House buying regrets...is this normal??? :(

[Becaroooo]

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!

[skandi1]

Flatbread. Thank you.

Lottie. If you do decide to move out of London, I know of a very nice house in north west Kent on the edge of London which will be for sale shortly (fingers crossed).

Becarooo. I had a dream about your conservatory last night. I dreamt I saw a house with a leaking conservatory and it was because there were clips missing from the filials . And in my dream I thought I must tell Becarooo. So clearly I win the prize for being odd......

[Becaroooo]

hahahahaha Am v v sorry I am interfering with your subconcious skandi !!

Any joy on convincing dh to sell up?

[skandi1]

Sadly no Becarooo. Still working on it.

To be fair to him, he is doing his best to make me like the place. He has offered to up budgets for the new bathroom and kitchen plus new bedroom furniture once all the dusty work is done.

I think I will keep plugging away at him. Hopefully he will cave eventually.

[Becaroooo]

good luck!!

[littlecrystal]

Can I lift this thread up please? Just want to get out my emotions about my house... In a way I am glad to see that house regrets are quiet common.
I bought my house almost 4 years ago. When I was viewing it, it looked like I will just need to paint the pine door frames after I move in - it looked tired but liveable. However, I had to do so much more - had to fix the electrics (it wasn't working), replace the leaking conservatory, sand & varnish floorboards (otherwise they would get too thin if not varnished in time), replace the rest of the flooring (cat-wee smell...), install double glazing (windows too draugthy), completely replace bathroom (major leaks), repaint all rooms (to make it feel own...)... I felt like I was just fixing and fixing and fixing in the first 2 years and some things I just redecorated on surface as the house probably would need full rewiring, replastering, relaying floorboards etc.. It is PITA when you have FT job, 2 small DC and DH cannot put a nail in the wall.
After 4 years of agonising I have decided (DH has no opinion!) to sell and move to a 1960s town house in a better school catchment area hoping that there will be no newspaper stuffed behind skirting boards, wanky floors or crumbling plaster. Fingers crossed my house will sell at the right price (bought price + investment made).

The irony of this is that I got used to it - like you get used to a sick family member (the house) - and I will be sad to leave, especially my grotty but very convenient to live-in area. I am only 34 but i am hoping that the next house will be right and forever home. I cannot afford to make these costly mistakes again.

[doglover]

We've lived in our house for nearly 7 years and it's never really felt like home. It's currently under offer (we hope - that's a whole other thread!) and we've offered on a much smaller house that is much more 'me'. Like some other people have mentioned, my dh loves it here because it's very big and quite impressive. I find it cold with way too many rooms to keep clean and tidy. Our next house has 4 bedrooms, 2 receptions and an ok kitchen. I can't wait!

[halphgracie]

Let me tell you my experience, I sold our completely finished 1890s street house in a rough estate with lots of landlords due to prices rock bottoming we only owed 30k.and only 9 years remaining. We purchased another home with no chain thinking it would be ok. Turns out the house was a complete money pit and put my family at risk, asbestos, rotten timbers leaking roofs no earth wires in property, lead water pipes, mould condensation cold it nearly tipped me over edge. Luckily a house builder part exchanged it for us otherwise I doubt I would have coped. I still think back especially with it being xmas thinking "god my first house was totally fine" life gives you lemons sometimes. Karma will catch up with the orginal vendor who sold me old place knowing I had a daughter and not disclosing.

[halphgracie]

How did you get on in the end? The reason I ask is I bought a money pit too and sold it.....selling it was the biggest mistake I ever made, things just take time and do envelope tasks, set a goal to get something fixed and save as much as you can in each envelope for each job, honestly there is always some reason why you buy a house so stick with it bit by bit, fight through those hard times and get it fixed up! Do not do what I did which is give up and swap for a new build, I hate it!!

[catbasilio]

halphgracie I hear you. I too sold my old money pit in exchange for 50 years old house hoping for easier life. Well the life is easier and maintenance is low but I miss my old house and area and wish I had never sold it. In the year that I have sold the price of my old house has risen so much more than the current one. I had doubts but I was fed up my old house at the time and thought I may as well just do it. Now I am in attempt to sell up and move to my old area and no one wants to buy my current house.
I live to regret more and more every day and just wish my karma was over and I could move on.

[halphgracie]

I feel your pain really I do, let me share my experience with you and firstly encourage you not to give up on the current house, I will explain why.
We purchased a 1930s semi which had been very cleverly flipped by a dishonest vendor, us too with a young daughter. The property although in an amazing area was quite simply unsafe; electrics and gas had no certificates and non were requested via our solicitors; the boiler (old back boiler) was not vented and the electrics had no earth wires, many double plugs were wired with single core wire and shower was only on 6amp wire, the lights in the bathroom were also placed above zone 1 and were also not earthed.
The roof leaked, the bay window leaked, the double glazing cracked and let lots of cold in, the flat kitchen roof leaked, the garage roof leaked in fact there wasn't actually much that didn't leak, including all the taps in the property. The walls were damp which had been hidden with plasterboard over the top and then huge skirting boards and coving added with chrome light fittings; I found black mould growing in the back of front room and the plasterboard was saturated with water. The front garden sloped towards the property and the water would slowly drain into the foundations which after a day or so would then evaporate through the property and cause very bad condensation. The central heating system was pretty much wrecked and when you put the water on the radiators would also get hot, there were rotten timbers in the roof and the roof tiles themselves were asbestos. The full ordeal of finding so many things wrong spiraled me into a wild panicked frenzy which in my panicked state of mind had me approach a house builder and palmed it off to them on a part exchange. This was all ok, until after I left the house and I realised how much of silly mistake this was to give up a house that all of the issues could have been fixed. I would say always think about the reasons you chose the property in the first place and worry about the things going wrong later; If I could have one wish it would be to just try and start to tackle the jobs in that little money pit rather than throwing in the towel and giving up. I am in a new build now and its pretty dire, yes its finished clean and warm but it just isn't the house that I actually wanted, and felt almost forced to make another move faced with the issues in the other place. I am out of options for the time being and will likely end up selling up at a huge loss on the new build in a year of so and just start out all over again.