After you bought your house what unexpectedly good things did you discover?

[Shouldbeworkingnotreadingtalk]

Inspired by another thread I've just read .... but let's have the good bits.

We call our house "the house that keeps on giving" as even four years on, we are discovering good bits.

House was derelict / complete renovation job when we purchased - a house the estate agent described as "thought to be mid 1700's two workers cottages knocked together" ... we didn't look into the house construction in any detail, we didn't care what it used to be ... . It was perfect location / size etc for us, we had a decent renovation budget, so we built it regardless. .....

well, after starting the renovation, finding dead straight walls, perfect roof timbers, central heating pipes all hidden perfectly. walnut parquet flooring under every grotty carpet, and immaculate double glazing which had been covered with Ivy/ trees/ plants/ apparently this house was not 200 years old ...

the central chimney was 1750's, but that house burnt down in WW2. Leaving only the huge central chimney and stack. ... What we'd bought was a replica of a "Sussex House" - that was built around the remaining stack. . it's got very old beams from the manor up the road, lots of features, but none original except the central chimney..it was a 1960's replica!!

not gutted, overjoyed in fact. It's been a dream to renovate as essentially it's only 60 years old, so was only cosmetic stuff that needed doing.

We've also found a fully working well, hidden under Ivy, (house was on well water til 1963), and lots of lovely insulation insides walls and lifts.

Receipts left by the deceased vendors showed a new roof for £60k just 6 years before we bought it, snd £20k on a conservatory - Both were hidden by Ivy / trees or covered in moss when we bought the house. (Think Hansel and Gretal house in the woods). A quick (ish) jet was snd all looks brand new.

Very chuffed and thank the previous old ladies who lived here for 50years almost daily.

What good house discoveries have you found?

We discovered the garden was 20ft longer than we thought. We were very young and really didn’t examine the house closely before we bought it. We’ve always had lovely neighbours.

After we arrived at our first house, we found the previous owner left her Ikea storage furniture. This was amazing as we didn't have any and it saved us hundreds of £££. She left 2 Pax wardrobes, 2 chest of drawers, and a Billy bookcase.

The utility room with loads of useful shelves, hooks and a pull-up drying rack for washing
The shower controls being away from the water so you don't get a wet arm when you turn the shower on
The underfloor heating in the sitting room and utility room (meaning muddy boots dry super quickly)
The in-built bookshelves on every floor, meaning we haven't had to buy any shelving
The massive storage spaces in the eaves of the loft room - with lighting wired in
The automatic light that comes on in the cupboard under the stairs
The separate boiler room with water softener and the water filter under the kitchen sink

There are so many small, thoughtful details that make our lives here easier. We basically went around exclaiming in delight for the first six months.

Hedgehogs and an occasional owl :)

Original parquet flooring, a beautiful tiled fireplace (behind some asbestos cement board), original quarry tiles, mostly just stuff like that.

For years and years I had a repeat dream of buying a house and finding a suite if secret rooms in it. We bought our house and I opened the hatch to the roof space. It was like walking into a cathedral. It is now two double bedrooms, a bathroom, a vast crawl space and a small study area. Our house is nicknamed the Tardis by friends because it looks very modest from the outside. Then you walk in and it explodes in size.

@blanketyblanked

Hedgehogs and an occasional owl :)

Now I am jealous. I so want a garden hedgehog or ten.

Paperwork in the spare bedroom going back to 1898 when the land was bought and a completion certificate from 1934 when the house was built. I love stuff like that.
We also somehow found a 3 bed detached in almost all terraced East London with a beautiful garden that is like a park. It's like our own little bit of countryside. I've been buying bird feeders like a mad woman.

I grew up in a flat in inner London, so know nothing of plants & trees. I thought the front & back gardens of our house were nice enough when we viewed it.

After moving in I got friendly with a neighbour who is a keen gardener and told me the previous owners (who’d been here 40+ years) were professional gardeners and the gardens were expertly and beautifully planted, so that in all seasons different plants and trees bloom or blossom or change in some way. It’s been such a joy to witness! It feels like a secret gift we were given by the previous owners when the trees turn every shade of red, orange, purple in the autumn, or when unexpected red and yellow and pink k flowers suddenly bloom in spring.

They’ve also saved us probably tens of thousands in planting!

I was just about to start a thread like this!

We went to see a house (it was a repossession) - put in an offer and it was accepted-
The next door neighbours popped their heads over the fence and asked the estate agent what was going to happen to the car parked in front of the garage.
We didn't know there was a garage - it was accessible through the back garden aswell but an overgrown bush hid the door!
The EA said 'well that's a Brucie Bonus!'

