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.

We've been here just over 10 years and the first few years were quite heavy. We did a major configuration of rooms, new bathrooms, new kitchen, large new patio, decorated throughout, fitted wardrobes.
Then we had a quiet few years whilst finances and emotions recovered (I find any work around the house hugely stressful. I want it done, I love it when it's finished, but the process itself has been in tears.). So I suppose 5/6 years have been quiet.
This year I've repainted lots of walls, and redone one bathroom.

Next year I'm going to focus on woodwork and new flooring downstairs. Our floors take a beating.
I'm very pleased to say that 6 years on, my cheapy DIY Kitchens units have held up really well nowt wrong with them at all, although maybe the plinths need replacing. And the hob. And I suspect the worktops are going to hit their life crisis next year.
I deeply regret the grey bathroom tiles but that's a big job so I'll have to put that into the some day folder.
Oh I'm sorry I started this...

It surprises me how often some people change things.

My lovely friend has had 2 new kitchens in the 15 years I have known her and multiple sofas. She gets bored easily whereas I just see money and work.

Our bathroom needed doing when we moved in and it was finally done some 19 years later! That is embarrassing and it was horrifically bad but it worked and it got so it would have been too disruptive with teens. Glad we didn’t do it earlier as it was 4 weeks without a shower or bath! It cost so much though, would have been much cheaper if we had done it a few years back!

We've been in our house 12 years and painted some rooms once and some twice.

It sounds like you've done a lot more than us!

I don't know the answer OP, but we've only just finished (nearly!) doing up our whole house and I'm terrified by the prospect of having to refresh it. Ever.

We must have one of the few original kitchens left on our estate judging by the skips we have seen over the years.

Interesting thread.

We’ve been here 15 years. We got the kitchen spray painted about 4 years ago. I would love to rip it out and put in a new kitchen, probably will in 5 years or so.

We only have carpet upstairs. We are on our second carpet (all done about 2 years ago, they were in a dreadful state). We went cheap and cheerful the first time but you learn your lesson, this time we got the most expensive underlay and a more expensive carpet. It still feels brand new.

I think the kitchen/dining room walls have been painted twice. Needs to be done again in the spring.

The living room, hall, landing and bedrooms were all painted this year.
I don’t really like changing the colour of the walls so will probably just go for the same again.

We retiled the hall about 2 years ago. Only because we didn’t like the old tiles, it wasn’t really necessary to change them.

We put in a new bath this year.

We got a new couch and armchair about a year ago. The old couch was 20 years old and I’m pretty good condition.

Our wood and laminate floors are perfect, I can’t imagine changing them.

It’s funny how things date though. Our floors would be very dated now (dark wood or pine coloured) it’s all grey tones of laminate I see in modern houses.

I find the grey thing depressing. We went into a flooring store looking to replace our bathroom floor like for like. Since we did it 6 years ago the colour palette available has gone grey. I understand grey being available but it’s a shame it is 90% of the whole store. It will be the pink bathroom of the future.

12 years, but we don't have much money
We did some work when we bought (insulation, solar panels, converted a room to make 2 rooms etc)

We redecorated throughout and new carpet in living room.

We used old bathroom and kitchen, repainted doors, replaced handles etc.
Both bathroom and kitchen need replacing, but we just fix and repaint and carry on.
I redecorated rooms as they look tatty. About every 5 years, but don't replace carpets or furniture. Maybe change curtains.

Hall/stairs/dining room carpet despeartely needs doing, not no cash.

Other flooring is fine.

House does look lived in, but Ok

We have been in our house for almost 25 years.

We had a new kitchen and bathroom after about 10 years, the original were not exactly to my taste but both were brand new, they left the guarantees and bills on the side. We had new carpet all over the house straight away as theirs was patterned. We have replaced the bathroom twice, the first time we went for a mid range one, this last one was very expensive but it is beautiful. Due to chips on two cupboards and the kitchen looking a bit knackered we are going to get it wrapped.

Other work done is new boiler, one new radiator, new front door, new patio doors, new patio, new guttering, new ceiling in kitchen/diner and two ceilings skimmed in rooms, one window replaced.

We've been here 8 years:

1. Living room and one bedroom repainted twice
2. Kitchen, hall and other bedroom repainted one (but toched up as needed).
3. Hall recarpeted
4. Hall cupboard replaced
5. Internal doors replaced twice (don't ask!)
6. Bedrooms carpeted
7. Bathroom completely replaced.
8. Oven and washing machine replaced
9. More plumbing work than seems reasonable
10. Window handles and locks replaced

Over the next year think we need to replace the bedroom carpets (bastard moths) and the front door (bastard fire regulations).

I would like to replace the kitchen worktop and the shower screen is looking a bit iffy.

Wow you have very high standards!
We've been in our house 13 years and are just starting to think about getting the hall redecorated for the first time.
We've painted most rooms once, a couple twice, more through changing our minds on colours than it needing doing. Not done much else!

TBF the original re decoration was the first year we moved in because the place was a horrible cheap dirty white throughout! same with carpets - originally horrible cheap scratched laminate (in a third floor flat where hard floors are only allowed in the bathroom, kitchen and living room.)

