Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Property/DIY

Join our Property forum for renovation, DIY, and house selling advice.

Original poster

Tea and sympathy thread - whinge about your home without asking for advice

122 replies

KievLoverTwo · 12/10/2023 22:16

Roll up, roll up. Sit in a comfy patio chair and help yourself to tea and scones. Due to political divides, it's deconstructed, so you can choose if jam or cream goes first. Gluten free scones are also available.

This is a place to whinge. Get it all off your chest.

Feedback and constructive advice is not necessary, but if you would like it, feel free to ask.

I will begin.

I don't want any advice because I rent and I am very limited with the number of f**ks I can be bothered to give in my rental after so many problems; it's a Tesco value house dressed up as a very fancy new farmhouse and it never ceases to go wrong.

Can't remember the last time I tried Tesco Value, so don't hold that against me.

I will begin.

On Monday a farmer took down the phone line and we now have no internet. I live on a farm. My landlady chose not to tell me, even though she knows my other half makes his living working from home, relying on the internet. I should probably add we are 100 metres from it and she is back and forth all the time and extremely responsive to most things I tell her about. There has been a silage run since Sunday and clearly a tractor has taken it out (muddy, slippery and wet), but she decided, for whatever reason, that it didn't warrant warning us about. That line supplies us and them and no one else.

The ensuite bathroom literally smells like a sewer and has done for a few months. Trying to problem fix is not working. Sometimes it gets so bad that it smells on half of the floor.

Again with silage, she had the courtesy to call me this time because the time before last I completely lost my shit when it got to 6am - the silage run with trucks over a speed bump kept my OH awake til 3.30am two nights this week. She asks them to slow down over the speed bump but the thumps still thump. We are quite reasonable, we have only requested they slow down over midnight. It seems most of their tractor and truck combos cannot or will not do it.

The time before this with the overnight silage run, my OH lost his diplomacy with a work colleague and the following day was sacked from a project and told there is now very little hope of him being promoted this year. Worthy of noting is he is autistic and doesn't communicate all that well, sleeps terribly when there are disturbances, but this 'we will promote you' has been going on for a considerable amount of time before they decided to cut him off after he was too direct with a colleague. I don't think he was outrageous, but American culture is very different to ours. I am convinced it's the constant stress of the home we are in that causes anxiety spikes which is holding his career back.

This morning I woke up to the OH slamming all the things because the heating and HW broke. She sent her man round (kudos, within 2.5 hours) but he doesn't know what caused it, he tested the two blown fuses but has no idea what caused it. This is the guy who installed the electrics when the houses was built. Everything goes wrong with this house. That he didn't know what is causing it is far from a suprise because all of the utilities infrastructure is absolutely shit. Which he partly installed.

We have been together five years and been through some absolutely horrific rows that I would truly cringe at if I was a fly on a wall. I have never seen him as angry as he was when he told me about the heating and HW this morning. Genuinely thought he was going to put his fist through the wall, usually that's my schtick, so it was quite shocking to witness that.

We've been slowly building up covering all parts of the houses with various blocking things because we have a constant plague of flies. Today it failed and we had a house full of them again. They get in through window cracks, extractors, sink overflows - it's so fucking tiresome. Don't even think about telling me 'they'll be gone in winter' - the only fly free month we had last year was January, and I think that was more like 2-3 weeks.

I could go on but I think that's enough for now.

We moved to a farm because we had literally no other choice last year. It's not as though I thought it would be all sweetness and bird song and had no idea what it would involve. I certainly didn't expect every flying thing to get in with every window and door closed or the constant... just.. constant shit.

Did I mention we have a silage (shit pit) 100m away? Funny they never mentioned that at the viewing. It's 40/60 whether the house and area will smell like a toilet, all year round.

Rant done.

Your turn.

OP posts:
CreamFirstObs · 12/10/2023 22:32

I hear your pain.

