Stick or twist? Modern & rural or period character in village

[competentadult]

Now that the youngest child has gone to uni, we have been dithering over whether or not to move. We’ve lived in our modern house in the country for 10 years. It's attractive, we’ve done a lot to it and it meets our needs but we still have a pretty big mortgage (now borderline crippling, since Truss). It has gorgeous views but it’s on an exposed hill, the garden faces north and we have to drive everywhere.

We have just viewed a place in the centre of a nearby village. The house is a similar size but it's 17th century with original wonky floors and lots of character. Little sheltered south-facing garden. The environment is lovely – beautiful village, views of the church, great pub, good little shops etc all 2 minutes' walk from the (gorgeous) front door.

It would cut our remaining mortgage in half meaning that we could pay it off in 5 years with lower payments. My husband adores it and would move in tomorrow. I have never lived in a very old house and although I love the quirks, I am worried about it being cold and draughty.

If we don’t seize this opportunity - while we’ve both still got jobs - to get a good-sized house we can afford in a lovely place, it might never come again. But I’m also worried I’d be making a mistake leaving our warm, insulated house for one with electric heating and single-glazed (albeit beautiful sash) windows.

What to do?

Will it be the house you are 70 or 80 in?
if so
will it meet the needs of you then?

if it’s the same size, has more character and is closer to amenities, why is it so much cheaper?

Apparently the vendor is in a rush to sell - they've moved out already and it's been heavily reduced recently. Plus small garden, street parking, electric heating.

I've done street parking. It can be a pain in the arse. 200 yards isn't far, but it feels far in the dark and rain.

If you'd be prepared to move again once you need to, go for it now and enjoy it. That way, you'll be established in village life and can move to more convenient property as you age.

If you want your dotage house now, this is probably not the one, if it has steep stairs (stair lift potential?) and no allocated parking.

Electric storage heating is shit.

Is that all it has?

The EPC should show an estimated amount of energy for heating the house in kWh per year. Multiply that by whatever the economy 7 price per unit is at the moment to see how much it will cost to heat.

Personally I wouldn't touch somewhere with electric heating with a bargepole unless there was scope to replace it with oil/gas/ASHP.

It has an open fire in the sitting room and storage heaters elsewhere, nothing else.

@Reallybadidea that's very helpful, thank you. I've just done that calculation <faints>

If it had central heating I'd be less hesitant but the storage heaters fill me with dread.

I love period houses but no wonky floors could ever make me live in a listed property with secondary glazing and electric storage heaters and with no opportunity to change to gas or oil, you will be paying a fortune to be cold, electric I think is three times the price of gas, imagine paying that amount of money and still being cold, nightmare.

Yes, this is pretty much my feeling too. We have a few storage heaters - I think they were seen as an economical option around the time our house was built- but we never use them as they are less efficient and more expensive than the oil central heating. We did need to rely on them for about a week one winter a few years ago when our boiler broke down and we were waiting for a part to be delivered. They were better than nothing it's true, but I wouldn't like it to be a permanent arrangement. We all spent a lot of time in the one room with an open fire that week, and we used a couple of electric fan heaters intermittently in other rooms too. It was OK for an emergency but I wouldn't like the costs permanently and, as you say, not really be warm enough a lot of the time anyway.

My work is in a listed building and had the ancient 80s storage heaters replaced last year with modern electric heaters. It’s an almost unbelievable difference - it was actually too hot at first and we turned them down, temperature is even instead of freezing at floor and stuffy at ceiling, we’re not all going around plugging in extra oil-filled radiators. I don’t think they cost more to run, just the old ones were so inefficient. Have a look at the power usage on modern electric heating and see what you think.

Also, with south-facing, can you get solar panels on the roof if it’s facing the garden instead of the street?

Hard no with storage heaters, that will be very, very cold. If you're moving now I'd really want somewhere you can stay in through old age- not a money pit with steep stairs

We once had storage heaters in an old house and it was fine. We installed a wood burner that heated the whole house - think it was eco tech - they are emissions compliant, hardly burn much fuel and keep the heat in masonry bricks (or something). They might be called Dutch heaters or something. They are amazing. A biggish one off cost and then just an annual service and as they burn so little super low fuel bills. I would move and install one!

Or move - check the heaters and have the wood burner ceramic heater thingy as a reserve?

@competentadult Are you in with a shout? Is your place sold?

You might find the house isn’t suitable for solar panels. Storage heaters would be a no from me. It’s been reduced for a reason. Maybe a survey is showing issues? It will cost a lot to modernise and you will notice the heating bills after a modern house. What restrictions are there regarding secondary glazing and updating heating? If any?

Solar panels don't really help with heating costs because they don't generate much, if any, electricity when it's cold and you're using loads of electricity. And storage heaters generally charge overnight when the sun isn't shining at all!

I think you need to take a look at yourselves and what you like doing in any spare time -- an old house needing work is ok if you both are happy to spend weekends with a sander or paintbrush etc for months if not years on end - or have pots of spare cash over and above asking price to get any work done by others in one foul swoop - if neither of these apply- don't touch it with a barge pole.

Having done period village several times, modern and rural all the way for me. However, it sounds like that doesn't meet your needs.

Is the 17th century house thatched? if so that might be a cost to consider..

Listed, no gas and mid terrace? I would not touch it with a barge pole!

OP You say the cottage is terraced. What are the partition walls bewteen you and the adjoining houses made of? If stone, not much problem but if timber framed/lath and plaster then beware of sound transmission. I once lived in a fab 'slice' of a long timber-framed building (and loved it for most of the time). The people who owned the neighbouring slice of the terrace were hardly ever there. But when they were, you could hear almost every word through the walls.

Agree with previous posters that modern storage heaters are nothing like the old - they are much more efficient -and that a wood buring stove (with a back boiler for hot water if they are still legal PLUS a proper, legal double-skinned insulated flue-pipe) would be very useful indeed. But: can you get good, seasoned, local wood at an affordable price? Are you in a zone that regulates emissions? Etc etc.

Sorry, I missed the bit about the house being terraced, no thatch to worry about then.

The houses are stone built and I'm pretty certain the partitions are stone too.
DH is a dab hand at DIY and knows about old houses so I'm not too worried about day to day upkeep as such.
I'm researching modern storage heaters and electric radiators - does anyone have any experience of the latter?

Grew up in a 17th century half timber, wonky floor, sash window house in the country. I think you already know it will be cold and drafty. There are tactics you can adopt. Keep a warm room. Keep electric blankets to hand on the sofa. Dress warmly, I wore a heavy woollen house coat and thick trousers. You get use to it, so much so that even now I can't stand a heated bedroom and keep a window open all year round (although I did have to close it this morning at 02:00am when storm Darragh was at its height).

Don’t advocate wood burners in thatched houses. Not that this one is, but wood burners have drawbacks.

I used to want an old house. I don’t now. We like our insulation, glazing, heat pumps, solar panels and batteries. We store our generated electricity. However I would not like being isolated. Or have higher maintenance costs. Electric heating is never cheap and non cavity walls and old windows won’t help.