My kitchen & bathroom are c 30 years old. They work. I'd rather spend my money elsewhere.

Our previous house we were in for 18 years.
We replaced the original bathroom and kitchen when we first moved in (both cheapo ones), and redid the worktops after 8 years (theyd been wood, we didnt look after it enough). Also replaced flooring and redecorated in the first two or three years.

After that, the living room got repainted once, our bedroom carpet replaced & repainted room once, DC bedrooms repainted more often - baby bedroom styles arent really that cool when you're 12, but the carpets stayed, and the hallway changed colour like a traffic light, it was CONSTANTLY getting scuffed etc. We didnt replace furniture.

22 years. We did everything 😥. Removed avocado bath suite x2 and replaced with white. Plastered every room to remove artex. Knocked a wall down to include landing space in bedroom. Replaced dated staircase for solid oak, replaced all internal doors. Replaced all windows and patio doors. Removed stone feature fire surround and room divider thing. Flooring throughout, new kitchen, two new boilers 😡and painted most rooms 3 times.

Currently improving insulation in master bedroom so more plastering and more paint. It’s been a bit more than we expected and we’ve had to budget hard but we’re pretty well there now. The kitchen has been in 12 years now and could probably do with new worktops but the cabinets are staying

I'm surprised how often people change their bathrooms - are we talking changing the whole suite? Or just a new cupboard or something?

Our suite was there when we moved in 25 years ago, and we haven't changed it. We did get a new floor (soon after moving in), a new shower screen at one point, and have redecorated twice.

House 25 years old, we bought it 10 years ago with original everything. Since then we've done everything for boiler to doors, kitchens bathrooms flooring etc. We've decorated at least twice in every room, some are ready to be done again.

Bathrooms were done when we moved in and are tired so probably the next thing to re do.

DS goes to his dad's between Boxing day and NYE. While he's away , every year I repaint one room and generally freshen up any woodwork that is looking tatty.

Hire in a carpet cleaner. Wash down the walls in his bedroom. Have a clear out.

We have lived here for 30 years .
The house was fairly recently decorated when we moved in. I the first 10 years we did some alterations to create a third bedroom, decorated it for the DC and painted the hall and landing.
We had a big extension then to make a fourth bedroom and second bathroom as well as new kitchen and significant outside alterations. Hall and landing , sitting room and new bits were decorated. We kept what we could of wood work, doors, appliances etc.
Roof was replaced a few years later.
In the last few years we have redecorated the kitchen, tarted up the downstairs loo and study, redecorated one of the bedrooms and redone the family bathroom.
In other words most areas have now been done twice by us indoors.i only replace curtains if they are really needed .
Hall and landing are in desperate need of decoration at the moment.
Outside the woodwork has been done about every 5 years.

I’ve lived in my house for 16 years. We’ve decorated every room a couple of times, replaced flooring in every room apart from kitchen, bathroom redone once (about 5 or 6 years ago). Kitchen was supposed to be done this year (it’s probably about 30 years old) but budget had to be spent elsewhere. New front door and patio door, some roof work and chimney when needed. We’ve also rewired and most rooms have been skimmed.

Next on our list (after the kitchen) is probably gutter replacing then windows. There’s always something that needs doing.

oh these replies are making me consider decorating. New build up around 4 years so everything is brand new and the best we could afford to put in at the time.

I love my kitchen, it’s quite modern and the floors throughout the house are perfect. I have one of those hated completely white interior houses but I like it. There are times when I think ohh colour, but I know I could add that in with accessories.

maybe I should think about painting something?!

Been here 28 years, kitchen and bathrooms redone twice, two boilers, one set new windows though some of them are looking a bit tired now. Still the same awful porch we planned to redo the first year we were in.

decorated and flooring replaced a fair few times tbh.

33 years, Victorian terrace. We had a new kitchen 27 years ago (still feels new to me, it's solid wood and very good quality, but it's probably horribly dated now) and 2 new bathrooms, one of which is fine, the other could do with a refurb as it's very much of its era. In the first ten years, we had a lot of building work done; removed lots of 70s artex from the walls and replastered throughout downstairs, new windows, internal and external doors, new gutters, new roof, reinstalled a working fireplace, had ceilings repaired and replastered, rewired, new flooring throughout. It was exhausting.

We later had the front made into a driveway and the garden landscaped. We redecorated every room in the house, had new carpets and curtains, new hard flooring downstairs. New boiler. Most recently (about 10 years ago) converted the attic to a bedroom and study.

We're currently sprucing it up to downsize, mainly outside work (upvc front door is looking horrible, stone paintwork hasn't been done in a few years and is beginning to peel, roof needs looking at) and will paint my daughter's bedroom, as I gather most buyers aren't looking for murals of dwarves vomiting rainbows or eyeballs growing out of mushroom clumps... Beyond that, I'm currently weighing up if the outlay for more extensive work will be worth it in terms of a rise in value.

If we were staying put I'd also be looking at remodelling the kitchen, moving an internal wall to make a utility area and shower room (instead of the current downstairs bathroom which is too big and largely unused), getting underfloor heating, redecorating every room and putting back the fireplace in our main bedroom.

Just need a lottery win! 😩