If you’ve been in your home a long time how often do you do big jobs.

[LastChristmasIgaveyoumyTart]

So we’ve been in our home 12 years and it was very much ‘in need of’ when we moved in. Over the first 5 years we did everything, new bathrooms, new kitchen, everywhere painted and new flooring. Also work on roof, drains and all exterior doors and windows replaced.
I guess I naively thought I was then done, but having raised our kids in the house everywhere is looking tatty. The hall which is a high travel area has just been painted for the third time since we moved in.
So I’m interested to hear from people who have owned their house for decades how often do you repaint and refloor and at what point do you think bathrooms and kitchens need to be replaced?
I want to strike a balance between being ashamed of our house and ruining the environment with constant work.

I owned my last place for 10 years. I put new doors on the kitchen cabinets, upgraded the bathroom fixtures, put in new carpets, sanded and stained floorboards and redecorated inside and out when I moved in. I redecorated inside twice and outside once in that time.
If I hadn’t sold I would have recarpeted and put in a new kitchen and a swanky shower but left that for the new owners to choose.
Other than that it was just maintenance - roof and gutter repairs etc.
A lot depends on the quality of what is done first time round. I economised on the kitchen with cheap doors which were looking tatty after 10 years.
With decoration it can depend on lifestyle. Children and dogs mean a lot more wear and tear!

We’ve been in ours 20 years this year. We’ve replaced the bathroom twice, and are planning our second kitchen refit. Both the bathroom and kitchen were done on the cheap first time round, this time we’re spending a lot more and hope it will see us out. As for the decorating I reckon we’ve probably been round the whole house three times, changing the flooring each time.

We've been in our home 20 years.

internally, We've done very little. We inherited a hand-built wooden kitchen which is absolutely solid, so we just decorated. Needs doing again now, actually.

The bathroom has been completely done, mainly cos previous owners left us with a black and gold bathroom and I could not live with it.

The big jobs are external. We're in a seaside location with a sandstone house, and 150 years of salt air has taken its toll. We've just had some stones replaced as they were soft, and the main external wall repointed. The other walls will be done next year. Roof maintenance is ongoing. Poor house was neglected for many years re external work, so we've had loads done - chimneys rebuilt as they were dangerous, new lead flashing, and new tiles.

At some point we need to do something about the ancient windows but that makes my bank account weep so....maybe in another 5 years!!

Wow, quite a range of answers so far from repainting every 3 years to not once in 20!

We’ve been here for nine years. It was a new build and we’ve decorated the kitchen/ family room three times, the living room three times and the bedrooms twice. We’ve replaced carpet in our bedroom, one bedroom, stairs and landing and the living room. Everywhere else is Amtico.

We’ve installed a log burner and we upgraded the oven.

I’d like to redesign the kitchen, but aside from costing a fortune, we plan to downsize relatively soon and the kitchen is a good quality German one. If we stayed, as well as the kitchen, I’d want to redo the family bathroom and change some of the en-suite to include more storage.

We've been here 20+ years, the bathroom still needs doing (we replaced the toilet as that broke, but the bath is naff and the sink is cracked). Will do it soon. Kitchen solid but dated, we replaced the flooring with top quality and that's still 20 years on good as new, ditto lounge carpet. See no point in doing anything beyond repainting elsewhere, will see us out. Rest of house we've repainted a few times, that's it. However outside we've future proofed, we've installed solar, double glazing, did a small extension, replaced guttering, reroofed the conservatory and added heating underfloor so it's now 'extension' rather than conservatory, added a porch that kind of thing. We've also added sheds and outdoor buildings, taken down trees which means lounge is now much lighter, rebuilt fencing, added nice oak gates, replanted the front with flowering perennials, levelled and gravelled the drive, put in a back gate, added a huge veg garden etc. House now has kerb appeal.

We’ve lived here for 17 years and all the big jobs have been done at least once - kitchen, bathrooms, boiler and finally the roof and external painting last year. I tend to decorate 2 or 3 room every year although this year it was ‘only’ the hall, stairs and landing which has taken ages. I’ve also done a lot outside this year. The en-suite was the first thing we did after moving in and it’s dated now so will be the next big job. We put a new kitchen in 15 years ago then had it resprayed 3 years ago to freshen it up. It’s still going strong so as much as I’d love to change it and knock through to the rarely used dinning room, it’ll have to wait.

we moved into a new built 14 years ago and have replaced the boiler, the washing machine and the fridge but nothing else. I’m heading to being ashamed of my house territory and are going to paint everything and replace all flooring soon. And the shower needs to be replaced and retiled.

We’ve been here over 23 years. Kitchen done twice, bathroom once (needs doing again soon), loft conversion, front and back gardens done. Plus decorating throughout at least twice per room.

Its never-ending 😫

Been in my house 10 years. Have painted once but it’s a rental so even though I see myself here longer I’m loath to invest in what needs it.

I think it can also depend on how much you care about fashion for things like bathrooms, kitchens and even decor. My kitchen is pretty dated in terms of aesthetics (it's a light wood veneer with chrome handles) but the design and quality are amazing - it was installed in 2005 (I inherited it in 2015) and it is as good as new. Plus it was designed really well- everything is always to hand.

I'm sure if I did a " rate my listing" thread, loads of people would say "kitchen is dated" but I don't care. It's a great quality kitchen that does the job. Why would I rip it out?

