I hate our house. WWYD

[Jisforjuggling]

We bought it 2 years ago just before the pandemic. We didn’t love it but there wasn’t much around and it looked in ok nick and seemed to tick most of our boxes…..except not being detached. That aside we thought we could make it ‘home’. It’s become apparent that it was patched up to sell and actually needs thousands spent on it just to make it a workable home (think heating that works). We’ve had the first quote from the architect and it’s just an astronomical amount of money to sort it and add a small extension, that we would probably not get back if we stayed there til we died. We CAN afford it, but for various reasons I’ve grown to hate the house (I love where it is). If we spent a million pounds on renovations I still wouldn’t love it. DH has phoned a couple of EA about houses locally that have come on the market to be told they have 30+ viewings already booked in. All the houses locally are either going before they hit the open market or are going to bidding wars and cash buyers. At best we could be a 2nd mortgage buyer, but most likely we’d have to be in a chain….and there is nothing to rent locally. So would you 1)spend a shed load of money on a house that you’ll never love, but would be nice enough
2) patch it up as best you can view a view to moving as soon as the market calms…which will probably be in 2-5 years
3)try to move now.

Move now. Just freshen it up and declutter and make sure any obvious problems are fixed, then put it on the market. Don't remodel it, esp bathrooms and kitchens or extensions as people will have individual taste about these so you may as well not spend time and effort on them.

I would just put it up for sale now as theres nothing you can do unless you have an offer accepted on yours first.

Pointless staying in a house you don't like any longer than needed.

[quote Jisforjuggling]@Whatiswrongwithmyknee there is nothing fancy about it. The house pretty much needs gutting- new electrics, plumbing, plastering, flooring, kitchen, bathroom, add an ensuite. The price was for everything inside (so the finished product, not to first fix). But even so it’s insanely expensive.[/quote]
Does it though?

I only ask because I hear a lot of MNers being horrified that these jobs haven't been done in 20 years. Are you actually talking about a well functioning house and even the patches are actually changes you want to make?

If it's that, then you are balancing the cost and hassle of that against the cost of something more newly done....which is very different to if you had bought and expected a big reno project which you now don't fancy?

Op what do you hate about it? Is it dark does it have a bad feel?

It is just really really ugly? I’m trying to work out what can’t be changed. Surely it’ll be a new house if you do all the work?

Also OP I'm wondering why you say you will never love it

There's so much of this on MN...., assuming there's nothing horrendously wrong with it, if you have happy times there, you will love it. Happy times and happy people make a home as well as the fittings.

I'm still amazed at the prices you've quoted.

[quote Jisforjuggling]@CrunchTime22 we did a huge extension 4 years ago to a London commuter belt house for half that. Renovation prices have also gone up considerably.[/quote]
What made you move to the new place? Location?

@EmmaH2022 - none of the radiators downstairs work ie its freezing. We've had it checked twice. In conjunction with the boiler the 2 plumbers said it would be more cost effective just to install a whole new system.
The electrics are all over the place. none of the downstairs rooms have a light switch by the door, in fact one has no light switches in it at all - you have to go into another room to switch the light on. Does it work? yes. is it safe? yes. Do I want to spend the next 10 years walking through a room to another room to switch the light on in the first room? No. Does the kitten work? Yes. Do I want to spend the next 10 year emptying mousetraps every morning because there are huge holes in the cupboards at the back and in the walls behind? No. I could go on. Its the same in every single room.

Mostly I hate that its semi detached with very thin walls. The semi detached was our big compromise. I can hear next doors TV all day. If it was detached with a slightly bigger garden then I'd probably love it. There is nothing awful about it and everyone who visits says how nice it is (perhaps they are just being nice).

So full rewire - generous estimate 10k including plastering chases
New boiler and replumb - £6-10k, maybe 15k if all new column rads too for example…

New kitchen - can get an absolutely fabulous finish for £25-30k

….where is the rest of the ‘patch’ estimate coming from?!

