Nice period home but badly overlooked - yes / no

teddysmum

Some years ago, friends of a friend moved from a modern detached house to a roomy Victorian 'monster' as they were a family with large adolescent males who needed space, but within two years they sold up and moved to a house similar to the one they had left.


Even though not short of money, they found the heating costs ridiculous, probably because of the need to heat the large space caused by high ceilings.

zagubov

If you're new here, you can fix the thread titlle by clicking on your first post's edit button then click "advanced". The thread title will be available above your post for you to edit.

As for the garden being overlooked, living here in London, we're all used to that, everybody here has limited garden space and light.

RocketRonnieRadox

Gosh I wish I could post pics to illustrate the house !

Not sure why but I am not allowed to post links yet

glasgowdan

Just paste the link without the www.

Davesnave

RocketRonnieRadox wrote: »

Gosh I wish I could post pics to illustrate the house !

Not sure why but I am not allowed to post links yet

As above, you can post a broken link and one of us can fix it.

But it probably won't make much difference. It's how you feel about the property and its location that matters, not how others see the house. Some might love it, but that still won't make it a good buy for you.

We bought our property because it had certain features we wanted. On our budget, we had to accept a totally messed-up, characterless eyesore and £100k worth of work, just to make it look and feel acceptable to us. However, our predecessors obviously thought it was great as it was, because they'd spent considerable money doing work we've just undone!

We didn't mind buying something with problems that could be fixed, but there are still irritations that are unfixable. Every house has them. The trick is to buy something where the unfixable problems won't bother you, or impinge too strongly on your life.

Sometimes an unfixable problem arises after someone buys. often as a result of other people's behaviour. For example, about 10 houses in the nearby town have just lost the incredible view they had over unspoilt countryside, because a new housing estate has been built. There's no fix, so I'd guess most of the 10 houses will change hands; two already have. The new owners won't see a problem at all, though; they won't say "Gosh, we could have seen all the way to Dartmoor from here!" They'll just see what's there now and be happy with it.

Similarly, some people looking at that north-facing, overlooked garden will say, "That's fine, we can grow ferns and shade plants out here and make a more private arbour over there in the corner."

RocketRonnieRadox

Thank you Dave.

Well the situation and confusion is compounded by the fact that my other half doesn't see it the way I do. She thinks I am being silly over the overlooked aspect but I can't help it. In my mind, if I am to spend that kind of money I am looking for my forever home and would like it to be as good as I can afford.

In this location the majority of other houses in that price range are 4 bed semis, large garden but small rooms.

But if we wait maybe something else will come up but maybe it won't. My OH is 48 and doesn't want to take on a new mortgage at 50 so there is also pressure.

One thing I feel I need to mention is that I got very anxious over this house. On the second viewing I left feeling like I needed to run away. I don't know why but I just hit me. I was looking around it in detail and I suppose I realised that the house may need a lot more work than initially thought.

I seriously don't know if this was rational anxiety or not but it hit me bad. To the extent that I felt it every time I drove by and saw no sun in the back. Admittedly it was a month ago when the sun wasn't that high in the sky. As we got closer and closer to exchange the anxiety got worse. I woke in the morning feeling like I was in a pressure cooker.

We then had an asbestos test done on 3 ceilings and the test came back positive for ACM's on the ceilings with a bill of 3.5k to remove and then there is the making good taking the cost to a potential 6-8k

My wife had a knee justo reaction and called the EA and asked them for a reduction in price in respect of the above. The vendor said no so she said we are withdrawing.

I am not sure if that was an over reaction but the costs were now close to 40k for essential work.

Now the pressure is off one side of me days idiot you just walked out on the best thing you will get for your money, the other saints thank god. I thought it would be more simple and that I would feel relief but it's mixed feelings.

Here is a broken link for the sake of it. Shot was taken with a go pro so it's wide angle and the houses look closer in reality



i149.photobucket.com/albums/s44/RonenGoodfriend/IMG_0823_zpsvf1i6fev.png

Cakeguts

The thing about small rooms is that they are easy to heat in the winter. The thing about large gardens is that you can grow quite a lot of vegetable especially if the garden doesn't face north.

Davesnave

The link worked for me.

You already have a deciduous tree that's tall enough to shut out most of the overlooking and you could change that to more non-deciduous plants, like the one on the right.

The sun is from behind the photographer here so the only garden areas that would be shaded are those ofthe folk behind. How you feel about that is personal too!

The max fence height possible without planning permission is 2m. That doesn't rule out a pergola set back from the boundary and clothed with vines, or similar.

But I'd say if one of you feels much more anxious or uncertain, hold back. There have been times here when, if we hadn't both been equally keen, the accusations might have started to fly!

RocketRonnieRadox

Thanks Dave I had thought about screening already.

The sun would be setting behind the overlooking buildings and with their proximity depending on time of year it won't get any light at all.

I used suncalc to determine the path and height of the sun.

Being NNW facing it will only get any real sun between July to end of august at a guess.

As it stands we have withdrawn from the purchase as the vendors didn't see fit to reduce the price due to the 23k spend on windows required, the 6-8k on asbestos too.

If they change their minds and meet us some way we will of course reconsider.

OH is and has already been in a foul mood since withdrawing and many harsh words have been spoken.

She feels like I took her dream home from her even though she placed the call.

Other images here if you wish to see her side of the story

1drv.ms/a/s!AsXed8jy4awzhxSuvoPoEGzVnGJ9

teddysmum

I can't see the links (one comes up as ads for suppositories ),but besides my mention of high heating costs do think house over which you both disagree could well lead to lots of future problems; especially if something expensive crops up.


If your wife feels uncomfortable about a mortgage at 50,surely one at 48 (plus time for the sale to go through ) isn't far from that age. Do you really need such a large house or will it become a burden with so much to look after as you get older ?


There are lots of the large type Victorian houses round here and they do take a long time to sell; I suspect because of running costs, maintenance costs and the fact that people don't tend to have large families anymore.