For how long could you live with the decor?

Mnoee

Plenty of people put up with doer-uppers now, because that's all they can afford. Assuming you're calling mid-30's 'kids these days', as I'm pretty sure that's the average age of a first time buyer. It's hard to buy a house with single glazing and no central heating now, there's just not so many about as standards of living have increased so much - but you'll be pleased to hear that my double glazing is busted on one window, there's cosmetic damage to the sill at the front of the house and I'm currently missing a kitchen cupboard door, along with half ripped out wood panelling in the kitchen.

We have the money to fix all of this stuff, but only bought last January and decided to give it a few months to prioritise stuff - which has lead to a slap of paint upstairs and little else as we don't want people round at the moment. 

phoebe1989seb

All of the eight properties we've owned/lived in have been projects/fixer uppers and therefore have all had pretty horrendous internal decor at the point of purchase.

Most memorable - the Georgian thatched house where the previous owners had stripped every wall back to the bare stone and lived with it like that for several years. It was like living in a cave! We couldn't even hang any pictures on the walls to brighten things up 🙄 As we had loads of structural stuff etc to do, plastering wasn't a priority so we did live with it for at least a year.

Another place was so huge - and had previously been let out as four extremely grotty flats - that it took us ten years to complete the entire house. Then we sold it!

Our current cottage was a repossession. The previous owners had lived here for about six years before letting it out for a further five, during which time it appears to have been painted with whatever leftover - or cheap - paint was available. When we moved in three years ago the shower room was bright orange, the main bedroom and living room Barney purple/luminous green and the second bedroom a delightful shade of pooey brown. Even though we're not fans of white, the first thing we did - before tackling the more important stuff such as having a borehole drilled - was paint everywhere white, lol! Now virtually everywhere is finished and painted in colours that are more *us* 😉

MovingForwards

Got a 60s / 70s bathroom with wood panels.
Woodchip or anaglypta wallpaper in the lounge, hallway and one bedroom.
The woodwork was mahogany varnish, including built-in units by the lounge chimney breast and lounge door.
Artex on most ceilings.
Mish mash of something from 90s early 2000s in the kitchen.
Original interior doors.

A tub of trade white, some gloss and several months of TLC has got rid of the mahogany, I've put chrome handles on the units and removed the carpet revealing a laminate floor. Lounge looks totally different, brighter and has accents of colour with personal items.

Not even been in my home a year, in no rush to do anything. As much as the kitchen is ugly I don't live in it, it functions and will remain as is until it's time to be replaced. 

Doesn't mean I'm not planning what I will eventually do, as I save the money to do it.

In the interim, I'm just working my way round my home with the big tub of paint and trying to find the right interior door handles.

ka7e

Our previous house was a Victorian semi, bought in the mid-80s and had previously been used as an unofficial HMO. 3 bedrooms and the lounge had been let out, with the residents free to decorate as they chose. The worst was a bedroom that had turquoise nylon carpet and large geometric-patterned wallpaper in black and shiny gold. We actually lived with it for a couple of years and it was my toddler son's bedroom and didn't seem to cause him lasting harm!

But far worse was the fact that the owner had worked at a timber yard and had used wood everywhere in the house. The lounge had  the marble fireplace ripped out and a wall of dark wood shelving built all along the chimney breast and into the alcoves - the shelves and frame were about 2 inches thick and stained dark brown. A similar set-up in the kitchen, although the fireplace was intact. Shelves here were backed with multiple bevel-edged mirrors. The ceiling was panelled, as were the walls to about 4 foot height. All solid timber, no chipboard.

The wow factor came with the hand-built kitchen. The wall cabinets went right up to the 9-10ft high ceiling. The shelves were made of some sort of peg-board with punched holes in and a rough surface, so impossible to clean. The doors were painted alternately yellow and blue like a psychedelic chess board. We started ripping it out the day after we moved in

mortgage_noob

I'm someone looking to buy a 'fixer uppers' I lived on boats before so am familiar with living in less than ideal conditions. However, some people in this thread seem to think it a badge of honour to not care about decor and live in conditions that aren't comfortable. Great for you, but why turn this into a opportunity to look down on (young) people who want to buy a comfortable  home? If anything covid has shown us the importance of having one.

Not everyone wants to spend their free time doing DIY, it doesn't make them spoilt. People just have different priorities.

Plenty of people buy 'fixer uppers' , young or old, it doesn't make you special.

MalMonroe

I'm not usually very bothered but when we moved into our current home one wall in the living room was papered in red flock. The kind you usually only see in pubs. (And old pubs at that.) We just couldn't bear it, it was so oppressive. Friends came round to help us rip it all off (and that took ages) and then paper the whole room with our own choice of plain paper and then pale paint. Whew! Afterwards it was so much lighter and brighter and it appeared bigger. We just couldn't have lived with that. Fortunately the rest of the property was painted in pastel hues and we never did find out why the previous owner - lovely older woman - felt the need to paper the walls with fur!

I don't mind starting off with white clinical finishes because then you can just do as you please and take your time about it too. But red flock, ewww - made me feel queasy. 

Nebulous2

I can tune stuff like that out. After nearly 30 years in a new build we have moved into a quirky 280 year old house. The previous owner was a builder, who prioritised functionality over aesthetics. It even includes the avocado bathroom mentioned above.  We bought it almost 3 years ago, spent most weekends there, and have done much less than we expected to renovate it. 

Part of that is not wanting to spend our weekends renovating, when we could be cycling or walking the dogs at the beach, and part of it is that we have much more ambitious plans to swap the kitchen and the bathroom round, but can't make up our minds if the cost of that bigger project is worth it.

I'm surprised at people above equating comfort with looks. The bathroom is functional, everything works and it is as comfortable as a bathroom will ever be.  Changing it for white would be almost entirely for appearance.

Some of the things that bothered me 3 years ago I don't even notice anymore. It has a very 1970s looking built in fireplace, extending over a whole wall. I hated it and imagined ripping it out very quickly, but can't remember the last time I even looked at it. 

Davesnave

mortgage_noob said:

Plenty of people buy 'fixer uppers' , young or old, it doesn't make you special.

 People with the relevant skills achieve what they want and gain personal satisfaction through the application of that expertise. That's the theory, though when it doesn't work out, the results may be scary, or very sad.

Others find another route to a pleasant home, such as working hard and achieving career advancement so they may pay others to do the skilled work. If I knew then what I know now, I wouldn't have bothered with that one!

A further group don't give a stuff where they live, because something else consumes their interest. They may not even have a permanent home. They have flexibility. In my imagination, I'm the wildlife photographer living out of a suitcase, though at my age I'd rather have a comfy bed and take photos of butterflies in the garden.

I agree, there's no best or right way to live, except the one which satisfies a person at a particular time.

kazwookie

When I moved in here, the bedrooms were even bright orange or bright purple!, very badly painted / cheap paint, also across the ceiling and coving in parts where the roller brush must have slipped!  So all that was painted out straight away.

The bathroom had a very large corner bath, it took an age to fill to even a decent low level, that also came out, a shower unit was installed instead. I did manage to sell the bath on for £15,

Norman_Castle

My bedroom had plnk woodwork and pink and white pattened wallpaper which was upsidedown and a pink and gold border which meandered between the wall and ceiling. I lived with it for far longer than I should have.