(For the record I know these are reasonable estimates as I have done all of these jobs myself within the last 6-12 months…)

[quote Jisforjuggling]@EmmaH2022 - none of the radiators downstairs work ie its freezing. We've had it checked twice. In conjunction with the boiler the 2 plumbers said it would be more cost effective just to install a whole new system.
The electrics are all over the place. none of the downstairs rooms have a light switch by the door, in fact one has no light switches in it at all - you have to go into another room to switch the light on. Does it work? yes. is it safe? yes. Do I want to spend the next 10 years walking through a room to another room to switch the light on in the first room? No. Does the kitten work? Yes. Do I want to spend the next 10 year emptying mousetraps every morning because there are huge holes in the cupboards at the back and in the walls behind? No. I could go on. Its the same in every single room.[/quote]
The fact the kitten works is the most important thing, I'd love a kitten 😍

Seriously though...you must have noticed the light switches, surveyor will have found out about holes in walls...and they are not that much to fix?

Do you know what's actually wrong with the radiators? I was responsible for the common areas in one place I lived. When the electrics failed, I had two electricians tell me it needed to be rewired and that's all the info they'd give from a free quotation. Luckily the third one looked into it and found the fix!

Again, if it's all very very old and was a do er upper, you'll have known that so I'm puzzled by the post generally.

If you think of essential works as £150k it becomes a different question. Can you cope with the hassle of moving again etc.

Hope it all works out for you.

@Jisforjuggling

Mostly I hate that its semi detached with very thin walls. The semi detached was our big compromise. I can hear next doors TV all day. If it was detached with a slightly bigger garden then I'd probably love it. There is nothing awful about it and everyone who visits says how nice it is (perhaps they are just being nice).

X post

This is a biggie

If I ever get into that £ territory, then I wouldn't compromise on that. A detached is the ultimate prize!

@MyHusbandTheIdiot the patch estimate isn't £500k.

plastering around here is at least £500/room, so that your 10k for electrics and plastering gone on the plastering alone.

the kitchen will be a DIY kitchen for £6k. needs a new bathroom. the back of the house need rerendering.
the holes are small holes (mice are small). I didn't open every kitten cupboard when we looked around to make sure the back wall was intact.
And no, I didn't notice the switches when we looked around.

I would wonder how much that is truly a need - but I can believe the cost.

I’ve sunk 40-50k in London getting a house updated, essentials only. Started with a habitable home - not a wreck but everything last done in 90s/00s and a lot of old structure left alone since construction (they’d somehow had an extension built but not replaced the lead pipes?!)

30k was roof repairs (not even a new roof, repairs!?) And 5k heating, and 10k removing lead pipes/ getting up to code electrics / fixing leaks/ replacing drain catches / replastering one room and repainting an awkward hallway.

Rest we painted so apart from being mostly dulex trade approximation of wimbourne white, the house looks pretty much the same. Same floors. Same 2000s fitted wardrobes. Drives me made that’s so invisible.

But I do love my home… but I also grew up with a family income that was on the low side (think nhs allied/ teacher and one part time.) I mean, my parents only removed the woodchip in mid 2010s after they were sure I wasn’t going to boomerang back.

I know of people who parachute in their building firm to a new home and stay in rental until it’s done - can this be you?

Also I feel a lot of tradespeople at the moment are enjoying only coming out for the big jobs… that’s why you get a lot of “oh it all has to go quotes”. We’re opting for the “well, we’ll just live with it until we can convince someone to do it.” A lot of our tradespeople hit covid staffing issues and left us with functional half finished jobs.

We both work 50-60 hours a week and have done a surprising amount of DIY.

In month 4 of waiting for a tiler, I think I will be learning to tile.

I drew the line at plastering but I almost considered taking annual leave and doing a 5 day college course, it was getting so frustrating!

