What is the best, and the worst, money you have spent on your home?

Best thing : Garage extension and front garden block paved. We have no problems with parking now.

Worst: 2 things. Double settees which we decided to splash out on as we thought they would be better. They are so uncomfortable and I spend my time sitting on them propped up by cushions.

The other are my kitchen tiles. We couldnt agree at the time so got the ones we did and I dislike them so much. Will have to stick with them for the time being. Would say I might win the lottery but I do not do it.

Best investment was having 10 leylandi trees taken down from the front of the house 18 years ago. A friends son was doing his training to be a tree surgeon and so did the job with help from his tutor as their were power lines etc involved. Apparently a good learning experience ! Another good investment was getting our driveway completely redone and big French doors put in the lounge onto the garden. Worst buy was an all singing all dancing microwave - kept going wrong and being sent away. After 4 years I’ve bought a cheap one and it does exactly what I want it to do!

Bad - DH was distraught at the idea of 6 weeks of lockdown and was allowed to order the greenhouse I had said no to, so he could build it. Our first holiday money went on it. Now he is back working away again, and I am looking after a greenhouse

What an apt thread this morning!! Four months ago I spent £3000 to get my garage roof renewed as it had been leaking for a few years ...first substantial rain in those months and went to inspect ... instead of leaking in original place it’s now leaking in 5 ( count them) new places!!! Contacted roofer 2 hours ago...not heard back!!

Best thing : dishwasher in a drawer fitted under the work surface, with drawers in the kitchen instead of cupboards. Makes for easy loading and unloading, and no bending looking for stuff at the back. Worst : a small TV. We baulked at the mass of the huge one and bought quite a small one, and now can't see it.

Making our large internal garage slightly smaller to steal some space which was then incorporated into the utility . This space was then turned into wall length cupboards floor to ceiling which is very useful.

Best definitely our little orangery. We have a south facing garden and had a small conservatory. DH hated it. Either unbearably hot or too cold. Had it taken down and replaced with the orangery. Before we did it we debated over whether to spend the money. Now we absolutely love it. Worth every penny. Use it continually.

Best and worst - our very large extension 25years ago.
Its given us an extra bedroom, a much more spacious living room, integral garage (used for storage) and very large kitchen.
The downside - it was very badly planned, the kitchen diner doesn't have a window so its too dark so never gets used. It drives me mad that a whole room is completely wasted space!

Another more recent worst buy - replacement windows installed by a local builder. Terrible job, they are draughty and 'sing' when its windy.
He didn't sort the planning/building consent either so will cause problems when we come to sell.

Dragonfly46 Are you over 6' tall. My ceilings are not particularly high and I am 5'6" and I know I would have great difficulty with a fridge or freezer reaching the roof. How on earth do you manage?

Best buy has to be the woodturner, just love it. We had it put in over 15 years ago when we had to change the boiler, we had the old gas fire taken out and replaced it with the wood burner. We spend many happy hours foraging for wood and so far we have only once had to pay for logs. Also we have bought a small instrument with prongs on that you use to test the wood to see how much moisture is in it and whether it is fit to burn. Mr B and I both fight over who is going to use it. Like a couple of kids.
The worse thing is the electric jam maker I bought, what a faff to use, its in the loft now.

Putting a proper roof on our conservatory and removal of the internal doors. The result gave us a large kitchen diner and family room to use all year round. Also great for entertaining!
The worse was putting a sink in our bedroom in a previous house many years ago!

Best things:
Having a second kitchen extension to double the size of it, thought it might be too big, but I love it. We decided on custom built units, which seemed extravagant at the time, but worked out just a little dearer than readymade units; the kitchen is gorgeous and my favourite room in the house.
We have had fitted wardrobes installed in all the bedrooms and I wouldn't be without them; all installed by a local company.
Worst: had family bathroom and our en-suite refitted 10 years ago and as our house is traditional, chose Victorian tiles ,(with a high shine) and fittings; wish I'd chosen matt tiles as the shiny ones look so dated. Now working on convincing Himself that we need a re-fit!

Another conservatory fan here! A few years ago we were thinking of moving but decided instead to stay put and change the house to suit our needs/wishes. This included a conservatory which we loved and used as much as temperature would allow. 4 years ago we decided to upsize the conservatory and take it along the whole back wall of the house. It now holds a 3 piece suute, tv, bookcase, dining table and chairs and we love it. A decent radiator means we can use it every day of the year Worth every penny. Used a local company and they were fantastic! Worst buy? Theres been a few TBH but nothing major and nothing that a good sort out and trips to the charity shop cant put right. We definitely paid through the nose for a wall of sliding doors in a bedroom alcove which have never fitted properly. The doors constantly come out of the tracks and wont slide. But on the bright side they are in what is now a spare room and hide a multitude of sins ?

