Been in our new house for 6 weeks now (moved in on 2nd December)
I had an accident (fell down the stairs!) 3 days after we moved in and so spent 2 weeks immobile (couldnt realy walk or drive - very frustrating!)
There have been a few issues;
The boiler didnt work properly (its not old either!) - very little hot water. (have to bath the dc at PILs and we have to have showers)
The kitchen hob didnt work properly - have had to replace it (£200).
Then the conservatory roof started leaking....a company came round 3 times before it seemed fixed (£300).
Not a great run up to xmas really 
Anyway, new year and all that, right?
Except
The boiler guy is coming out tomorrow to clean and try and sort boiler (£600)
The conservatory roof is leaking again so needs looking at again.
We have no savings left. These bills will have to go on the mastercard. Its mine and dhs 40th b day this year - were planning something special. Not going to happen now.
Just keep thinking - if we had stayed in our (too small) rental house we would have £20k in the bank, the LL would sort any issues and we would be able to go on a nice holiday and have no CC debt.
I know IABU and silly...this is a nice house BUT the shine has really been taken off it for me and all I can see are the problems and things that need doing.
I actually thought about asking dh if we could do a bit of decorating and put it back on the market in the spring!!! I didnt...he would go loopy
Come on...give me a kick and tell me I am being silly!
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House buying regrets...is this normal??? :(
Becaroooo · 16/01/2012 10:45
Hi skandi Its awful int it? I also feel very ungrateful as dh didnt even want to move house, bless him! (moved for family reasons and I never liked the area we were in before, although the house was fab by the time we moved)
I think you may be right about the trauma when you moved affecting your ability to love the house...its nothing to what you went through obviouisly but we moved 3 weeks before xmas, moved ourselves to save money (never again!) and then 3 days after we move in I fell down the stairs and broke toes on each foot so was immobile for 2 weeks!!!! That didnt help matters!
Woken up this morning and the conservatory roof is leaking again so just been onto the upvc guys to order the parts to get that fixed
Since we moved in we have had to buy; new kitchen hob, a new boiler and parts for the conservatory roof and labour and VAT for all that.....£2,500 so far.....I could weep.
Its sooo wierd that you mention putting your house back on the market!....was thinking that myself last week! I was planning to decorate the front room,. conservatory and hall, stairs and landing and then put it back on the market....havent mentioned it to dh though!!! 
Like you, its a nice house in a quiet area and the kids like it BUT I am very underwhelmed atm...just hope once I start decorating it feels more like "mine" IYSWIM? My ds1's bedroom needs doing too....I think the prvious owners bought a job lot of magnolia paint!!!!
Becarooo. Poor you that conservatory sounds like a pain.
Well I can't put my finger on why I don't like living here. I should. Most people would give their right arm for this house and our friends are all 
. But I just don't feel it.
Our last house I loved from the second we got the keys and I wept bitter tears leaving.
This house is bigger better more expensive and much more impressive than our last house. We got it for a good price due to the cheap finishes which had been put in. Think 200 year old lodge house with a wood panelled lounge and then a cheap howdens kitchen and vinyl flooring in hall and kitchen. And we have now spent about £30k rectifying the cheap finishes and more to come with new kitchen and bathrooms.
But still I don't like it. The DCs love it and the space and the garden etc.
It's unfortunately DHs dream house and I am not sure how I would persuade him to ever move .
I actually bumped into estate agent who sold it to me this morning and I showed him around and what we had done. He is marketing a house along same road. He reckoned now we have almost finished the house properly and with the new kitchen and bathrooms we could get several hundred thousand more than we paid for it. I am going to mention this to DH tonight and see whether he is interested in moving. Wish me luck.
skandi Wow!! Thats an impressive increase! (are you in the SE??) Good luck with your dh 
Ours would increase nowhere near that due to putting right all the bloody issues 
but I reckon we could get enough for a small deposit.
Anyway. Further news.....Now the boiler is leaking too.
You couldnt make it up, could you?
The plumber thinks its condensation - its not, the water dripping from the expansion vessel is stone cold! - but says to give it a week and ring him. He will be getting a call on thurs/fri to get the hell back here and sort it out. Luckily we have only paid a quarter of what we owe so far so if he wants the rest he better sort it!!!!
