I've decided to call it the money pit!

kwmlondon

Okay, anyone who remembers the saga of buying my home will probably never want to hear anything about my house again. I thought that with a couple of weeks of hard work we'd have the placed sorted.

I was wrong.

We've now got it into an okay state, it's livable and starting to become a pleasant place to live. But... Although it's okay, it needs the following:

New bathroom.

Replace the electrics.

New central heating /hot water system (inc. all pipes and rads).


Now, the place is OKAY. We can live with it, but I've done all I can as an enthusiast really. Me and partner have accepted that most of what we've done is a compromise to make it liveable for the next couple of years.

Once we're on a more stable financial footing we will gut the place. I will have it ripped up from the concrete slab to the loft. I will have the interior walls redone. Everything. Bathroom. Kitchen. Floors. Walls. Electrics. Windows. Heating. Everything.

It would not need it except that it's been bodged and neglected to such an extent by the landlord and tenants who had it for the last decade that it's going to need stripping back to the very frame.

kwmlondon

Just wondered if anyone could offer some words of encouragement! Just tell me it'll all be okay in the end... PLEASE!!!

Slowly_does_it..

It sounds like a long job, but you will get there! - After buying my place near 5 years ago I still have a crazy patchwork of colours trying to find the correct one for a wall!

Idea, instead of ripping everything up and starting from scratch, if your layout is not going to change, just do one room at a time? - It might cost more in the long-run, but in a years time you will have a decent 1 room.

kippers

We have been in our house for 11 years and we have had new double glazing, a completely new central heating system (radiators boiler an all), new guttering and facias, the roof fixed several times, a new fire and fire surround and finally after 11 years we are knocking down a wall to make a kitchen diner and then we will start saving towards a new bathroom/ new bedroom carpets etc etc etc.

All houses are money pits, especially old ones and as soon as we finish doing one thing then something else needs doing....but at least it's our house and we can choose to do what we want to. Keep going, it will be worth it in the end.

kwmlondon

Mine was built in 1989!!!! I am aghast that it was so badly maintained, and fitted out to such a low standard that it will need such a drastic overhaul within the next few years. I mean, why install such small pipes for the central heating in the first place? Why put in a hot water tank system at all? How can so much of the lighting be shot?!!! A home less than 25 years old should not need rewiring!

phoebe1989seb

We've done a few renovation projects - the last three including our current house quite major - so feel your pain. You will get there in the end as difficult as but may seem to visualise that day right now. We've only ever done old houses - one had been previously converted to four flats and had been neglected for 60+ years - and have done majority of the less-skilled work (including re plastering, tiling and kitchen fitting) ourselves, but one thing I can say is that it does take time to get a property how you want it.......unless of course you have an unlimited budget and can draft in teams of builders

Five - ten years is the average time we've spent getting them up to the standard we want, but even with the level of work you're talking about, I would guess that for a newer property you won't come across the issues that a significantly older house will throw up and therefore, budget permitting and allowing it to be done in one hit, you'd be looking at a much shorter time frame

GL with it and enjoy your new home.......

kwmlondon

Slowly_does_it.. wrote: »

It sounds like a long job, but you will get there! - After buying my place near 5 years ago I still have a crazy patchwork of colours trying to find the correct one for a wall!

Idea, instead of ripping everything up and starting from scratch, if your layout is not going to change, just do one room at a time? - It might cost more in the long-run, but in a years time you will have a decent 1 room.

Well, it's all livable and (after a wallet-busting trip to Ikea) it's starting to feel homely.

It's at the point where everything is okay, but the heating system is temperamental and needs replacing - all the radiators and pipes as well as boiler and tanks. The electrics are okay, but I've had to disconnect a few lights and there are odd things like certain sockets downstairs being powered from the upstairs ring main (!!!!!). Stuff that I can live with, but it costs a fortune to get replacement fuses because they are not manufactured any more.

The bathroom functions, and we've put some lino over the floor tiles and painted it so it's clean and fresh but they need to be ripped up. The wall tiles are on plasterboard so replacing them will mean ripping the walls off.

We could try and do it room at a time, but I'd rather live with it in its acceptable state for 2 or 3 years and then have the whole place gutted and refitted from floor to roof in a single hit, it will be easier and cheaper to rewire and put in a new heating system while the walls and ceilings are off.

It will be a long game...

cattie

I've been in my 'new' home for approx approx 15 months now. I thought all the work needed would be done in just a few months, but within days of moving in I became seriously ill & in hospital for a couple of months & then a few months of recovering at home.

Once I decided I felt well enough to start thinking of getting the work done, starting with a complete kitchen refit, problem after problem started to rear it's ugly head. Non functioning boiler, blocked drains, blown double glazing etc. etc. etc. This place had been rented out for many years, so was in a really poor, unloved & neglected state.

The refurbishment work on my home continues as I sit here typing. I'm hopeful that by the end of next week the major works will all be completed, leaving just decorating to be done. I estimate it will probably be spring of next year before I can truly believe it will have turned from an ugly duckling of a money pit into the home that I visualised when I bought it.

I'm lucky in that having downsized, I have the money to hand to pay for all the work that's been needed, but can appreciate how hard & difficult it must be when the finance to do what you really want & need to do just isn't there.

Eventually you will be rewarded by friends & relatives complimenting you on turning your run down neglected house into a very nice, comfortable & appealing home & it will all then seem worth the sheer hard work & financial outlay.

societys_child

why install such small pipes for the central heating in the first place?

Microbore was popular around that time.

Why put in a hot water tank system at all?

It was 1989 - and many people prefer it, the bath fills much quicker compared to a combi.

How can so much of the lighting be shot?!!! A home less than 25 years old should not need rewiring!

You've not said what's wrong. Is it just the fittings need replacing? What's wrong with the wiring?

The electrics are okay

So it doesn't need rewirng then?

there are odd things like certain sockets downstairs being powered from the upstairs ring main (!!!!!

Not particularly unusual.

it costs a fortune to get replacement fuses because they are not manufactured any more.

Don't know what fuses they are but a new CU isn't really expensive.

northwest1965

We've been in our new house since mid May. It's a strip back job too;)

We've had a part rewire job done so far and the lounge will be ready for Christmas.

It is going to be a long job. I personally want to live as it is now and take the time to do the job properly. 1 room every 6months will have to do.

Good luck!

Rovver125

We bought our first home back in June & we're in exactly the same boat! Within two days of moving in I had labelled it a money pit.

On the day we got the keys, what started as "shall we peel a little of the carpet back in the living room & see what the wooden floors like" ended with every carpet ripped up, a lot of wallpaper stripped off & even an old doorway knocked back through.

We hadn't really noticed during the viewings, but the place stank of the previous owners & their dog, so stripping everything that held their rancid smell was enormously satisfying. Until we started noticing all the different issues anyway...

The previous owner, we now realise, was the sort who thought he was capable of doing anything himself, when in reality, every single thing he's done is a total bodge job. The standard of his diy is some of the worst I've ever seen! We also now realise he lied through his teeth about numerous things. We certainly won't be so naïve if we ever do this again!!

Worst thing so far has been finding out from the neighbour that the boiler stove was a diy install. This was the one part of the house that we stupidly overlooked having inspected & are kicking ourselves for it now. It was only put in back in 2009, but we've had to have a new flue & cowl just to get us through this winter (fitter said it was one of the worst he's ever seen & amazed they had not had a chimney fire) & it's so poorly installed that to get it up to hetas standards it would be easier to rip it all out & start again.

We're trying to stay positive, but we know it's going to be a very long road to getting it all sorted out!

At least it's ours & we're not just paying someone else's mortgage anymore!!