Our house is full of displaced Boy Bees who the worker ladies have kicked out the hive.

The dog doesn't want to go out in the rain and has weed on the doormat.

I hate my neighbour, her and her dead husband ruined my mental health when the kids were small. It's at a silent stage now, advantage us but DH has suggested moving.

He's become sensitised to the road and wants to move to a million quid house with no road, no neighbours just long views.
We don't have a million quid, we'd be lucky to scrap up 600k which would come near his dream.
I don't, I want the greenhouse and a decent patch but if we're going to move I want a cinema and an arts centre and a lovely, reasonably priced restaurant nearby.
Farmers make terribly neighbours because it's a business, massive industrial business, you have as much 'control' as a house in the middle of an industrial estate. And don't get me started on the alternative of livery stables - how come their fields always look like the local fly tipping site.

I'm really in a love/hate place with this unfinished 'project' we' ve failed to finish in 20 years.

CreamFirstObs · 12/10/2023 22:35

Your ensuite - does it have a proper vent pipe? Is that what is leaking fumes into the house. Ours reeks when the cess pit ultimately needs emptying

Are you cess pit friendly? Not too much bleach?
If your not on meters, make sure you have a few big baths, flush the sewage with some fresh water.

Thejackrussellsrule · 12/10/2023 22:41

I'm rural, grew up on a farm, I feel (smell) your pain, but do you mean slurry not silage? Silage is grass that basically is stored for feed, slurry is, well, shit!
Flies and spiders, hate the buggers, why are the spiders so big?

TheNoodlesIncident · 12/10/2023 22:45

Crikey mate, I don't think anyone could top that...

Our house has been owned by a bodger at some point. He's done lots of interesting "improvements" to the house during his stay, but one of the classics is the discovery that the drain from the bath didn't have sufficient gradient to drain water properly, so he took out floorboards under the bath so the pipe could sink a little lower. Of course although the shower and bath drain okay, it does mean there is a jeffing HOLE IN THE FLOOR and naturally the gap the pipe goes through is not sealed up properly either, so every time the wind is in the east it blows the bath panel out. When it's windy, but not from the east, there is merely a cold draught continuously streaming across the bathroom floor. It is detectable from the landing.

There has also been some jiggery pokery with the electrics, some plastering that looks like the dog tried to do it and a conservatory that doesn't meet building regs and is quietly falling apart in places. We've replaced the roof because we had to as the original had sprung leaks and wouldn't have lasted through the winter and the insulating properties were non-existent anyway, so without double glazed doors between that and the rest of the house, it made it hideously cold in winter.

As an example of the "fixes", we spotted (after we'd bought the place, naturally) that a gap between the kitchen floor units and the top of the plinth underneath had been filled with a bamboo cane, "glued" into place with silicone sealant. We were speechless, but that was only the start.

StorminanDcup · 12/10/2023 22:49

Well I came on here to moan about my shitty looking 90s bathroom with the chipped tiles and toilet that needs to be flushed 5 times to clear it and my unfinished downstairs (renovated 2 years ago and haven’t painted the skirtings yet) but actually no, these are minor issues!

That sounds thoroughly miserable and frustrating!!!!

I’ll also moan about my garden being tiny and quite wet, despite spending about 5 grand on it over last couple years it’s still really shite. then all my carpets, which are reasonably new are trashed by pets and kids and the wood flooring I chose for the reno is awful. It’s going to cost about £4k to replace it all.

finally I bought a very expensive statement piece of furniture which although I love, it is a very specific style and colour which means I am locked into colours that compliment it and actually, 3 years on, I don’t want those colours.

Really very daft things but gets me down that I’ve made expensive mistakes because fundamentally I have no style or vision.

Original poster
KievLoverTwo · 12/10/2023 22:54

CreamFirstObs · 12/10/2023 22:35

Your ensuite - does it have a proper vent pipe? Is that what is leaking fumes into the house. Ours reeks when the cess pit ultimately needs emptying

Are you cess pit friendly? Not too much bleach?
If your not on meters, make sure you have a few big baths, flush the sewage with some fresh water.