I definitely wouldn’t be chucking £500k into a semi worth £700k now, and at a push when done up worth £900k…The numbers don’t add up.
If you hate it now, you’ll really hate it when you come to eventually sell and you’re getting quotes £300k under what you put in.
Those quotes for the work seem absurd to me though, even in the current market. I’d get a few more from some builders

I think you made too big a compromise and you’ll never like it.

3 - offload now. Make hay while the sun shines - the market won’t be like this forever!

@Jisforjuggling

Mostly I hate that its semi detached with very thin walls. The semi detached was our big compromise. I can hear next doors TV all day. If it was detached with a slightly bigger garden then I'd probably love it. There is nothing awful about it and everyone who visits says how nice it is (perhaps they are just being nice).

Noise canceling insulation between your place and the other?

At the figures you've quoted, I'd sell it now.

We're (just about) four years into a five/six year project, renovating a house we bought as a compromise. Lovely area, interesting old building (detached 400 year old stone mill), but although we were looking for a project - having done several larger ones previously - this one (a repo) didn't excite me on the first viewing. In fact, I hated it - but DH could see the potential and there was nothing else in our budget in the right location. Despite its age, very little character was evident or indeed was buried beneath the surface. Any features the house has are those we've had to add (it's not listed!). We knew it would be a money pit too, but being in a considerably cheaper area (in SW Wales) and the fact we are DIYing much of the work, we're not looking at such steep figures as you OP.

We do have expensive tastes though and like to do stuff well! Also, having moved from the south of England originally we're used to higher costs etc. As a result we've already spent c£100k on the property - adding a borehole, new oil central heating system, rewire, new roof on existing extension, HMKOC kitchen, new bathroom, laundry room, several load-bearing walls removed, relocating kitchen, reconfigured upstairs layout, some garden landscaping...

We still plan to build an extension, convert an outbuilding into a garden room and rebuild the frontage of the existing extension....plus more garden landscaping (we have 0.5 acre which was a barren space four years ago).

We contemplated selling within the first year as I absolutely hated the house (missing our old larger, more characterful house in England terribly), but decided we'd probably lose money. We don't have a mortgage which is one good thing, I s'pose.

Instead we opted to plough on with the work - DH loves it here and hopes I eventually will too. Gradually I'm coming around, although I don't think I'll ever really love it, but it's feeling more like home now - plus a recent valuation indicates the house has doubled in value over the past four years 😀😉

Meant to add, we've also replastered in a few rooms, had two wood burning stoves installed and relocated the (new) boiler as well as having new timber DG windows on the front elevation (all included in the £100k or thereabouts.

Once everything else is complete we'll need to repoint the stone externally in lime, which again we'll be DIYing.

Just sell, if you bought it in the state it’s in now, just clean it up and somebody else will. 🤷🏼

Reno’s are expensive right now, we have a builder back to do some more work and he told us our downstairs extension from 4 years ago would be double the cost now. Materials are ridiculous.

I think I would get a few more quotes for the work, or try to do it in stages without an architect. Have you sought recommendations from Facebook groups? But if it is really going to be that much then I would do the bare essentials to increase saleability and move now (including the hassle of a short term rental for now). No way would I spend all that money knowing that I am unlikely to get it back, and still end up with a house where I can hear the neighbours’ TV.

@Jisforjuggling if you don't love it and deep down you're unhappy living there I'd bite the bullet and take option 3 now and sell up. Remember the selling process can be long. You might not find a buyer straight away. Also, do lots of viewings. LOTS... you never know, you might not find a new house that you like more... leading you back to maybe thinking your current home isn't so bad.

I’d definitely sell rightnow in your position. Like another poster said you need a backstory as to why you’re selling within two years. A good one is to say you need to move nearer to a frail/elderly family member to help care for them and/or you’re buying a house with a annex to move them in. No one will question that.

Once you’re ‘Under Offer’ you’ll be in a better position with Estate Agents to be considered for ‘previews’ of houses before they go on the market.