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

Buying quality furniture in the first place. Our 2 leather chesterfield settees are now 45 years old, and just improve with age, though we did have the seat cushions re-upholstered a few years ago by a guy who does up old cars. They have survived children and grandchildren climbing all over them /making dens etc and still look amazing. They were expensive (£500 each) when we bought them, but worth every penny. We also bought Hamlet dining table, chairs and dresser which are still in daily use after 40+ years. Much better for the environment too as so many people replace furniture unnecessarily. By the way, I'm married to a Yorkshireman!

Both of these apply to the house I used to live in. Best- solar panels, I was making sufficient money to pay for our LPG gas supply and most of the electricity bill. Worse- a new kitchen. I foolishly went to a friend’s husband’s company, major mistake. If it could go wrong it did and the end result was an extremely expensive disappointment.

The best money well spent for us is money not spent........on paying other people to do things. We have done absolutely everything in our house over the last 10 years ourselves. Converted a tumbled down barn into lettable accommodation, block paved the drive, added an en-suite to the main bedroom, built a summer house in back garden, laid paths everywhere, and latterly, a gorgeous conservatory with a slate tiled roof. Many more little things.
My OH isn't a builder, but he is REALLY GOOD at doing things, and I am told I am a top class unskilled labourer - speciality, mixing cement!
At the risk of sounding smug, I'm really proud of what we have achieved................and added a great deal to the value of the house!!

By far the best a completely new kitchen. My OH won £10.000 on a tv quiz show ( still to air so I can't name it yet ) and we went to Wren and designed it ourselves had to wait for it to be fitted because of lockdown,it's been in a month now and we love it.

My best thing is small ut it was a Hive central heating Thermoset. I used to have to ask someone to set the timer every winter but now I can set it from my phone, even when I am abroad.

Best was almost doubling the size of the house with an extension when DH retired.
Worst was probably an M&S lounge suite which started to fall apart almost immediately after purchase, I have never experienced such bad workmanship in all my 53 years of married life.

Our conservatory is a delight al, year around.

I can’t understand this too hot, too cold thing.

We have blinds and doors and windows to use when it is hot. In fact I come in from the garden to sit in the conservatory when I get too hot. The conservatory face South/west so gets sun all day.

We have a very efficient heater for the winter.

Shysal , we have a conservatory which was either too cold or too hot, as you say. A few years ago, however, a local firm put a solid roof on it. Not expensive but the best thing we have ever done. So lovely to watch nature all year round.

I've always private rented so haven't owned my own home. In private rented you are not even allowed to paint the walls or change the carpet and in many places you can't hang pictures up! You can't own a pet either...but that is vearing away from the topic!

When I posted, I forgot to say that another one of my best buys in my old house was the wonderful parquet design Amtico floor I had laid in my through lounge.

Back then I had quite a lot of young g.children, and the rear of my through lounge was the dining area and had french windows into the garden. No way, could I replace the carpet with another one, would be moaning about children dropping food and bringing in dirt from the garden. I spent well over a year agonising on this - then saw this Amtico, all separate tiles, and the border was designed on the computer in the exact colours I wanted. When it was laid in 2006 - it took a week and cost three grand. I can remember, at the time, thinking I was mad spending so much money on a floor - but from the moment the last tile was in place I never regretted one penny of that cost. Looked brilliant (virtually everyone who entered my house remarked on it), was so easy to keep clean, couple of small rugs and, I am certain, is was a major help when I sold the house.

Best Buy was installed in a new house. A small unit (about the size of a salt shaker) sat next to the kitchen sink. Turn the knob and get water hot enough for tea or instant coffee.

Unlike the OP, my Sharps fitted wardrobes are a best buy. Well designed and fitted, they have made the most of every inch of two former alcoves. Money well spent.

Best - Having an outside cupboard converted into an inside downstairs loo. Was a lot more expensive and disruptive than I thought it would be but worth every penny. Don't know how I ever lived without one.