I think you misunderstood the purpose of this thread, but I thank you for your input regardless.

My LL knows it smells like a cesspit and blames it on extreme wind. She claims she blocked that shower up with conditioner once and it caused it to overflow into the downstairs light fitting, when I asked why it was corroded.

I don't believe her.

It just doesn't matter.

We will tolerate the constant sewerage smell until we are able to leave.

This post is mainly about getting stuff off your chest.

But thank you for trying to help :)

OP posts:
Original poster
KievLoverTwo · 12/10/2023 23:06

Thejackrussellsrule · 12/10/2023 22:41

I'm rural, grew up on a farm, I feel (smell) your pain, but do you mean slurry not silage? Silage is grass that basically is stored for feed, slurry is, well, shit!
Flies and spiders, hate the buggers, why are the spiders so big?

Yes, slurry pit nearby. A massive shit pit for those that don't know. Imagine a swimming pool elevated to 8ft high but it's 50ft X 80 ft and full of cow shit.

That is what a slurry pit is, and that is what they did not tell us about.

1400 cows on this farm. It's not a small venture.

I am completely at peace with spiders. The flies and whatever the fuck it is that get inside the house are the things that send us me mentally through the roof. Last month the OH kept waking up covered in bites and I realised we were getting a bunch of gnats in the house for the first time. Last week I opened a previously closed loaf of bread and a load of what looked like fruit flies FLEW OUT OF MY LOAF OF BREAD. Idk how the fuckers got in there, we are absolutely regimented about covering things in this house.

OP posts:
Original poster
KievLoverTwo · 12/10/2023 23:10

CreamFirstObs · 12/10/2023 22:32

I hear your pain.

Our house is full of displaced Boy Bees who the worker ladies have kicked out the hive.

The dog doesn't want to go out in the rain and has weed on the doormat.

I hate my neighbour, her and her dead husband ruined my mental health when the kids were small. It's at a silent stage now, advantage us but DH has suggested moving.

He's become sensitised to the road and wants to move to a million quid house with no road, no neighbours just long views.
We don't have a million quid, we'd be lucky to scrap up 600k which would come near his dream.
I don't, I want the greenhouse and a decent patch but if we're going to move I want a cinema and an arts centre and a lovely, reasonably priced restaurant nearby.
Farmers make terribly neighbours because it's a business, massive industrial business, you have as much 'control' as a house in the middle of an industrial estate. And don't get me started on the alternative of livery stables - how come their fields always look like the local fly tipping site.

I'm really in a love/hate place with this unfinished 'project' we' ve failed to finish in 20 years.

Argh, being at pains with your OH about your future must be really disturbing.

I have no experience with bees but I did have a wasps nest above my bed in the roof once, and it was two months of snap, crackle and pop noise whilst the wasps fed their larvae.

OP posts:
Original poster
KievLoverTwo · 12/10/2023 23:24

TheNoodlesIncident · 12/10/2023 22:45

Crikey mate, I don't think anyone could top that...

Our house has been owned by a bodger at some point. He's done lots of interesting "improvements" to the house during his stay, but one of the classics is the discovery that the drain from the bath didn't have sufficient gradient to drain water properly, so he took out floorboards under the bath so the pipe could sink a little lower. Of course although the shower and bath drain okay, it does mean there is a jeffing HOLE IN THE FLOOR and naturally the gap the pipe goes through is not sealed up properly either, so every time the wind is in the east it blows the bath panel out. When it's windy, but not from the east, there is merely a cold draught continuously streaming across the bathroom floor. It is detectable from the landing.