Our kitchen needs replacing after 15 years, our bathroom is fine after 9, our bedroom was done the same year as the bathroom and some of the drawers are sagging. Daughter's bedroom has been painted twice in less than a decade. It all depends on the state of the room really.

Once in 24 years, just had the whole house pretty much renovated as was in danger of collapse (grade II). So new walls (!) new windows, new roof, new bathrooms, new ufh, wooden flooring, new hearths, new wood burner, new kitchen. That's it for us, it will have to see us out as I'm never going through that again both in terms of stress and finance. Before that I would completely repaint every 3 years or so.

Our home was a new build and we have been here over 25 years.
We still have the original kitchen and bathrooms and utility room.
We have never needed to replace any flooring.
We did repaint in the first years after shrinkage, but not in the last 15 years though the hall & stairway would benefit from repainting now.
We look after our house and don't trash things.

8 years other than the odd lick of paint we've done nothing. Everything was in good condition when we moved in and is now looking a bit tatty.

We just think it is sensible to wait another 5 or so years until youngest is old enough not to destroy it all.

Been here ten years and we have had a new roof, windows, bathroom and kitchen in that time. Redecorated three or four times. We’ll get a new boiler and front door at some point and in the next ten years the windows, bathroom and kitchen will probably be done again.

Main rooms have been redone once. Some of them (like our bedroom) very much on the cheap and need redoing.

The only rooms that have been done more than once are the kids bedrooms as they grew.

Kitchen is an IKEA one installed 15 years ago and doesn't feel particularly dated. We are talking about making some changes because we both hate the Smeg gas hob, but not because there is anything really wrong with the kitchen.

So we painted this year, first time since we moved in 2003🙈
New carpets upstairs this year for first time.
Flooring downstairs was done shortly after we moved in and not since.
Roof needed doing when we moved in, finally did it last year, same for bathroom upstairs.
kitchen was done in 2006 when we had an extension built. Now needs a freshen up,

Life events and finances have always got in our way of doing this stuff. We did the expensive and noisy stuff when the dses went to university and dh retired.

We've been in our house 20 years. Replaced the kitchen in the first year. EAs would probably not be particularly complimentary about it now, but it is all in good working order and suits us, so I'm not going to change it just for 'fashion'.
We replaced the bathroom once.
We also fitted a 2nd bathroom.
We tend to decorate one room a year. It just keeps on top of things / keeps things ticking over. Most rooms will have been done twice I guess, since we've been here. Hall / stairs / landing twice as well.

Lived here 17 years but no DC, new build when I bought it
Original bathrooms and kitchen but have had a new shower door
Painted once
New carpet and bathroom flooring once
Hallway and bedrooms are the original carpet

Been in the house 25 years. We worked our way round decorating the rooms in the first couple of years, along with some new carpets or other flooring, and curtains.

Since then, the bedrooms haven't been touched except one lot of new curtains, and neither has the hall/landing. The downstairs rooms and bathroom have been mostly been decorated twice, I revarnished the wood floor at some point, and we've had one new kitchen.

Obviously we replace appliances etc. when necessary, and we had some external work done one year.

That's it. Maybe my standards are low, but it looks fine to me!

15 years in the house.
We've done the kitchen once which was part of an extension and we spent a lot on that. It's 8years old now and to be honest the kick boards have taken a hammering but it's holding up okay. I would hope we will get another 8 years out of it
Bathrooms twice. First time was a cheap job but the second time we moved things around & did it properly

We decorate the kitchen every couple of years (just paint) hall stairs & landing similar
Bedrooms not so much. They've all been done properly once with fitted furniture installed.

Did the place up about 5 years after moving in - when I had some funds! Just painting and decorating and made do with what was there for another 7 years.

So that's 12 years until I did the kitchen and bathroom ( I only had one loo boo hoo). That lasted for 22 years (yes I'm older and retired now and live alone too). This year got a downstairs shower room, new kitchen, knocked down a few walls (with my sledghammer lol) insulated, plastered, painted, decorated whew. I expect that to last me until I'm carried out in a box.

I'm no Hyacinth Bucket, as long as the place was clean I made do until I had no choice. The latest refurb is future proofing in case I cannot get up the stairs and can set myself up on the ground floor. Or someone can fling me into a nursing home whichever works. 😉

Our house was built in 1993, we moved in 2003, and have only changed a few things once. Previous owners had already changed the windows, added a conservatory. We very quickly changed fireplace, kitchen, carpets, flooring, redecorated everywhere. 30 years since built, and 20 years since we have been in, we have only just replaced the original boiler, tank, bathrooms, conservatory roof, garage door. We have decorated several times. Nothing else has been changed, or been re-done, all still going strong.

We've been in our house 11 years. We've replaced the kitchen and knocked a wall down to make a kitchen diner, replaced all 3 bathrooms, upgraded the boiler and replaced all the windows. All rooms have been painted at least twice, a couple 3 times. Most of the ceilings have been re plastered and all the light fittings changed.

All flooring has been replaced and the stair carpet needs doing again. We redid the decking 9 years ago and it also now needs doing again. We've also had to replace a couple of broken taps in the redone bathrooms. Just about to convert the garage. It feels endless and I'm scared to add up how much we have spent!