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Property/DIY

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Original poster

What the sellers left behind

33 replies

Believeitornot · 07/05/2016 18:11

We've been in our new home for about 2 months now and so far we've discovered carpet moths, the thickest dust I've ever seen behind radiators, carpet which smells of dog and the smell isn't shifting. Plus the bathroom is on its last legs and the outside of the house needs a massive makeover.

So overall it's getting us down as don't know where to begin (well we are having the bathroom done!)

Please share your tales of terrible houses which you've turned into dream homes to make me feel better :)

OP posts:

situatedknowledge · 07/05/2016 18:13

Every single one we have bought (6). Even the one we bought because it was pristine and didn't need a single thing doing to it, the kitchen cupboard door fell off on the first day we moved in.

anyoldname76 · 07/05/2016 18:16

we had no choice but to move into a council house, it was disgusting, there was graffiti on the bedroom walls, ripped wallpaper downstairs, grease everywhere in the kitchen and the whole house stunk. the floors were that sticky the council womans shoe came off as she was walking across the living room. the garden wasn't much better, we spent 2 weeks cleaning and decorating the whole house and its a lovely home now

Coldtoeswarmheart · 07/05/2016 18:17

We inherited a loft full of junk, a garden littered with broken furniture and a crash-damaged car on the drive. Since then we have replaced the kitchen, bathroom, shower room and cloakroom, all flooring and a fair few floor boards, and completely redecorated. The boiler is next, then the windows, then the fireplace. We are 3.5 years in.

Coldtoeswarmheart · 07/05/2016 18:20

Oh, I forgot the bannisters, which we replaced, and the repairs to the retaining walls.

insideout · 07/05/2016 20:49

We inherited about 6 inches of cat fur underneath the psychedelic carpets millions of fabric moths, and the worst loft insulation job in the world ( they have literally just tossed a ton of fibre insulation into the loft space) but on the plus side they also left some awesome vintage wooden stepladders, just 8 months in to full renovation!

AveEldon · 07/05/2016 20:52

bin the carpets
get the place sprayed for moths

SecretSeven · 07/05/2016 20:53

A stone "feature", which concealed about half a ton of asbestos.

Hawkmoth · 07/05/2016 20:55

This...

Liara · 07/05/2016 20:59

The ceilings (old plaster and lathe) painted silver.

Car parts in the garden (we had made it a condition of sale that the scrapped cars had to be removed)

A lovely stash of condoms and needles between a wall and a tank which we discovered when we removed said tank

Endless piles of junk all over the place. Old tools all rusted up, you name it. They were serious hoarders.

The list continues...however 10 years on it's a lovely, (almost fully) restored house!

lavendersun · 07/05/2016 21:00

We had a mound of earth that had been neatly grassed over ...... When we set about levelling it we discovered two toilets and a sink. Rats in the barn which had a load of flour and sugar stored in it, the previous owner had a license to do catering from home, the place was filthy, truly filthy.

When we were renovating it we found a staircase and two inglenook fireplaces behind wood panelling they were full, completely full of rubbish, we filled a big skip with the rubbish from behind the walls.

RandomMess · 07/05/2016 21:03

Getting rid of moths needs to be done professionally these day, ditch the carpets and get it all sprayed!

There is always some sort of unforeseen nightmare I'm afraid...

pieceofpurplesky · 07/05/2016 21:03

Furniture. As in every piece that was in the house when I looked around. Every cupboard was full. Even pictures hanging in the wall.

Dilemmawithfil12 · 07/05/2016 21:25

Situatedknowledge - the exact same thing happened to me! First house I bought and the kitchen door fell off the day I moved in. Apart from that the loft was full of dog toys/collars and one of the bedrooms had the carpet ripped up and replaced with paper with a wood pattern on it glued to the floor, covering floor boards stained with animal (I hope animal!) piss that smelt for months.

Original poster

Believeitornot · 07/05/2016 22:07

we had bed bugs in our last place which was bad enough. The carpets do need to go - but we want a big refurb of the ground floor so thought we'd keep them until then

These stories are making me feel better! Dd has already told me the kitchen is "dirty" despite the fact we keep it clean 😔 She is 4!

OP posts:

OublietteBravo · 07/05/2016 22:11

Enough spare material to allow us to have curtains like this in every room of the house.

insideout · 08/05/2016 09:28

Our first job was to rip the carpets out (and a wall so we could have a kitchen rather than 2 units) then strip walls, 80s style waterproof wallpaper on top of painted 60s style vinyl wallpaper on top of 1930s flocked paper (9 layers of wallpaper/paint) was an epic job, and we still have the hall, stairs and landing to do which has a thick pink gloss paint over the top of the paper, fun fun fun!

22Dee · 08/05/2016 10:41

This reply has been deleted

Message deleted by MNHQ. Here's a link to our Talk Guidelines.

JT05 · 08/05/2016 20:22

Lovely, light fittings that they could not be bothered to remove. But, an illegally fittined wood burner, which was sold as working!

Fourarmsv2 · 11/05/2016 18:20

Loads of dog toys in the garden.

A pond hidden under a flat bush.

Dog hair everywhere - every time we do a job we find more - under kitchen cupboards, under skirting, under carpets....

A cricket set :)

The purchase documents for the kitchen - 25 years earlier it cost more than our new kitchen!

LifeIsGoodish · 11/05/2016 18:22

Fleas.
Used condoms.
Some 'glamour' shots of Mrs PreviousOwner.

Duckstar · 11/05/2016 18:26

Lots of DIY electric and plumbing jobs, which all need redoing. Everything we touch seems to have a problem meaning everything costs double what we expectedly

OldGuard · 11/05/2016 18:30

We found an urn with ashes - a single name was etched on the outside - and the dates of his life - 3 months

I tried to tracked down the previous owners via the estate agents but they would not give out their address understandably - I asked them to forward a letter to them - But never heard back

dowhatnow · 11/05/2016 18:35

An big, ancient locked suitcase in the cellar. I was very scared of what I might find when I opened it... But it was only books.

There was also a hatch in the cupboard which led into the attic. There were no bolts and the attic served a long run of terrace houses. Anyone could have entered my house!!!

Woopsiedaisy · 11/05/2016 18:35

Hundreds of heavy, cracked garden pots containing old conifers.
Rotten floors / stairs
Woodworm in the loft.
A non working Boiler
A leaking Oil Tank
A hot water tank that had been leaking for years and fell through the Utility Room celing (which they had painted to conceal the leak) three weeks later.
A Whirlpool Bath which hadn't been properly earthed.
Leaking Toilets
And Bats.

All should have been picked up by the very expensive Survey I commisioned, but no, not one. I was buying from 300 miles away so totally reliant on two viewings and said Surveyor.

I quite like the Bats, but the rest cost me £20k to fix.

It will be a fab purchase for someone in the future as everything is now perfect !!

BumFunHun · 11/05/2016 18:35

Ooooh our last place was filled with random crap in the loft - BUT among the crap was a box of old Christmas decs containing these:-

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