Anyone here ever owned a really old cottage?

Amarna wrote: »

Ive had three surveys done ... one for the damp and wood

Are there any money saving hacks I should know about when it comes to maintenance?

The "damp & timber" survey - Was it one of these "free" jobbies from a damp proofing company ?
If so, use it to light the fire.

As for advice - Get yourself a tub or two of lime putty and keep it somewhere frost free. The stuff has oodles of uses around the (old) house. Mix some with finely ground chalk or limestone, and you have a cheap plaster & filler. Mix it with sharp sand, and you have a mortar to repoint the stonework with (don't use it below the DPC though). Finally, mix it with plain water to the consistency of cream, and you have whitewash that is a darn site cheaper than anything from F&B.

I lived in a 200 year old cottage for over 20 years.

It was rented but I never had the need to ask my landlord for any repairs whatsoever regarding the structure or fittings. Apparently there hadn't even been anything done for the 6 years prior to me moving in.

At the other end of the spectrum; a relative bought a new build which, after 6 months, developed a bowing exterior wall..........says a lot for modern workmanship.

So, on the basis of that, I'd say these worryingly old cottages are nothing to worry about.

SG27 wrote: »

How its going Tamsin? All good I hope!

I second joining the forum there, I had some great help with a few things over the years in my 17th century listed cottage. A growing family forced us to leave otherwise we would still be there.

Well, we are enjoying the house as only people who love old houses can. Issues are being thrown up left, right and centre but nothing we can't handle. The main problem is stopping my head spinning and working out what we want to throw money at and when.
a) So chimney was condemned when we had it swept due to shoddy workmanship thirty years ago and a defective clay flue. SO knocking back to original fireplace wall and putting in a woodburner. So, that's one big job we thought we might do next year that might be brought forward as we fancy a fire sometime this year.
b) The metal twelve foot gate is too heavy for the posts and they have cracked and are failing big time - so new wooden gate in two halves and posts - needed cos otherwise the dog takes herself off for a walk.
c) I was wondering about double glazing but with advice from the forum have decided against it as the window are fine in themselves - though looking at 'nice' window furniture it will cost over five hundred pounds to replace the lot in the house. So one room a month.
d) looking at a ground source heat pump but this requires .... e)
e) lots of trees need felling as the previous owner let them get WAAAY out of control. About twenty very, very tall conifer/cedar/leyandii type trees that need a tree surgeon and another fifty or so hubby can manage himself
f) discovered a third pond by nearly falling in it it was so covered with over grown bushes - do we want three ponds?
g) extension? Small ish to extend the kitchen and provide a utility as if we go ground source the utility we have will be used for the ground source equipment - and a lot of our dining room furniture is stuff in a shed as there is no room in the house for it
h) cleaning the beams in the kitchen - we've already done the living room and the wires now need putting back up and 'hiding' away behind some kind of something - it's that well founded an idea.
i) getting rid of the santex on the external walls
j) changing the piddling little ensuite in the master bedroom as you may as well use a chamber pot next to the bed for the amount of privacy it affords.
k) 'maybe' level the floors upstairs - did look at exposing the old floorboards but maybe too much work.
l) thinking about extractor fans - but two of the places they are needed may go if we build the extension and one won't need one once we rejig the room
m) popping in a velux or two
n) removing cement render from around the chimneys and popping on chimney hats
o) if we go ground source popping in underfloor heating down stairs as it is more efficient - meaning lifting and relaying the Victorian pamment tiles that are already there - and of course who knows what horrors that may reveal.
p) reinstating a wall that has been removed to create a third bedroom
q) replace the tiled window sills inside with oak or slate

and the list goes on . . . . and on . . . and on, and I'm sure I've forgotten some fairly major stuff - simple decorating isn't even on our radar yet. BUT . . WE STILL LOVE IT - there could be so much more to do but the basic building is sound and dry and warm enough even without any curtains cos the !!!!!!s took them all to their three bed small bungalow where they would never fit.

OP; we knew almost ALL of this when we bought the house and still took it on - that's what living in an old property entails. It becomes part of the family and you help it to grow into the best it can be and stop it collapsing under the pressure of modern life. And this house doesn't actually need too much doing to it in many respects. It's perfectly liveable in and sailed through it's historical houses survey.

How's your renovations coming on, SG?