moving house

alwaysbrassic

I just wondered if anyone out there had moved house but not been totally happy in their new house?

We have been in our new house a month, and I am struggling to settle in. We knew the house needed redecoration etc, but the scale of the work has overwhelmed me. Even though the house isn't very old, it hasn't been maintained at all. I thought by now we would be decorating, but all our time and money has been spent on repairs for stupid things such as dodgy guttering, and faulty electrics.

In addition to this, the house is next to a park, which we thought would be great for our kids. We did loads of drive-bys at various times of day and night, and the area seemed so quiet, the neighbours also praised it. However, we now know its quiet in the day because all the local idiots are getting their sleep ready to shout and swear in the park until 2.30am. The design of the park means it sounds like they are in the next room, so many sleepless nights for us. I have called the police on 5 occassions already. I cannot face a lifetime of calling the police every week.

All of this combined with running out of money has just made me fed up. We moved house for more space, our two kids were sharing (boy and girl). We fell in love with the space of this house, and thought we had got a bargain, but it needs so much spending on it, its not worked out like that, and to top it off, a new house has come on the market which is bigger, for less money. If we had have had more patience and waited we could have got it, but we rushed into things.

Anyone any tips to help me fall in love with the house? Moving again isnt an option, we just dont have the money.

balletshoes

My sister moved into their house and it needed a lot of work, which they have taken 15 years to do, (and they still haven't sorted out the central heating).
She does love it though, its home (and the winning point for her was the already mature south-facing garden).

Could you do anything to the house/garden to baffle the noise from the park?

No house is perfect, and its early days. You must have liked it otherwise you wouldn't have bought it, yes? What did you like about it before you moved in?

Gillyx

STOP looking at other houses, it may upset you further.

alwaysbrassic

I think we just loved the space and the plot. We did look at exactly the same style house on the same estate (its a massive new build estate), which was more modern but felt more overlooked and less homely. It was a similar price.

Even though we knew the house we have bought needed more decoration it just felt more homely and had a bigger garden, which is south west facing.

We have just spent £1000 (!) on a new fence to quieten the noise from the park (other than the noise and swearing they are not actually causing damage), and we are looking at planting bushes. Does anyone have suggestions for the best variety to plant that wont grow too tall but will catch the noise?

I guess I just feel down because we didnt think we could afford this size house, however we pushed our financial comfort limits to do this, but its left us no money to play with. The house that we left was immaculate (this house we moved into took 5 boxes of oven pride to make the oven hygeinic enough to use! and a week to make it clean enough to fetch our kids into!).

I didnt want to spend years getting it nice. I think I am just naive!

Spendless

Re- the park. I live a stone's throw from ours. Do you know (roughly) the age of the people hanging around there? Eg are they teenagers? Does your local schools start back next week? If so you may find the noise sorts itself out within the next couple of weeks, as nights get darker earlier and kids have to be in for homework and the weather gets worse. I've found this last week of the hols kids are particularly 'restless'. I've had an egg thrown at my window this afternoon/evening and for no apparant reason, all of us have been out all day!

mummyoftwomonkeys

Its normal, Ive always felt depressed moving into another house for as long as I can remember, the 1st time we moved I was very young and remember asking my mum if the garden was as big and she said it was bigger but It wasn't lol and I had the hump, Ive moved 4 times since Ive been married and the last house wasn't great we rented and the L.L were pretty useless but I still hated leaving because it was the house we brought our baby home to, even now after only living here since April Ive been looking at other houses :-(

alwaysbrassic

I spent the last day in our old house walking round crying remembering fetching my babies home and other memories! that may be part of it.

In terms of the park, they are kids on mopeds so I dont hold out much hope that schools going back will help.

Thanks for your kind words.

Slinky

Not sure about the noise-catching abilities, but I'd go for something thorny in case any of the idiots decide to climb over the fence (we have a footpath behind the house which resulted in us being burgled).

Sorry to hear you're not settling in. Can you concentrate on making one room really nice and taking it from there? Try and make it a room you spend a lot of time in. I remember when we moved and started decorating, my husband suggested we start with the guest bedroom to decorate over one Easter. I said I'd rather do our room first as I wouldn't want to spend all that effort improving a room we weren't going to get an immediate benefit from.

meritaten

hun - the money spent on new guttering and new electrics was essential! no point spending money slapping paint on walls and making it LOOK nice if the electrics are dodgy and the house could burn down! or one good torrential rain and you have water leaking everywhere!
I know you feel desperate to decorate BUT.......you MUST get the basics sorted first! First the house must be sound and safe! then work out which rooms you NEED to update first. sounds to me like it may be the kitchen/living room. bedrooms are next on the list -unless the bathrooms are really disgusting! if its clean and functional - live with it until you can afford to do it up!
sounds like there are real positives to this house! you bought it for good reasons - try and remember them. Its a house not a prison and once you have made improvements and the housing market improves over the next few years you may find you had a little gem!

chanie

When OH and I moved into our house, we other than needing a new kitchen, we thought it was cosmetic updating. We completed on the day I went on holiday and OH got busy stripping the wallpaper whilst I was away. WHen I came back (we hadn't moved in), I walked into an empty house with wallpaper peelings all over the floor, damaged walls and threadbare carpet. For a while, I did think 'what have I done, buying this house....'

Three years on and we've done loads on the house, but we still have loads more to do. But, we are building some great memories in this house - our first Christmas together, the fun we had in the snow, bringing our first son home from the hospital.......

Summer is nearly over so I'm sure that the kids will stop hanging around the park once it gets really cold.

alwaysbrassic

we were thinking laurel bushes as they grow quite dense?

Slinky, I think you are right about finishing a well used room also. We are just in process of finishing the kids rooms (we wanted them to feel settled first), but next on our list i think should be the living room. Hopefully it shouldnt cost too much. Everything takes so long though, as my husband and I work long hours.

Im sorry to hear you were burgled, that must have been distressing for you.