Victorian house owners - talk me out of it!

[sarahb083]

We're looking for a house and I find myself exclusively drawn to Victorian houses. They're smaller, more expensive to heat and you pay a premium for the charm. But they're so lovely that I can't help it.

If you own a Victorian house property, please talk me out of it! I know logically a 30s semi-detached is a better buy for all of the reasons listed above, but I can't seem to convince myself.

Wind howling down the chimney keeps us awake at night and makes the bedrooms really cold! DCs hate the fireplaces!

Our massive kitchen diner is bloody freezing and the two large lounges in our house has meant that we're more divided family as we only rarely all sit together in the same room.

Yuk...slugs and mice....I just can't understand how people can put up with things like that just for the sake of nice features. That's gross.

At least a new build is warm, cheap to heat and insure, easy to clean and far less likely to have problems with subsidence and damp.

Surprised at some of these comments, we owned a detached Victorian house and it was fine to heat, very warm actually, probably as the windows had been replaced and it was carpeted throughout. It genuinely was no colder than the modern semi I once lived in, not was the heating bills very different.

I now live in a four hundred year old listed building. And if you want to talk about hard to heat. Pull up a chair. Sigh,

I think with tweaking, older and colder houses can be made comfortable!

I fell in love with the hallway floor when I saw my house - then saw the lovely fireplaces... after that, I was blind

Lived in Victorian terraced houses for 29 years- don't miss the noise mostly. Everyone anyone walked or ran down the stairs next door it echoed. Find out if the neighbours are nice because you will hear every arguement/ dinner party/ drunken homecoming like it's your living room. I miss the garden walls (rather than fences). Not the lack of parking, awkward hallway, for bags/ prams/ no storage.