There has also been some jiggery pokery with the electrics, some plastering that looks like the dog tried to do it and a conservatory that doesn't meet building regs and is quietly falling apart in places. We've replaced the roof because we had to as the original had sprung leaks and wouldn't have lasted through the winter and the insulating properties were non-existent anyway, so without double glazed doors between that and the rest of the house, it made it hideously cold in winter.

As an example of the "fixes", we spotted (after we'd bought the place, naturally) that a gap between the kitchen floor units and the top of the plinth underneath had been filled with a bamboo cane, "glued" into place with silicone sealant. We were speechless, but that was only the start.

My god. I just... what depresses me slightly more than your reply is that people who can afford to buy a home cannot also afford to pay professionals to fix their houses properly.

So, anyone will and can have a go, and unwittingly leave an absolute nightmare for the next homeowner.

I don't blame the home owning bodgers. I blame the government for boom and bust strategies.

If we can afford to fix our homes, how will their developer mates be kept happy?

OP posts:
KievLoverTwo · 12/10/2023 23:32

This reply has been withdrawn

This message has been withdrawn at the poster's request

Tiredclinpsych · 12/10/2023 23:54

Big patches of my 1950s parquet flooring decided to part company with the floor underneath and rise and buckle. Now we have bits with blocks missing where we had to take them out to get the floor to bloody lie down and patches which are loose and bouncy.
The blocks are super hard wood and almost impossible to sand smaller.

I'm assuming it's climate change and I realise Icould be living somewhere where the impact on my everyday life is devastating.

We are having new windows fitted and it is running into months. The house has scaffolding up and a charming mix of old and new windows. They ordered the wrong sills apparently and are waiting fir the new ones.

When the scaffolding company was here the man in charge drank Stella with his sandwiches in the garden.

The rescue dog sneeks a piss upstairs and I've run out of carpet shampoo so used human shampoo in the spot washer yesterday so the carpet smells nice. Little wins 🤣

PissedOffNeighbour22 · 13/10/2023 01:09

I've complained many times about my house on here but I still hate the bastard place and can't wait until we can afford to finish renovating and sell it.

What pisses me off most is the people we bought it from were obviously well off and even had a several page spread printed in the estate agent's magazine about how much they loved the place and how they'd lovingly restored it. Load of bollocks as we found out when trying to fix all the bodges they did.

Discovered there was no drainage, so all the drainpipes (except one) drain against the house (which has no foundations as it's old).

Leak under sink - fixed by cutting a hole in the floor and filling it with sand to soak up the excess water.

Rotten floorboards in kitchen due to aforementioned lack of drainage - attempted fix was shoving towels in to soak up the water which then became so waterlogged that they made it worse.

Cracks in the wall so deep I'm surprised we can't see daylight through them. All carefully hidden behind large pieces of furniture when we viewed.

Deep cracks in render and stone on front of house - we may need to replace the lintels. Ivy had been grown in those areas to cover it up.

Piss soaked floorboards. Dog grease holding the kitchen cupboards together.

Mouse infestation - they stated on the forms that there had never been an issue with rodents 😑. I found a dead one in a kitchen cupboard the day we moved in and had to have to council out multiple times to do pest control.

Plastered over the top of wallpaper so it hasn't adhered properly.

Shite layout of the extension. It just doesn't work at all and isn't a surprise they tried to sell up soon after building it.

Wooden windows that have been made without the ability to be opened.

Cut holes for cat flaps into the Victorian internal doors.

Most of the bragged about 'original features' have turned out to be reproduction. Cheaped out on of course.

There's loads more things that piss me off but to top it off we have a wanker neighbour attached that increases our hatred of the house.

Original poster
KievLoverTwo · 13/10/2023 02:39

PissedOffNeighbour22 · 13/10/2023 01:09

I've complained many times about my house on here but I still hate the bastard place and can't wait until we can afford to finish renovating and sell it.

What pisses me off most is the people we bought it from were obviously well off and even had a several page spread printed in the estate agent's magazine about how much they loved the place and how they'd lovingly restored it. Load of bollocks as we found out when trying to fix all the bodges they did.

