anyone else living in a house they can't afford to maintain?

[curlingandtwirling]

I live in a 1900 Victorian mid terrace, my perfect house. Well it was when we moved in. We currently have a long list of repairs and jobs to maintain the property, but we just can't afford it.

It looks lovely on the surface (interior) but the windows need replacing, there is render that needs knocking off and repairing, the floorboards are rotting, the ground floor joists need replacing, which will result in new carpets. The kitchen is looking a bit dated, but otherwise ok. I dread to think what the roof is like, then there is damp in one corner of the house as the dpc need replacing.

I'm struggling to even get quotes for the jobs, so we can budget for the smaller jobs first.

It's getting me down. I love my house but falling through the floorboards is not an option!

We’ve gutted and refurbished 2 Victorian houses. The first, when we were quite naive about the amount of work and what always lies beneath.
Once finished we took on an even bigger pile with more realistic expectations and experience.
It will take time, if you don’t have pots of money to throw at the house, ours took about 5 years each. Any large amounts of money were spent on structural repairs and alterations. Weathertight and heating a priority.
Learn and do as much DIY as possible. Things sometimes look worse than they are. We had a large ceiling that looked as if it needed replacing, it was all patchy. I painted it white and it improved 100%.

We have also gutted a 1960s house, a time when there was a great deal of house building, much of it shoddy. Particularly woodwork.

A useful book for all Victorian and Edwardian house owners is the Haynes Victorian and Edwardian house manual. Loads of helpful tips.
Currently in an Edwardian house, I love the style.

We had been in our old house for thirteen years and hadn’t been able to do anything other than paint and get a new boiler.
Two years ago our neighbour asked to buy a part of our huge garden and we agreed. The money all went into repairs and improvements on our house.
Or there’s always the lottery or your rich old aunt’s legacy.