Worst - pine wardrobes and matching chest of drawers - mix of solid and veneers; never been happy with them - they were more orange than I'd realised (and the company then went bust). They've just got darker as the years have gone by; and are not very robust. Guess I could get someone to paint them for me but really, I just want rid.

We left our block paved drive for many years, only weeding when it was absolutely necessary while we both worked.
Since retirement and then lockdown (in short succession) my DH cleaned it with diluted bleach water, hoiked out every weed from between the bricks, and filled in with more silver sand. It was back breaking work at times and he did it over many days - but it looks lovely now and has saved us a lot of money. We were quoted hundreds of pounds by traders who knocked the door offering to do it for us.
So sorry petunia I can’t offer any ‘magic’ tips but maybe other grans can,

My best and worse is the same thing-skylights in the vaulted roof. They are wonderful, let in the light for most of the day and great ventilation. But along with the light comes the full force of the sun. In really hot weather we end up pulling the blinds down and blocking the heat, and the light. Oh and the various insects that find their way into your house through the day exhaust themselves trying to escape the closed skylight at night. There is always a collection of dead wasps/flies and assorted insects on the floor under the skylight every morning.

My second best but also worse is the block paved drive. There when we moved in and is, seemingly sweeping acres of lovely, pristine blockpavedness, it looks fab. But we spend many hours over the spring/summer weeding the cracks. We've tried all sorts of things to reduce weeds. Sometimes I think taking the lawnmower to it is the best option.

Anyone got any brilliant tips for a block paved drive?

I have regularly used and loved my potato ricer for years, the only way to achieve smooth mash. I was devastated to find last week that I had lost strength in my hands and wrists due to RA, and I struggled to use it. Might start buying in ready made, frozen or fresh.

The best things here are the heated floor in the shower room (bliss on a chilly day), large dehumidifier in the laundry room (must be 20 years old, still going strong, bone dry washing in two hours) and grey aluminium double doors to enclose the porch (now much quieter and warmer).

My worst ideas were carpets that had to be replaced by solid flooring (pets and kids ruined them), the cotton blinds (that look nice but need washing too often) and the sun tube on the landing ceiling (it was brilliant until next door had their loft converted, casting us into gloom).

Having to repair/redecorate after a rewire is taking years. I really should have paid extra to have the walls made good!

There was already a large conservatory on this house but the best money we spent was to have a solid roof put on it. It’s much cooler in summer, and a warmer in winter. The worst things were the floor tiles in the kitchen, and the tap I chose for the bathroom that looks great but is a bloody nuisance!

I think that about blocked paving too Lemongrove. Lovely if you have energy to weed.

Oh dear!
That's a big one.

This is what worries me about moving.

Best buys: plantation shutters, Karndean flooring throughout the ground floor and a log burner in my previous home.
Worst buy: my present house.

Joiner not joined.

Everything we have done in this house has been money well spent.
New boiler ( and it was re- sited) , new kitchen, got rid of airing cupboard and created new hanging space. Re-sited some radiators, some replaced by vertical ones, extra one in downstairs shower room.
Laminate floor in kitchen, parquet in hall. New stair carpet.
New windows and larger porch.
Joined to fit out spare bedroom as a study, keeping the bed.
Best thing though was paving and widening the drive, so my car is now off the road.

Worst thing is not getting more decorating done and now we are too old to do it ourselves. Getting someone in is on hold, but we have also too much furniture in the way.

I had forgotten about the potato ricer.
All mine did, the twice I tried, was to strain my wrist and to force the potato over the side.
It was a gift and a dire one.

I feel like the most useful things we have done are to put a tiled roof on the conservatory. Our garden is south facing and it could be unbearably hot in the summer and could feel baltic in the winter. It has really helped to keep the temperature even and we tend to use it a lot more
The other 'best' was removing the bath and installing a walk in rain shower
I think our worst buys have been gadgets, like the juicer, which we used obsessively for all of three days until we got sick of washing all the fiddly little bits, for the sake of half a glass of green stuff, which tasted terrible, but was really good for you ?
The fancy coffee maker, similar circs
I could go on...