Discovered there was no drainage, so all the drainpipes (except one) drain against the house (which has no foundations as it's old).

Leak under sink - fixed by cutting a hole in the floor and filling it with sand to soak up the excess water.

Rotten floorboards in kitchen due to aforementioned lack of drainage - attempted fix was shoving towels in to soak up the water which then became so waterlogged that they made it worse.

Cracks in the wall so deep I'm surprised we can't see daylight through them. All carefully hidden behind large pieces of furniture when we viewed.

Deep cracks in render and stone on front of house - we may need to replace the lintels. Ivy had been grown in those areas to cover it up.

Piss soaked floorboards. Dog grease holding the kitchen cupboards together.

Mouse infestation - they stated on the forms that there had never been an issue with rodents 😑. I found a dead one in a kitchen cupboard the day we moved in and had to have to council out multiple times to do pest control.

Plastered over the top of wallpaper so it hasn't adhered properly.

Shite layout of the extension. It just doesn't work at all and isn't a surprise they tried to sell up soon after building it.

Wooden windows that have been made without the ability to be opened.

Cut holes for cat flaps into the Victorian internal doors.

Most of the bragged about 'original features' have turned out to be reproduction. Cheaped out on of course.

There's loads more things that piss me off but to top it off we have a wanker neighbour attached that increases our hatred of the house.

Oh my giddy aunt. Do you need a hug?.I am sending you one whether you like it or not.

OP posts:
Suchapain · 13/10/2023 03:38

There is something wrong with our heating system electrics - it's gas CH but the gas engineer says the problem is with the electrics. So even if the thermostat is turned down to minimum, two or three of the upstairs radiators still get red hot. Same if the central heating is off at the timer -the upstairs radiators still get hot. Only way to stop it is to turn off the electricity to the control panel but then we have no hot water.

Lots of other things wrong too. It seems to be one thing after another.

Aria999 · 13/10/2023 04:18

This thread is making me feel better about our house,

I actually love our house but it's a cash sink, one thing after the next. Since 2019 when we bought it we have

Replaced all the sewers after they overflowed into the cellar

Replaced all the electrics because they were illegally out of date and electricians were forbidden to repair anything, could only replace

Replaced a bathroom that we could not afford because the bath overflowed into the living room ceiling (hate the new bathroom and wish we could have kept the old one)

Repaved the yard because it was just concrete and didn't drain so we had a problem with standing water and mosquitoes

It's always something

However it could clearly be worse!

Stephisaur · 13/10/2023 09:26

I love this thread. Sorry for the quite literal shit you have to put up with OP!

Our house is a fixer upper. When we moved in, several neighbours expressed surprise that we would be living there as they assumed we would do it up first. That tells you enough 😂

Currently pissed off with all the holes in my walls from plumbing/electrics. I intended to sort myself (I am capable) but I just don't have the time. Plasterer was due to come next week, but has pushed it a week because he came down with an unfortunate case of shingles a few weeks ago and it's knocked him for six.

My main issue is that we've bought a house that needed far more work than we anticipated/budgeted for so we've got no money to hire the trades in and no time to do it ourselves 😅

Original poster
KievLoverTwo · 13/10/2023 11:17

Stephisaur · 13/10/2023 09:26

I love this thread. Sorry for the quite literal shit you have to put up with OP!

Our house is a fixer upper. When we moved in, several neighbours expressed surprise that we would be living there as they assumed we would do it up first. That tells you enough 😂

Currently pissed off with all the holes in my walls from plumbing/electrics. I intended to sort myself (I am capable) but I just don't have the time. Plasterer was due to come next week, but has pushed it a week because he came down with an unfortunate case of shingles a few weeks ago and it's knocked him for six.

