Sigh...lovely detached 16th century cottage

[Jackydaytona]

...has come up for sale near me...

We currently live in a very boring 80s 3 bed detached. It's nice. Got everything we need. But...oh, I'd LOVE to live in period property with a walled garden (which this has)
Price wise, it's probably the same as the current house as it's on a main road and has no parking (I know... I know...!)

Come on, you lovely lot, tell me I'm an idiot. Point out all the issues of period properties... because I've got the "longing"...

Sigh.

I was all for it till you said main road and no parking, it'll be horrible

I wouldn't personally baulk at a busy road - often it's things like that that make a stunning property affordable - but if there's literally no parking and you've got three cars, then you've got a problem that's going to be a PITA every single day of every year that you live there. (But if it has outbuildings can they be turned into garaging?)

I'd draw the line at a listed property and also thatch, but you said that doesn't apply here, and it'd also be a no from me to a busy pub, which imo would be noisy in the evening, especially summer evenings, as a best case scenario. Less good scenarios would be antisocial behaviour, increased crime (pubs are often hotspots if you look at crime recording maps) and if it closes down and is empty for an extended period, the risk of being squatted, with all that potentially comes with that. Is the house you're looking at next to a pub, OP, or is that another house? Or just a hypothetical question?

I don't think a period house has to be more of a maintenance headache than a new one though. In many ways, I'd be reassured by the fact that it's been there for hundreds of years without collapsing. The one kind of house I'd run a mile in the other direction from is a new build tbh.

I'm probably not helping you though.

I live in a very old house that thankfully isn’t listed. Listing is a NIGHTMARE should you ever need to do ANYTHING.

My old house isn’t thatched, but the spiders, my god the spiders. They are like small dogs, I’ve genuinely had one I could hear on the floorboards.

Incredibly expensive to run. During the last very cold winter I was spending a traumatic amount of heating and running dehumidifiers, this didn’t actually warm it up at all just stopped water running down the walls.

Inevitably a lot of work will have been done to it over the years. A remarkable about of this will be a bodge.

I used to live in a house built in the 80s and yes it had no character. But it caused me a lot less stress

I’ve lived in Victorian houses for most of my adult life and I agree with pretty much all of this. Our current house is beautiful but definitely not a low maintenance or cheap option. And that’s without any listed status.

I’m eyeing up a 1990s build and an almost new build for our next house, I definitely agree it’s often about wanting a change. At this stage in our lives, working and having a young family, we don’t have the time or mental capacity for a big renovation and I’m craving an easier house to manage.

However, I completely understand the attraction of period homes. Our current house felt right and like home as soon as I stepped through the door. There’s a grade 2 listed hall with lovely gardens for sale near us that keeps being reduced so it’s almost in our budget. It’s stunning but completely impractical!

One thing to watch for in old properties is the age of the boiler, ours was 30 years old and once we changed it heating costs went down a few hundred a month. We have to get all electric wiring checked every 5 years for insurance but that's due to thatch but wiring can be old. I actually like when you do things like take up flooring (if not original) and find old versions, I find it fascinating to see the history and also last time we got lots of 1970s Economist magazines. We haven't found listing too bad, many thing is to allow a bit extra time, the listing part is free here. But like with new thatch you just had to send quote in and fill in a quick form with a diagram of where your roof is (no idea where else they think roof would be) and a month later you get approved and I got in the parish minutes that I was an exceptionally good listed home owner as most don't bother for that. We are currently having a new kitchen installed and as old one is modern and in an extension no permission required. Even in the main part of house if its like for like no permission required. Had new boiler, no permission required. Only thing we had issue with was the chimney needed to be rebuilt as it had been bodged before, that was complicated and took 8 months for permission though was during lockdown.

Can’t think of anything worse, likely would be freezing in winter, single glazed, no storage, damp…

We live in an old cottage. Built in 1620.

Things you might perceive as negatives - extremely wonky, ceilings are low in many rooms, draughty, can’t have modern glazing due to listed status, no gas central heating.

In reality, there aren’t negatives in my mind. We really love our house.

The traffic noise may be worth checking as on a main road.

Thank you for all your comments...really helpful x

I know the area well...I live here and was born here so I know exactly where this house is and how busy the road is.

It's not listed (the next door is though...)

It's only partially 16th century (which may be why no listing?)

As far as I can tell its got a modern boiler and new roof.

But...no parking. Getting deliveries would be a nightmare and it's probably too small in reality.

Sigh. It's so lovely though :)

If it wasn't on a main road it would be £500k+

Gosh, this ^

Our thatched insurance was close to £1k back in 2011 when we purchased that house. We sold in 2014 so haven't a clue how much it would be now!

*thatch

Re: traffic noise etc on main road -

Our thatched house was on a rural A road and it regularly shook throughout from the ground floor up to the second when lorries etc went past at speed (which was all the time).

We had no front garden but a wide pavement and layby out front in which only us and a couple of neighbours ever parked (we had a drive, they didn't, but we occasionally parked outside the house for convenience when we had one of many skips parked there during extensive renovations.

Despite stone walls that were 2' thick, traffic noise was a real issue too. At the front we had seven windows that were all single glazed sash or casements. As part of the renovation work we had these replaced with accoya DG windows in the same design but with acoustic glass. It made very little difference, disappointingly.

However, in the third of an acre back garden you could barely hear the traffic.

The price we sold for in 2014 was considerably less than if the house hadn't been on a main road and our buyers admitted they could only afford the house because of its roadside location.

Currently we're planning an 'escape from the country' back to civilisation and am avoiding anywhere on a main road (or too near a pub)!