Sigh. V V fed up.
kreecher I think your situation must be quite common i.e. moving for catchment and not neccessarily loving the house? Sorry this is case for you This house has a garage conversion and its a very useful space - the dc have it as a playroom/tv room and their is a WC/utilty area in there too.
Its quite funny really, lots of really big houses round here with double and even triple garages and yet during the spate of really cold/frosty weather we have had not one of them put their cars in the garage!!!!
If house prices continue to rise (even if only slightly) then it may well be worth our moving once the decoration is done.
Hi all, long time reader of the site :)
was compelled to finally register to join discussion here :o as this rings so true with my experiences!
We bought our first house 5 years ago having rented for 2 years and being told by everyone under the sun that renting was 'dead money' (hate that phrase soooo much!)
Well it turns out that house prices DON'T ONLY EVER GO UP! Trust me!
had we rented for the past five years we'd now be roughly £60k better off!
as it is we're stuck in our home and anything that goes wrong we have to pay for - no more phoning the landlord! So I sympathise with the OP very much here.
All I would say is we seem to have been brainwashed a bit in this country about the whole home ownership dream! when we don't actually own our homes - the banks do! and charge us twice the price of it over the life of the mortgage!
Fume: Thanks for listening,
Lol
Sarah
I also regret this place...our neighbours are like the Shameless family but worse. They have dangerous dogs, rumoured to be drug dealers and their language is incredibly foul and abusive and Loud with it.
We are certain they are the reason the previous owner left as she had been here 25 yrs.
I would kill for a dodgy boiler over that lot.
sooty Oh how awful for you! I am sorry (our neighbours seem quite nice so far!.....)
sarah Welcome to MN!! I know what you mean..."renting is dead money" is one of Dh's fave sayings I wish we had stayed renting too...we would be much better off financially and I wouldnt be nearing a nervous breakdown Its no fun dealing with all this with a bad back, broken toes and 2 young dc!!!
Gas fire not working now! 
fimbo My dsis is in a very similar situation to you...very large house on a new estate but there isnt much garden (and what there is is boggy and damp) and the parking is a nightmare! They bought at the height of the market (2006/07) and would lose quite a bit on it - if they could sell it!. Not many 3 storey 5 bed houses shifting round here!
It'll be the roof next........
Becarooo. Chat with DH did not go well. He was not happy and has been quietly fuming ever since.
Sorry to hear the boiler is leaking! It's not good. If the plumber left it like that he needs to come and sort it without further charge.
The increase is only impressive because we (me at 36 weeks with DC 2) bought an unfinished refurb of a house which had been derelict and the builder refurbing had financial problems. And it has been a pain in the arse having contractors in almost every single day since DS was 2 weeks old.
This evening I smell the unmistakable smell of raw sewage in our ensuite. I go and say to DH "I smell shit in the bathroom" and obviously he rolls his eyes. Well after I went outside and had a rummage it turns out we have a blocked drain which has also blocked the pipe all the way up hence smell at first floor levels.
Too dark to get it sorted tonight. So now DH is snoring and I can't sleep because it smell of shit. Argh.
skandi Ugh...how horrid! How can men sleep when stuff like this happens?? Sorry the chat didnt go well I havent had the courage to talk to dh yet...I sense he will feel the same as your dh!
Argh. I know. Becarooo. Waiting for drain person to come.
DH said he would sort at weekend! didn't want to call anyone out! Anyway I called someone as it can't wait and stinks out our bedroom and the playroom. Dd refuses to go in there today and I don't blame her.
Can't blame the former owners for this tho as I suspect it's a blockage caused by DD (2.5) stuffing loo roll down and flushing while I am not looking or bathing DS in the other bathroom.
How is your boiler today? Any closer to fixing leak???
I almost don't dare to ask after your conservatory , Beckarooo. Any resolution to the dripping?
Don't know what it's like where you are but here it's foggy and soggy so not helping with mood or blocked drain.
Hi skandi the weather is hideous here atm...foggy, drizzly and very grey...bluergh.
Good news about getting someone out! Hope its not a major issue...could well be too much loo paper put down...we had that at our last house courtesy of ds1!!
