Need a rant re new house - problems galore

[iloverhubarbcrumble]

Didn't want to hijack the thread about not feeling at home, but I sympathise!

We moved into our house in May - finally after a stressful 18 months in rented. We were desperate. This house is the first I've bought where I didn't walk in and think - Yes. But, great location, right place for DD (buses, friends), next to station (DH's commuting life much easier).

We knew it needed tlc. It was probably £40K over our budget. So - at the mo - we have NO money to do anything at all except pay the mortgage. First day loo flush stopped working. £130 later!!! Shower on off cold. Boiler causes plumbers to tut tut. Now it's started to leak. Looks like £400 to £600 MAY cure it. So, probably put up with it and new one next year (money?).

Feels like every day something else goes wrong. Friday a shelf fell off the wall! Sat, very unhandy me and DH managed to put it back up. Yesterday night a radiator valve found to be leaking - twenty towels later we are hanging on till tomorrow for a plumber - again!

We have books in piles as we can't afford any shelves yet. Ikea - yes - must prioritise for sanity I think. But then we have to put the bloody things up. DH and I are so crap at any kind of DIY that we end up shouting and screeching. No blinds at kitchen or living room yet for same reason - money. The bathroom is pretty bad.

I KNOW none of this is dreadful in the scheme of things. We are all healthy. But I feel exhausted with it and want abit of sympathy! Oh, we got a puppy a month after moving in. A long planned project not regretted. But bloody hard work. That may explain why anything extra pushes me over the edge.

God what a long post. I am in such a bad mood all the time. Not in AIBU as I might get flamed. Just needed a rant. Must pull self together. Enough exclamation marks now.

Cooo. Sounds like our place. (We moved at the end of July.)
So far have replaced leaky water main, had new boiler, replaced most radiator valves (as knackered and leaky), washers replaced (taps spurting water everywhere), U bend cleaned out. Drains need unblocking really, but not got round to it. Various pipes in family bathroom "patched" to make it last a bit longer. Also replaced leaky WC cistern, replaced dodgy plumbing to washhandbasin (leaky water valve and didn't drain as water had to go uphill) and taken out another sink that had the same problem. "Choccing" on wiring still to sort out, but have improved how it was (house wired up very "haphazardly" so fuse box doesn't switch off what you think it should if that makes sense. Just accepted quote on one of the bathrooms (survey didn't comment other than to say of course you will be replacing these as soon as ... ). Floorboards in some of the rooms need sorting out soon (have holes in a couple of the floors covered by carpet / lino only! and some dodgy wonky ones). Oh and there are hardly any power sockets anywhere which p**s dh off. And garden fence is falling down. (Had to get the jungle cleared when we moved in.) Kitchen right mess too.

One friend said she felt like she ought to pick up a paintbrush or something when she came round because there's so much that obviously needs doing that she felt sorry for me.

Trying to keep in mind how it will be.

You are not alone! I really sympathise and I do think that your home environment can be quite depressing when things are not working.

We have also had loads of problems with our house - we moved in 2.5 years and it is still very much a work in progress.

If it makes you feel better, we've had a flooded basement (twice), raw sewage escaping into the garden, numerous small leaks (one which we caught before it brought the ceiling down), dodgy electrics and a near miss with my DS1 putting a spanner into a socket , main bathroom leaks into kitchen if the DSs splash about, shower cuts out regularly.

Our kitchen is totally depressing too with varnished pine ceilings and unit doors falling off their hinges!

We have also had numerous bad experiences with tradespeople, so have to admit I am very hacked off with it all.

I was wondering about getting in someone like a Feng Shui consultant, I know its a bit dippy, but I do feel that some houses are quite unlucky and need a bit of extra attention. Not sure if that is the answer but am getting a bit desperate...

I don't understand how this happens to people - didn't it show up in the survey?

We have a neighbour who bought a crumbling Victorian without a survey and was then surprised to find out that she has roof problems, needs a new boiler, the electrics are wonky and the plumbing is more colander like than anything else... Yet she had £10k to spend on new flooring (which the plumbing promptly wrecked!).