My main issue is that we've bought a house that needed far more work than we anticipated/budgeted for so we've got no money to hire the trades in and no time to do it ourselves 😅

Shingles are nasty. It took my other Half's stepmother about two months to get over them :(

OP posts:
Original poster
KievLoverTwo · 13/10/2023 11:18

Aria999 · 13/10/2023 04:18

This thread is making me feel better about our house,

I actually love our house but it's a cash sink, one thing after the next. Since 2019 when we bought it we have

Replaced all the sewers after they overflowed into the cellar

Replaced all the electrics because they were illegally out of date and electricians were forbidden to repair anything, could only replace

Replaced a bathroom that we could not afford because the bath overflowed into the living room ceiling (hate the new bathroom and wish we could have kept the old one)

Repaved the yard because it was just concrete and didn't drain so we had a problem with standing water and mosquitoes

It's always something

However it could clearly be worse!

Does having a cellar make the ground floor really cold?

I tend to make that assumption and discount houses with basements, but maybe I am wrong?

OP posts:
Original poster
KievLoverTwo · 13/10/2023 11:21

Suchapain · 13/10/2023 03:38

There is something wrong with our heating system electrics - it's gas CH but the gas engineer says the problem is with the electrics. So even if the thermostat is turned down to minimum, two or three of the upstairs radiators still get red hot. Same if the central heating is off at the timer -the upstairs radiators still get hot. Only way to stop it is to turn off the electricity to the control panel but then we have no hot water.

Lots of other things wrong too. It seems to be one thing after another.

Ooh that's not nice.

I know I promised no advice in this thread but this one is quite simple. Do the thermostats have batteries hidden away in a little panel you didn't even know was there and if so, are they new enough?

Our heating kept getting out of control and it turned out that batteries just needed changing.

OP posts:
Queenofmews · 13/10/2023 11:40

Thank you for this thread. It is making me feel marginally better.
My neighbour is unhinged and has done all sorts of horrible things to both his next door neighbours causing damage, being irrationally nasty, trying to grab land, trying to intimidate us plus neglecting his poor dog.
I would happily pay his removal costs and legal fees if he would move.
I love my home but it is ruined by his behaviour and I feel unsafe a lot of the time.
BTW I lived next door to a farm years ago in a tiny hamlet and the flies were unbelievable. The farmer would happily run me off the road with the tractor and sprayed slurry on to my garden. Their poor cats had kittens upon kittens who were sick and starved. Then one day they decided to slaughter a pig in front of my kitchen window.
I found out later that they hated me because I had unknowingly bought a property which had been part of a family dispute.
I was so happy when I moved away.

HerculesMulligan · 13/10/2023 12:04

We've been in our house for six years. We knew it was a bit tired, but didn't really understand the extent of it, but we've had to do a full rewire (which meant moving out during Covid with a new baby), replace one of the two rooves and put in a new kitchen because the wooden countertop was so rotten that if we'd put a full casserole dish down on the draining board, it would have fallen through.

The carpets have moth holes, our bedroom window has a crack in it and so is rotting at pace, the wooden glazed porch needs new wood and new windows. Both of the plugholes in the bathroom have the plugs that use a little lever and they're both completely broken. The engineered wood on the living room floor is so badly marked that it can't be sanded back and needs to be replaced (so I've just put down a massive rug instead).

Last week, we had a massive leak through the upstairs bathroom ceiling. It ran through the boiler, and down into the downstairs bathroom. It turns out that the leak was caused by a blocked rainwater downpipe which runs internally (WTF) and was blocked at the bottom by silt and bits of crap that some builder has swept into it, probably before our time. It was filling up and backing up, and when the backup finally reached the roof, it put the uppermost joint under pressure and it failed. So that meant £1500 on a drain engineer, a roofer and a boiler repair guy to get the house dry and watertight before today's rain.