No leaks since the last one but we have ordered a new part for the roof (finials) which the upvc guy said were rotten so hopefully that should be it Only another £200!!!!
Havent looked at the boiler today yet...I darent!!!!
Perhaps newgirl I did catch myself imagining summer earlier today and sitting in the conservatory and eating lunch with all the doors open......
Long way off though.........
Bec - you know I really hated this house, the boiler was a nightmare issue for us so we eventually succumbed and put in a new one. The fuel has been massively expensive (lpg so not many choices ) but today dh did some figures as our contract is up. Since we moved here and changed the boiler (after the first year!) we have saved over £700 in gas alone. This has gone some way to making me feel better for that initial expenditure.
As I said earlier up the thread, the first couple of years are always going to be hard financially. They always have been for us in the past 2 houses we have owned (didn't own before ) but you do see light at the end of the tunnel. Its a bit like that non sleeping new born stage - euphoria followed by complete and utter sleep deprivation but it does pass. Hopefully. And I now find myself looking forward to getting into my home when I have been somewhere - even to the supermarket! I hope that helps - not meant to be smug but am getting towards loving my home. A lot.
professor Am v v pleased for you...its a horrid feeling isnt it? To not feel happy in your - supposed - sanctuary?
Upvc guys came out today and have replaced a part of the conservatory roof - he said he had never seen anything like it....inside the finials it was chipboard which soaks up water like a sponge!
Anyway, its done now so this weekends job is painting that and then next weekend is papering the front room 
Hall, stairs and landing will have to wait til the summer....big job and need a new carpet too.
New kitchen def on the list too...just seems everything the previous vendors did was a botch job - just like our last house!!!! I can really see why people like new builds....new and guaranteed for 10 years!!!
Hi Becarooo. Excellent news on fixing the conservatory! Allows you to move on with decoration and making it yours.
Drain and blockage all sorted. DH was mad that I spent money getting someone out. Well easy to say when you are out of the house 14 hours a day.
I am meant to be sorting out an order for curtains but am lacking the energy (2 under 3 will do that for you).
Enjoy your decorating.
Good news that its sorted for you! My dh is the same skandi
When the boiler went caput I actually had to point out thas its me and the dc who have to live in the house whilst he is at work with hot running water and heating!!!!
There is just so much I want to do to this house.......and now no money to do it...sigh.
I find anything to do with curtains strangely draining
Have a good weekend x
Bec we had to put in a new kitchen in our old house, when we took it out and moved a couple of electricity points we discovered that the whole kitchen was wired on one adapter plug 
and we had to remove the tiling on the floor, discovered a massively rotten joist (again a botch job from some brick work outside) and I was told if I had stood on it for too long we would have fallen through. I was 8 months pg! The tiles were held down by no nails..............................
But we fixed it. Eventually.
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Oh professor!
I cant bear to think about what awaits us tbh...it'll be a while til we can do it...just spent nearly £3k sorting out the mess the pv's left
I am pretty sure the pv fitted the kitchen himself...no kitchen fitter would have left so bad a finish (or put a F/F next to an inbuilt oven)
Am thinking of just getting a new F/F for now - moving it - and making do til we can strip the kitchen and start again!
Kitchen isnt that big - 13ft x 8 ft but with a large window and back door too so not loads of room, but it couls be soooo much better than it is
Can I join? Been lurking for a while...
We got the keys to our new house on 16th moved in on 23rd and it just doesn't feel like home . We have rented for the last 2yrs since moving to the area (although we did own before that) and I am another one missing the "just call the LL" when there is a problem.
So far we have spent...
£380 for a new TV aerial system - the old one was analogue & didn't work even with a freeview TV/box, etc.
£600 for a new garage door - the old one didn't lock when we moved in although it did when we viewed so I think it must've got bent/broken during the pv moving her stuff out
£500 for a new cooker that still hasn't arrived (but that's another story....)
I am currently sat in my new living room on a camping chair (a mate is using his van to move our sofa tomorrow) under a blanket because it is so bloody cold but if you put the heating on it is like an oven 
Also, have had so much post for the pv - we completed on 16th so why haven't you set up mail redirection yet? Tempted to put it in the postbox not known at this address
Hope everyone else gets on a bit better this weekend xx
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