1850s house. We found the original flagstone floor underneath a weird resin screed that had been poured over. Surveyor had stated concrete floors.
Beautiful stone walls that had been concreted so caused damp to crawl up the walls.
We are in the process of lime replastering the walls and having one feature wall with the stone showing. It's all hard graft but it's going to be so much more beautiful than I had imagined.
Oh, and we found a pistol in the cupboard under the stairs! We thought it was a proper firearm but DFIL used to be in the police and says it's an old starter pistol. So we get to keep our little bit of history!

I also found an old cigarette packet in the loft. I could imagine the old roofers having a smoke whilst switching the roof from thatch to tiled

Oh and the huuuge cast iron 1950s bath that was in the (extended) bathroom. We are having a bathroom refit but that is staying

@spacehardware

It dies sound a bit bonkers doesn't it! But we did at least the outside of the same house type on the development which had already been built, and the show house (different house layout tho) gave a pretty good indication of how the joinery etc would look. And we got to choose the flooring, kitchen, tiles etc. Just had no idea how it would all hang together - the sales lady said she'd never seen two people pick their options so easily!

We did the same

We had to choose flooring kitchen paint etc through online brochures

I had my eyes shut when we first went in the kitchen

But it's all fantastic

Original parquet flooring in the dinning and living room, and minton tiles in the hallway. I was a very happy bunny when I found these.

Not hidden exactly, but things I didn't appreciate when buying are: being on the same road as an excellent primary, and how massive the garden is.
I posted on the other thread too. It's been a mixed bag, lol.

Oh wow, nothing that compared to yours, how lucky!

We had to unexpectedly pull up all the downstairs flooring on move in week as it smelt like cat wee, which seemed like a big disaster but we found the original floor boards were really good condition so we sanded them and I love them so much. We have an outside toilet we didn't know about, and a further bonus was the previous owner left loads of big garden plant pots in there which have saved us a fortune as we didn't have a garden in our old house. Also buried under weeds I found a dead potted tree, I pulled out all the weed from it, thinking it was a goner but then it burst into life and turned out to be a dwarf cherry blossom tree. I always said I wanted a house with a cherry blossom tree, and although we don't have the big garden with the big trees I meant, this little find really made me feel this house was for us.

@beguilingeyes

Paperwork in the spare bedroom going back to 1898 when the land was bought and a completion certificate from 1934 when the house was built. I love stuff like that. We also somehow found a 3 bed detached in almost all terraced East London with a beautiful garden that is like a park. It's like our own little bit of countryside. I've been buying bird feeders like a mad woman.

You sound like you have my dream house. 1930s, in East London with a big garden. If you ever want to sell drop me a PM !

Roe Deer and Muntjacs are visitors to our garden most days from the woods we back onto.

A drawer in the kitchen, that was in fact, not a drawer, but a long pull out work top. So handy!! Then when you're done, you just push it all the way back in again.

A potting shed ! Our house had been unlived in for several years and had a real sleeping beauty garden..couldn't see out the downstairs windows for creepers,/brambles and massive shrubs. The garden was a central circle of grass.. and a small patio surrounded by banks of bramble. I looked out the upstairs windows one day an caught a glint through the brambles... it was a full half green house half shed potting shed.. about 8x10'. We also discovered a huge patio with steps leading down into the garden none of which we knew was there !

@BlondeDogLady

A drawer in the kitchen, that was in fact, not a drawer, but a long pull out work top. So handy!! Then when you're done, you just push it all the way back in again.

Lol we had one of those, took me ages to work it out because I thought it was a stuck drawer. Nearly died when it pulled out 🤣 It was very handy in our tiny kitchen though

Apparently the previous owner was a kitchen salesman so it had a few other fancy things too.

All offset by the warm air heating that came up from floor vents. So inefficient.

@BritInUS1

A secret door in the back of the wardrobe that leads to a little carpeted room - tiny but perfect for storage

I knew someone who moved into a maisonette in Benwell in newcastle around 1988. It was a block of maybe 6 houses, 2 floors. The built-in wardrobe in her bedroom had a locked door at the end which, when opened, revealed a corridor that ran the length of the block with stairs at the end. I believe it was an enclosed communal fire escape. It seemed really cool, but how vulnerable to have such a door and corridor leading to your bedroom (it was a very rough area at the time) 😬

@gingerhills

Unexpectedly sunny garden. It’s easterly facing which was a compromise when we bought. Upon moving in was delighted to find that, due to the position of neighbouring houses (at an angle, creating big gap) the sun floods in from the west and a large portion of the garden is in full sunlight in summer until late on.

A light in the dishwasher ...I didn't know this was a possibility before 🤣

But the actual best thing is that badgers come to the garden almost every night 😍