Even if I had a home report, I'd still have a full survey done in an old property. Ours is probably worse than our neighbour's house but we knocked a bit off the sale price for rot which the survey discovered, plus we knew there was about another £20k to spend to get it liveable, let alone nice. Even if you don't do the work all at once there isn't that heart sinking feeling of "yet another disaster".

If you haven't had a proper survey done, you might want to get one done retrospectively either by a surveyor or find a trustworthy builder. Mostly these guys can see where the problems lie, especially in old houses.

northerngirl we paid £1.2 K for a full survey but it didnt cover the electrics and he couldnt get up on the roof. He couldnt have forseen the problems with drainage/flooding. We did negotioate about 50K off the asking price but the owner wouldnt budge any further.

We are no renovation newbies, this is the third house we have taken on, but its about 3 times larger than our previous house and so very expensive to renovate/maintain and we have been unlucky with tradespeople to date.

Sorry, I do feel for you, but you have all made me a little cherrier about having to rent (which is depressing me).

Cheerier

I do hope the poster who wants to buy a house and has only 2K in savings reads this.

I'd probably get some specialists out to survey electrics/roof then. We knew there was rot because of the survey, we then had a rot specialist come out to investigate and give us a quote on how much it would cost to put right. I still think that's worth doing - don't ask them to quote on the job just pay them for a report at this stage, then you know they aren't lowballing you to get you to commit to the work.

Tradesmen are usually on the make, and it's horrible to be the stroppy madam saying "No cash until this, that and the next thing are put right" but really that's all you have on your side.

£2k in savings to buy a house? Oh-er!

Oooh good, lots of replies. Feeling much cheerier, not such a whiney cow now. rudolphsnose i like cherrier, defitiely goes with your nose.

Yomell.. and Panacotta exactly! And your stories both WORSE than mine! Oh just what I need. It's just so depressing. Better today actually. Radiator valve still not repaired - first plumber said he was fully booked for 10 days and couldn't help!

Now northerngirl you are being far too serious. Actually we got a mid range survey done. Showed up plenty (roof, parapet gutter, side wall). But all these current 'little' things are more the result of sellers who just wanted out, had done nothing for years, took the fire grate with them, hid all the grime. Surveyors don't go round checking precise workings of boiler (it switches on) or whether a shelf will hold up. And I haven't even mentioned the halfway house next door (for ex young offendors) or our other neighbour who has a car servicing business in his front garden (lovely man though, look on the bright side). Survey didn't pick that up either!

Ha beautyspot. And we are not newbies either - must be our seventh house. We are old too (late 40s, early 50s, bout half the age of the house) - hence inability to put more money on mortgage. Don't regret decision to buy tho. It was a terrible time to find somewhere. We have somewhere to live finally that's ours. It's sellable in time.

But it's just good to get pissed off and have someone else say - oh yes! Me too. So THANK YOU.

We are the same. Roof leaking, bedroom wall falling down due to leaking. Heating broken, exterior wall crumbled in downstairs and left huge hole directly outside, which we have currently just glued a cupboard door over. I want to live in a home, but at the moment we live in a filthy hideous scary place, with no money to do anything, and it is making all our belongings not feel like ours either, as they are being contaminated by The Place. And boy does it smell bad! But 2 years down the line all will be forgotten I'm sure (despite me currently prefering the shed!)

The neighbours are lovely, and I will eventually scrub the smell out I'm sure!

I think I'm just lucky to have a really pedantic / pesimistic surveyor. Mind you when he did my first flat number of years ago, he claimed the ceiling price was about £2k more than I paid for it and would never ever go any higher ever.... Which is interesting, because I doubled my money on it in 5 years.

This one he actually came to and said "Right, tell me you were joking..." Fortunately I managed to convince him I wasn't joking, and did not want to buy the nice new build down the road which he thought was an excellent investment. He then became paranoid I'd sue him when he didn't spot something, hence did a pretty good job. They can't just stamp massive disclaimers on things - otherwise what's the point in using them?

I mean fair enough, if it's just for a mortgage survey and you only need to know "Will this house fall down?" then okay. But if I'm paying for it? Get your torch out!!

(Oh and yes, we probably spent in the region of £2,500 on surveys trying to buy this house - couple of failed ones, couple of specialist reports etc. So ouch on the pocket!)