Did you get swept away by a house that wasn’t necessarily right?

[Awkwardusername]

My husband and I bought our first home a year ago and whilst we absolutely adore it, it’s completely impractical.
We were so swept away with the tutor style, the roll top bath and the huge bay windows, that we didn’t consider that the box room barely fits a box in it, the garage we so desperately wanted doesn’t exist, and that the entire house needs a rewire and replacing!

I know all houses are a money pit but really, replacing a HUGE window because the previous owners only double glazed some of them wasn’t quite something we considered!

I don’t regret buying it but I wish someone had warned us! Has anyone else done this sort of thing?

(This is just for fun, please don’t have a go at me for being stupid - we know!)

(Fwiw our house is gorgeous though and sold v quickly and I’d do it again - but perhaps a 2 bed when we were planning a family it would have been prudent to plan longer!)

Yes. We discounted an area... and then bought a house there very quickly because we loved the wood floors, period features and the way the owners had styled it. We don't regret it but probably should have been more considered. But we needed to buy relatively quickly. There are always compromises one way or another.

Yes we bought a large over extended end of terrace house because we fell in love with the 5 big bedrooms and the big garden. Should have paid more attention to the awful quality of the extension work, the world's worst neighbours next door and the shared driveway which led to ridiculous parking issues. Put the house on the market four years ago couldn't sell it. It's under offer now but worried that the survey will throw up more issues we don't know about. Once the neighbours moved It's actually been fine to live in but due to the shared driveway we can't stay incase we get awful neighbours move in at some point.

@Multicolouredsequins it was the wrong location for us. We relocated for DHs job, left the SE and went to the Midlands. Didn't make any friends at all and were really miserable the whole time we were there. The house was a huge beautiful place, but was really oppressive to live in. Very formal gardens which took a massive amount of work to keep even half decent. The church next door loomed over the property. It just had a very miserable feel to the place.

@Awkwardusername don’t rip out the back garden, be much cheaper and better in long run to get a gardener in to keep on top of it. Then in a few years time you’ll have something to start from.

we bought a huge semi detached which looked fine. We’d budgeted 70k to replace conservatory and small kitchen with a kitchen diner.

£200k and 2 years later we are finished. (Apart from new windows….waiting for a few years to do those). New radiators, plumbing, reinstatement of garden, new megaflo so you can fill the kettle and have a shower at same time.

luckily we still love the location looking out over a leafy park and trees, very quiet road but walkable to work and the house has tonnes of original features.

but it’s over the top price for street now and I don’t think we’ll ever be able to move….

Having to move 2 sets of elderly parents in their 80’s/90’s from very unsuitable accommodation, we vowed to “future-proof” ourselves as soon as we retired.

We drew up very precise and well-thought out criteria for our ideal bungalow, which included “a small, low maintenance garden”.

We spent 2 years looking, and nothing suitable came on the market.
Most properties with small gardens also tended to have small pokey rooms. Or they were up steep hills, or had lots of steps, or were nowhere near the facilities we anticipated we would need as we got older.

Then we saw the place we are now living in. The bungalow is nothing special, and certainly does not have the appeal of our previous 1930’s property with its many original features. What really caught our attention though was the garden! Rather than small and low maintenance, it is 1/3 acre, and was a complete blank canvas. I immediately fell in love with it.

My DH could see past the 1990’s decor and recognised the “good bones” of the building, but was worried about the work involved in the garden. After a lot of discussion, we decided to go for it.

We moved in just before the first lockdown and spent the entire first year completely redesigning and reworking the garden. We have planted a mini orchard, rebuilt a massive derelict pond, created several new flower beds, built a patio and pergola.The major nod to the future was to level it so that it is all accessible and to build raised veg beds. The garden has proved to be a total delight, and (despite being back breaking work) is what kept us sane during lockdown.

Low maintenance it isn’t though. We employ a gardener 2 hours a fortnight to mow the grass and we have agreed that when we begin to struggle, we will increase his hours.

The garden was finished well before the interior, which is still a work in progress.

It’s definitely not what we envisaged though when we started looking to “future proof” ourselves. I don’t regret our move though as we have such pleasure in and from our garden. The location is ideal for us, and as an additional bonus our neighbours are all delightful.

I used to drive past a row of huge Edwardian houses set back from the road by 150ft driveways - they overlooked a lovely old church yard and were so beautiful to look at I thought whoever lived in those were the luckiest of people. One came up for sale during the recession in 2008 and they were desperate to relocate and so we bought it. My god it was a curse - the 150ft driveway had an out of control laurel hedge that used to take me days to cut back. Front was north facing so the living space was always cold. They were long and narrow so when my young dc were in the garden I always had to be outside with them. In the end we hated it and moved after 5 years, would have gone sooner but couldnt port our mortgage.

Yes on our first house, beautiful house, garden and beautifully accessorised. Shitty location, burgled in second week, mugged on street a few years later.

On the upside it was an up and coming area and we did well when we sold. Purchasers equally fell for all the things we did (and the updates we had done).

Had a spreadsheet ok priorities and ranked them and scored all houses on our next. Compromised on bedrooms on next house but location fab and I still
Love it 5 years later !

Yes we've bought a money pit, got totally carried away because it had a pool and enough space to house our blended family.

We purchased almost a year ago and building work still hasn't started

We have:

Found a cess pit with no mains drainage from the house
Asbestos
DP went down the cellar and the stairs collapsed - he could've died
All the beams to the pool need replacing
The pool drains into god knows where
Next doors property might slide into ours
3 lots of planning applications

I hate it! It makes me want to cry

We got swept away with the gorgeous, fancy-pants extension, high end spec, open-plan feeling and the location of our tiny wee 2 bed terrace. Unexpected DC on the way about a week after we signed the contract so we’d been here less than 6 months before we outgrew it.

Location’s still perfect though, turns out the nursery & primary school at the end of the street that I made a concerned face about over traffic & noise turned out to be a bit of a win.

I'm astounded at some of these replies. Your sewerage not being connected to main drainage should not come as a surprise. So many of these things should come up in searches/surveys or just ask the relevant questions. Caveat emptor indeed

I bought a Victorian terrace last year knowing it had no driveway...garage etc...on moving in i discovered damp in the dining room and a shower that leaked into the kitchen below.
These issues have all been fixed now and i do love the house even when i have to park down the street when its pouring with rain.

We so nearly did - had an offer accepted but pulled out nearly straight away when we found out it was leasehold.

I was won over by the beautiful original front door & stained glass. In reality it was much too small for us and in a rubbish location. We leave fairly locally now and every time I go past I think what a lucky escape it was.