Character properties are being ruined

[MaybeMaybeNotJ]

Is it just where I am?
All character priorities have been gutted and the inside is now bland and characterless.
I hate it.

cool

ypu Only get to choose how you decorate your own home.

Depends what you mean really, if all period features have been ripped out I’d agree with you that’s a great shame.

However if the tiny Victorian scullery has been replaced with an extended family sized kitchen with modern units and doors to the garden, that seems eminently sensible.

They are homes foremost not museum pieces.

"Character" is so subjective though. As long as the owners are enjoying it, it's all good in my books.

Sorry yes I meant the features are being removed.
Fair point though about it being down to personal preference and about original rooms being small and dark.
It's probably just that I like the "cottage feel" and a small snug living room. I can't imagine a cottage on the outside and a completely white and open plan living space downstairs.
But some may prefer that.

YANBU

they’re often so transformed you couldn’t restore them even if you want to 😢

Are you sure they are finished? We have just done a Reno, and yes it’s a white blank box atm.

Doesn’t mean it’s going to stay that way! But I have run out of money so yes it while be that way for a while.

It’s frustrating. Why buy a Victorian house and rip out all the Victorian features?
if you want modern, buy a new build.

(I know it isn’t that simple.
but I think it’s just awful)

Yes. Where I live there are a lot of these period properties. And so many of them even from just outside have been stripped to grey boxes. I cry Everytime I see it.

YANBU, I got slated on TikTok for saying it was a shame all the period features had been removed on an Edwardian house refurb. The beautiful stained glass door, was replaced by an ugly composite door with a long vertical handrail and the oak stair case was now chrome and glass.

apparently, according to the TikTok audience I have no taste 😂😂😂😂

I completely agree

I agree. My cousin has bought a beautiful Victorian villa. It was lovely inside because the previous owners had added a wraparound extension. They also managed the fine line between keeping the original features and having modem creature comforts. Along comes my idiot cousin who has ripped everything out. Covered the stripped, wooden floorboards with white marble tiles, taken out the staircase and put in a floating one with glass bannisters, knocked down various walls, which means the place is propped up with hideous exposed steels. It makes me want to weep. Infact I almost did when I visited and saw the housekeeper's bell board in the skip.

She and people like her should live in new builds.

In my experience, the loss of period features happened decades ago, probably the 1960s/70s, if the periods houses that us and our friends have bought are anything to go by. I think the Victorian/Edwardian look really went out of favour then, and people started ripping out features like original fireplaces. If anything people nowadays are more likely to put features back in than take them out, people recognise they add value, but it’s rare to find houses with them. We were quite lucky in our previous house in that the fireplaces had only been boarded up, and we found some gems when we uncovered them. Same for the original hall floor tiles, they’d just been painted over so we could remove that. But in our current house, the previous owners had ripped everything out, so we’ve put some back in. If you visited our house, you might think we’d removed a whole load of period features, but that was done decades ago, and our house we even more featureless when we first bought it. I think that’s the case with most houses if us and our friends are anything to go by, so you can blame a previous generation for this trend I think.

Not a new thing! When we bought our very average Edwardian house some 15 or so years ago, the estate agent told us that of course we could remove all the wood panelling. Wouldn't dream of it...

When we had double glazing put in, we paid a bit extra for them to replicate exactly the stained glass panels, and the firm did a great job. Mind you, we're about the only house in the street which did that, so now it looks a bit odd!

Apparently you can apply for a listing on things that aren’t yours.

so if there were features somewhere you thought were really important you could apply to have them listed, even if you didn’t own the house.

then they couldn’t remove them…

All these huge open plan kitchen / dining rooms are going to be a big expense to heat.

Well, builders of today are ahead of the game now, with new-builds having no character that can be ripped out in the future.
Saves everybody a lot of mucking about!

It's just not something I could get upset over. What others do to their homes is up to them. Certainly have never felt like crying over it.

Often not the case. We’re a mid terrace. The underfloor heating hardly ever comes on in our open plan kitchen/diner/family room because it’s so warm in there. And new extensions tend to be the most insulated part of old houses.

My house, which has just gone on the market, is a 1930s semi, I've kept features that made sense like picture rails and bedroom fireplaces but the kitchen and dining room are now an open plan kitchen diner because the kitchen alone was tiny. The bathroom is modern but sympathetic to the style of the house. I'm struggling to find another property that's suitable for my health needs but not a featureless box.

I have seen this with some houses OP. There was a big old house for sale in my town at auction, I was really interested to see when it went up for resale, you see what it was like inside. They had taken out everything, painted it all grey and cream and put in laminate floor all through downstairs. It was just a big disappointing and didn't suit the outside of the house at all.

They used to do this a lot when I watched ,"homes under the hammer". Sympathetic restoration is not that popular.

We live on a row of Edwardian villas. Ours has only had a new roof, damp course, electrics and windows. We have all the features like original doors, functioning fireplaces, Rayburn, picture rails, Minton and wooden floors.

In all we have eleven rooms. We are the only house not to have renovated and although I love it I do wish we had done the side return when we had the chance. Our breakfast room is just the wrong shape to use properly as things stand.

Visitors always remark on the house especially neighbours who have all knocked through.

replaced by an ugly composite door with a long vertical handrail

What is it with these doors? I hate them! Yes people can do what they like but I often have to look at these doors & it offends me when plopped on. It like when people add lion statues to the entrance of their bungalow. 😆

I dunno, I spend a lot of time looking at Reno projects on insta and almost all of them are honouring the original style of the house - panelling, heringbone wooden floors/original tiles, deep colours, people knocking back in fire places that were previously covered up. With a twist of modern of course. Maybe I’m just seeing those as that’s the style I like so they come up more. Can’t stand wall to wall white/marble/glass. For me personally it feels cold and soulless and no personality. But each to their own! Everyone has their own style.

Ours is, every fireplace ripped out, walls knocked through, rewired, new windows, new flooring, re plastered. DH misses some of the features- I miss …. nothing! Kept the picture rails - that’s it.
It was freezing and dark before, now it’s open, warm and light.
Next job, if we stay here is to extend the kitchen.