Best purchase has to be the conservatory as lots of you have said. I love sitting in there it's so bright and I like looking at the garden. It faces south so any little bit of sun warms it up even in the middle of winter. I am considering getting one of these insulated roofs on it to make it more usable on winter evenings as it's too cold to use then even with a radiator in. Has anyone else had one fitted? If so do you recommend them?
Worst buy was in our previous house when I was 8 months pregnant with our first child and on maternity leave we had British Gas fit a power shower in our only bathroom and toilet in the property using our existing gas boiler. My husband usd it the night it had been fitted and one of the pipe joints they'd fitted in the loft had not been sealed thus we had a waterfall in our bedroom! A couple if days later our electricity all went off and an electrician we called out found a fault in the main fuse box. The fuse box had to be totally replaced at a lot of expense and the fault is as probably caused by the fitting of the electric pump for the new power shower. British Gas did repair the leaky pipe and gave us some compensation to pay for redecorating our bedroom but they would not admit any liability for the fuse box. The shower was great to use and we had it until we moved house 16 years later. But it turned out to be a much more expensive and bigger job than expected and caused me loads of stress!

My neighbour had their entire front garden block paved a few years ago and there's never a weed in sight - he sealed it with the liquid sealer you just roll on with a roller and redoes it once a year. We had a patio done and used the same sealer and so far it's working well.

Best buy would have to be the huge extension we added to this house 26 years ago going backwards, sideways and upwards making a larger dining room, a utility room and en-suite bathroom - we also changed the plans at the last minute from an enclosed back porch to a small office which I practically live in!

Too many silly purchases - a spiralizer probably being the most useless!

Best - the whole house - new build - warm in every room, 3 loos! And silly money on garden - hard landscaping and trees (we just haven't the strength for these jobs) - but makes us happy every day - an unexpected bonus during the lock down. Bit of a waste - pop up plugs in the kitchen worktop - ah well, but handy too.

The worse thing I did was, in a mad moment of economy, buy a cheap washer/dryer. I hated it from the start. It was noisy and took hours to dry clothes (I live in a flat so washing has to be tumbled or dried on a rack by an open window). The first time it broke down I replaced it with one of the more expensive ones. I love it. It is so quiet, clothes come out dryer and tumbling takes less time.

Worst ever, ages ago, were new DG kitchen windows with a top opener. When they arrived there was a wide PVC band right at eye level, so ruining outlook to the garden. Could absolutely not live with them, they were out again within a week - very expensive mistake.

Best though not expensive were thanks to dh’s DIY skills. He moved a stud wall to turn one very large double bedroom and one very small single, into one still perfectly adequate double and one large single or ‘just’ double.

Ditto one of two deep cupboards on the landing - he converted the one next to a single bedroom wall into a wardrobe for that room, making it a lot more spacious.

My Best Buy is probably the huge chest of drawers we bought in an auction for 15/- when we were first married. It cost another 10/- to have it delivered. It has been a boon for 53 years, coping with a family of five children.
Also, the push-along dog bought second-hand for 10/- .It supported all our children when they were learning to walk, and was also passed around friends and neighbours and , eventually, the grandkids. I’ve re-covered him twice.
Thirdly, the downstairs loo we put in when DH had a stroke, and which now saves me the trudge upstairs on my ‘creaky’ days!
Bad buys? The new gutters we had installed which stop me from fully opening the top windows in my bedroom. The bread maker, with slices too big for the toaster, and I don’t eat much bread nowadays. Luckily I only paid £10 off EBay for it.
Which reminds me of another Best Buy. A pallet full of new bricks from EBay. They cost me £11, and there were enough to build a double front garden wall, which is now bursting with flowers.

[Petunia] Get a pressure washer (Good One) - use mid Spring and mid autumn. Will just blast away most weeds - any left a tiny squirt of killer and Bobs your Uncle. It is noisy and messy but a couple of times a year and really will make it like new.

I don't think we have done anything to the house that feels like money misspent.

The best think we have bought is our Ikea kitchen fittings.

We've hardly changed the Edwardian house we moved into 50 years ago so have never spent large sums of money on anything. Best buy is the three-tiered painted tea trolley I bought from a jumble sale many years ago for 50p. I stripped it to find it's solid oak & it's moved around the sitting room being everything from a TV & stereo shelf to it's current use as my frail husband's lunch table & bookshelf. Not bad for a bit of tat I pushed home on my bike.

We had Strachan fitted wardrobes in the bedroom about seven years ago. Brilliant.

Best my bathroom. Love the tiles I chose and when it was done ( in a new flat) the project manager arranged for a deep long shelf along the wall above the sink which is so useful for storage and looks great.

Also two ottoman types storage boxes which open from the front rather than the top so they hold loads of mess out of sight but I can display things on top without moving them every time I want something .

And blinds instead of curtains , let’s in more light and makes the room look bigger.

Can’t think of a worst

Tied first place for best spent money definitely conservatory and knocking wall down to make big kitchen and dining area. Both done in last couple of years and created more mess and upheaval than I ever imagined. But both give pleasure every day.
Worst thing was having bathroom revamped and keeping the p shaped bath instead of having a walk through shower. On the rare occasions it has been used, the bath takes far too much hot water for the boiler to cope with.and DH finds climbing in and out of the bath to use the overhead shower increasingly difficult. ?