Has anyone bought an old cottage and lived to regret it?

[YvyB]

Will try to keep this short...
Am looking for a house in a specific location (for ds secondary schooling and my work). Am currently renting in that location but really want to buy. Have always wanted to live in an old house but have always ended up taking the 'safe option' of a modern house (partly because my dad is a real doom-mongerer!). I'm now buying by myself (bit complicated - dh's son is at agricultural college in the next county so dh needs to buy there). We're doing weekends together, weeks apart. Anyway...

Very limited housing stock to choose from. Have offered on 2 modern(ish) properties but had both rejected (neither vendor has decided if they really want to move but are testing the market to see if they get a high price). Only other house in my budget (well within) is 150+ yr old cottage. Have taken a builder around and made offer based on likely costs of maintenance that has been accepted. I also have the budget and will need to add a conservatory. Because it will come off an extension, it will need planning permission. I also want to have a full structural survey (had a good chat to a surveyor I know and he will do it for me). I can get planning advice re the conservatory too but cost of survey and planning advice is about £850, which is a lot to shell out given that the purchase might not even go through.

I really like the cottage, despite no garage or parking, and I know I would enjoy the character quirks. But...old properties can be moneypits. So...

Do I go for it accepting there might be a few problems but being forewarned with survey and planning advice or do I take the safe, boring option and carry on renting until another modern box (with all its conveniences) comes up that I can afford?

Anyone followed their heart and regretted it?

We live in an almost 300 year old cottage and we have spent a fair amount on it since we bought it 5 years ago but the only really drastic thing wasn't caused by the age of the home - more by the cowboy plumber the previous owner used.

Ah! The dreaded historical cowboy!

My surveyor said basically any house over 40yrs old can have problems, age itself doesn't necessarily cause them but we did discuss damp issues. If I instruct him to go ahead, he will be checking for this.
Are you pleased you bought an old house? Does the pleasure you get from living there outweigh the disadvantages?

We love our old house, we rented a new house for a year when we moved here and we hated it.
We've always lived in older houses and love the thick walls that mean it's cool in summer and warm in winter.

I live in a very old cottage ... it was basically almost derelict when we bought it - so I remodelled it exactly how best suits us as a family... anyway - it's full of quirks and character.... for a break we just spent a week in a new build, strikingly modern, holiday house by the sea in Cornwall - was lovely but so perfect I felt I had to kept it spotless - ( not really the idea on holiday !!) where as my old cottage suits miss match furniture and doesn't show up each grain of sand from the beach ! so my vote goes to an old cottage any day !!!

I live in an ancient cottage. It's a money pit and the upkeep of it is very hard work. Like Mrspnut, because it's so old previous quick fixes or outdated building work seem to require constant updating. I don't regret it so much as I prefer living in cities which is where I will be moving next. I also prefer bigger/lighter Edwardian/Victorian houses. We are always banging our heads on low beams!

Not a cottage, but our house is about 120 yrs old.

Like MrsPnut - the things that have needed putting right weren't anything to do with the original house, all things the cowboy builder who owned it 2 owners ago botched up. It's certainly not been a moneypit for us.

My in laws live in an old cottage which has been really well take care of over the years and it is lovely. They have done work on it but because they want to change things but not because they had to. When they had the survey done, the guy basically said, this thing has been standing for 250 years, it's solid, it's not going anywhere. It's a beautiful place and they absolutely love it!

Thanks everyone! I don't feel quite so scared now!

We're buying somewhere that's nearly 90 years old - not so old but again spending thousands on it to deal with previous owner's bizarre behaviour - adding artex to every wall and ceiling in the 80s (with asbestos), dodgy flat roof extension, odd add-ons that breach the damp course, etc. If they'd just left the dear place alone it would have been fine!

I'm happy to pay it though because of the happy character feel.

Any brick built house 150 years old will be single brick thickness so no cavity. The heating costs will be more. It is not true that because a house is 250 years old - it is not going anywhere ! Old houses can suffer from subsidence and heave and are more likely to because they have shallow or no foundations! Lots of older houses have been altered unsympathetically or just plain badly. Older houses are more liable to damp and draughts.

Having said all of that, there is a lot of satisfaction and pleasure to be gained from living in an older house. Make sure your survey is thorough. Planning applications have nothing to do with a conservatory coming off an extension. It would be more likely that if the house has been extended already, the planning authority may not approve a further one if the limit applied by the Council has been reached. We have a limit of no more than 50% of the 1948 footprint because we are green belt and area of outstanding natural beauty. You may be subject to similar constraints, eg a conservation area. A good look at the council's planning web site should tell you what the constraints might be. If the house is listed, clearly there are additional issues you will need to consider. Are other houses in the road extended twice? I would do my homework and not be put off unless it was in very poor condition, eg windows, roof, damp, rot, electrics and heating. All of these cost big time! You are not buying an Eco house though.