

All the wooden frames around doors and windows need ripped out due to mould.

They were beautiful when new (previous owners did them) but we quickly realised they were done badly. Gaps behind all the wood led to cold spots, led to hidden condensation, led to mould.

We're replacing gradually as the whole outside of window needs made good and then plastered...which of course means the room needs redecorated. Groan.

Only 4 more to do, 3 of those will be done by September or October. The last one (our bedroom) may have to wait a couple of years.

Our driveway needs replaced. The paving stones were badly done (previous neighbours again. They loved DIY but were very bad at it) and so lots of trip hazards.

Oh and new carpet in dcs room as theirs is about 30 years old (at least) and has worm away in patches. Sigh.

We had a leak in our bathroom that just wouldn't go away and it ended up so the ceiling below got really 🙄

We completely redid the bathroom and that looks lovely now but we ran out of any enthusiasm for more house fixing before we got to sorting the hallway.

So that's next on the hit list. I could give you a list of things I want to do but they are firmly in the want rather than need category.

Our boiler is living on borrowed time according to the (trustworthy) boiler service guy.
The roof at the very least needs all the moss removing but I have a feeling the moss is hiding something more expensive.
Windows and doors have wooden frames which are rotting on the outside.
I think we will need to rewire at some point too.

Our garden is basically a jungle as its unmanageable for us.
Our kitchen is really old, the oven is unusable so we use a microwave or air fryer.
The kitchen cold tap has gone so we use the utility for drinking water.
Wooden counters are mouldy behind the tap.
Shower is so old and tap doesn't turn easily, tiles and grout need replacing.
Drainage on patio doesn't work well, seems to be uneven and pools around the house.
Bathroom window doesn't shut easily, gets stuck and has to be forced.
Bathroom has mould on ceilings and walls despite complete clean & treatment with mould prevention and using mould paint a few years ago - our extractor fan is crap we think.
It's so freaking cold in the winter, definitely a problem with our boiler/heating system and poor glazing
Several spot lights have gone and replacing bulbs doesn't work
I could go on and on, there's so much more

All windows need replacing.
New kitchen
New family bathroom
New doors throughout

Oh and a new boiler. It’s 30 years old and I wake up every day expecting it to have stopped working!

We need to take some decking up. It currently has an air of Indiana Jones to it when you walk across it. We were hoping the cost post Covid would have come down by now. I’m really thankful we’d done some major building and refurbishing before Covid because we just wouldn’t have been able to contemplate it now.

Stair carpet is fraying at the bottom but can’t decide what to put down as a replacement.

Short-term needs:

waterproofing the outside of our timber sashes. They were refurbished with rot cut out when we moved in, but we hadn't realised that painting them wasn't part of the refurb deal...
garden is overgrown and muddy and the fence is nearly falling down

Longer-term needs: the roof will fail at some point, probably in the next couple of years

Wants:

Stripping the thick paint off the fireplace surround, doors etc. It's gunky and hiding some nice detail. The only part of the house we'd had professionally decorated!
Tidying up the paintwork on the staircase
Getting the loft wired for lighting
Painting the inner porch
Retiling the front path
tiling the upstairs hearth

We have already paid for:
A new kitchen, new bathroom, enlarged loft hatch, refurbished sash windows (ha!), an electrical safety check and new consumer unit, boiler service, replastering, decoration (woodwork only), an under-stairs cupboard, changing some of the switches and light fittings, tiling the downstairs hearth

We have already DIY'd:
Partial garden clearance, lifting carpet, sanding and oiling the floors, decorating, stripping paint off the stairs and sanding/oiling, boarding the loft, changing our small bedroom into a home office with built in shelving and desk, built in bookshelves downstairs, general furnishing and interiors (including a lot of moodboards and trawling ebay and gumtree), building a storage cupboard under the TV, mounting the TV on the wall, changing some of the switches and light fittings

All I want is a cuppa too !
🤞for you dealing with all that asbestos 😷
Good luck

What a great thread
Now I know I am not the only looney living amongst a state of decay.

No offence other diy mumsnetters!!!

Full rewire
new radiators (had a new boiler but couldn’t afford anything else
kitchen is over 40 years old and wasn’t great quality even then
bathroom same
Had a roof leak in dining room 3 years ago - managed to get roof itself fixed but the ceiling and walls still need plastering
garage/shed falling down and probably contains asbestos
patio flags cracked and uneven
damp in hallway causing plaster to come away in places
I would love new internal doors, skirting boards, door frames etc - it’s all very dated and wood has been painted over many times

I feel so much less alone! Thank you everyone

Everything, really.

Kitchen - had a new one but still finishing off
Backroom and extension in process of complete remodel
Bathroom - probably done around 90’s or 00’s. Inoffensive but is in plans to replace
decoration and remodelling due for living room, master bedroom, halls and stairways
front and back gardens need landscaping
guttering due to be replaced
needs re-rendering

luckily DP is a builder and plasterer, but even materials aren’t cheap these days!

1930's terrace house and have done a lot in the last 20 years - new flat roof on the extension, new front door, new french doors, fully rewired, new carpets throughout, new boiler, new bathroom (although bathroom is now 8 years old do could do with minor repairs). What I really NEED is a new kitchen, ours is about 30 years old and dilapidated but I just can't afford it right now. I also need to have our lawn replaced as you would break your ankle walking on it its so bumpy and a patio put down on what is currently bare concrete. After that it'll be new windows all round and probably a new central heating system at some point. It never stops.

This is a very reassuring thread. I was starting to think that everyone lives in houses that are in perfect condition with brand new kitchens and boutique hotel bathrooms!

I have a tiny leak that I've just noticed, coming from either the kitchen sink or washing machine. Kitchen is about 40 years old and desperately needs redoing. I have dilapidated velux windows upstairs that need replacing. I'm sure I have some water damage in an upstairs floor where the repair got botched. Living room window needs replacing as do window handles on several windows. Doors need sanding and repainting (I've been doing these myself slowly but it's messy and time consuming)

Garden fencing needs replacing (can't afford it though).

What I have done though is had hot water tank replaced along with the old piping, new (basic) bathroom put in to replace an old one, including new floorboards, have decorated DD's room, am working my way through the sanding of doors and generally keeping on top of the garden.

New floor for the whole of downstairs apart from the kitchen

Replacement decking and fences in the garden

Squeaky and dipping floorboards upstairs need repairing

Replastering two bedrooms

Desperate need of painting throughout

Driveway needs replacing

Literally none of it on the list to be done

I need two new bay windows at the front, a new kitchen floor (joists up, one is rotting), some repair work to the roof and a replacement patio.

So Very Much. Off the top of my head, repointing at the front, one bedroom, hall and stairs need recarpeting, cracked bathroom sink to replace, secondary glazing on downstairs sashes. There will be more! Dining room is also a bit of a state but we're waiting until the kitchen needs replacing and knocking through, so trying to pretend it's fine.

Carpets in two bedrooms. They were cheap ones the developer put in, they e degraded and rucked up and I keep tripping on them. Fortunately, they’re spare rooms.
We want to change the bath in one bathroom to a double shower.

What I really want is to move. I wish!