Problems with pre-owned houses

[Nourishinghandcream]

Prompted by yet another thread which is developing into a place to bash new builds.
Thought it would be a bit of fun to hear your tails of problems in older houses.

Having owned four houses (1930's, 1950's, 1970's and now a NB), we have come across many things but in almost every case it was down to poor maintenance, unwillingness to spend money (to have it done properly) or moreso, a case of more enthusiasm than skill (i.e. the DIYer😲).

Unsafe stair handrail.
Unable to drill the wall (didn't own a drill?) the previous owner built up mounds of filler on the wall, inserted 1-inch wall plugs and screwed the handrail brackets to these. Needless to say it came off the moment you put any weight on it.

Dodgy electrics
Why oh why do people "have a go" at electrics when they have no idea what they are doing? Cables going diagonally across the wall or clipped to the skirting & door frame, lighting circuits spurred off the back of plug sockets, driveway light fed from the cooker supply, socket next to the bath to serve the spin dryer(😲!).

Folding kitchen door.
The kitchen/living room door was a horrible concertina/vinyl affair. When I asked the owner why, they said it was because when they redid the kitchen, the door now opened onto a cupboard so they removed it. When I moved in, it took my Ddad just a couple of hours to fit a new door but reconfigure it so it opened the other way.

More to follow but let's hear yours ........,.

All my houses have been at least 100 years old, the oldest one I own currently is 165 years old. I love old houses. Damp seems to be my most expensive issue - actually no, roofs come first, but I’ve only had to replace one totally and one partially.
I bought a basement flat and when redoing the kitchen found wet rot behind the wall tiles. Then in replacing the floor found the plates had rotted. It was annoying but fixable.
In my last big house (1880s) the ceilings had failed so had to take Down the lathe and plaster ceilings in four large rooms, very messy job, plus I lost the coving but was able to take a profile from another room and got a specialist plasterer to replicate it. I also had to rebuild a brick back bay wall as the lintel was inadequate. But this doesn’t stop me from buying old houses.