In lots of respects, I love this house. It's a friendly house, on the perfect street for us and with great neighbours. It's got an interesting history, which means some of the architecture is a bit quirky, but I realised the other day that in the unlikely event that I won £100k tax free, I could spend it all on structural stuff for my 3-bed house and not have change to spare.

And breathe.

Aria999 · 13/10/2023 12:07

@KievLoverTwo no I don't think it makes it cold or not that I have noticed. The people before us replaced all the windows so it keeps heat fairly well.

WickedSerious · 13/10/2023 12:18

In six weeks' time we'll have lived in this house for twenty years and I've been wanting to move for ten of them.

The house was built in the Thirties and sold for the first time in the sixties to a guy who wanted to extend the ground floor.He fell out with the builder days into the job(I got all this from my former NDN) announced that he'd do it himself and add two bedrooms while he was at it.He couldn't be arsed to extend the landing though so bedrooms three and four were connected by rickety double doors.

The builder had been instructed to demolish part of the house but this guy thought that would be 'too disruptive' so he built around the bit that should've been knocked down.This left the house with an L shaped dining room,a passageway that went nowhere,a recess that looked like the entrance to a cave and a concrete roof under the floor of the back bedroom.

He later decided that the bathroom was too small and the only way to make it bigger was to take away half of the landing.That meant blocking up the doorway to bedroom five and removing the wall between bedroom four and five.This was the layout we lived with for almost two years.

The house was sold again in the early eighties to people who lived here for eighteen years.They didn't like DIY and didn't want to pay anyone else to work on the house so the only thing they changed was the colour of the walls in the hallway.They sold up in 2002 to a family who had no idea what they were taking on and put the house on the market ten weeks after moving in.One year and thirty odd viewings later we rolled up.
We knew the house needed work but it's been a nightmare;the extension roof's been replaced three times,none of the windows fit,we've been plagued by damp and mysterious leaks that have taken years to sort out and every time a tradesman lifts a floorboard,drills a hole or removes a socket we hear "Oooooh,I've never seen anything like this before".

I want out of here next year and if we're only left with enough money to buy a scabby flat with no outside space so be it.

Original poster
KievLoverTwo · 13/10/2023 12:52

@WickedSerious wow, what a clown. You definitely need to get out of there for your mental health. Are house prices falling in your area?

OP posts:
Original poster
KievLoverTwo · 13/10/2023 12:53

HerculesMulligan · 13/10/2023 12:04

We've been in our house for six years. We knew it was a bit tired, but didn't really understand the extent of it, but we've had to do a full rewire (which meant moving out during Covid with a new baby), replace one of the two rooves and put in a new kitchen because the wooden countertop was so rotten that if we'd put a full casserole dish down on the draining board, it would have fallen through.

The carpets have moth holes, our bedroom window has a crack in it and so is rotting at pace, the wooden glazed porch needs new wood and new windows. Both of the plugholes in the bathroom have the plugs that use a little lever and they're both completely broken. The engineered wood on the living room floor is so badly marked that it can't be sanded back and needs to be replaced (so I've just put down a massive rug instead).

Last week, we had a massive leak through the upstairs bathroom ceiling. It ran through the boiler, and down into the downstairs bathroom. It turns out that the leak was caused by a blocked rainwater downpipe which runs internally (WTF) and was blocked at the bottom by silt and bits of crap that some builder has swept into it, probably before our time. It was filling up and backing up, and when the backup finally reached the roof, it put the uppermost joint under pressure and it failed. So that meant £1500 on a drain engineer, a roofer and a boiler repair guy to get the house dry and watertight before today's rain.

In lots of respects, I love this house. It's a friendly house, on the perfect street for us and with great neighbours. It's got an interesting history, which means some of the architecture is a bit quirky, but I realised the other day that in the unlikely event that I won £100k tax free, I could spend it all on structural stuff for my 3-bed house and not have change to spare.

And breathe.

Is it a very, very old house?

The film Money Pit springs to mind :(

OP posts:
Swipe left for the next trending thread