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

No major purchases here, but the worst is the horrible mattress which my husband is happy as Larry sleeping on, but which I find rock- hard, and horrendously hot, as it is covered in that horrible memory foam. I knew nothing of its overheating properties when we bought it, and 2 years later I still have not adjusted to its 'delights', and still have uncomfortable nights. Grumble over.

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Best thing my kenwood mixer still going strong after 42 years . Worst our leather sofa from Marks and Spencer’s very expensive, the leather had holes in after 4 years, they came out to look at it said it was wear and tear ! The ombudsman also came and said the same ,ridiculous .

Best buy, our Solar Panels in 2012. They paid for themselves more quickly than we had expected, and the income from FIT payments, covers all our gas, electricity and water bills.

Can't think of a worst one.

The best was having our garage converted into a bedroom for my son so we could separate our (then) warring teenage sons.

The worst, without a shadow of a doubt, was when we had our bathroom refitted a few years ago. We went to the ideal home show and chose a very fancy, absolutely amazing shower/bath unit. It had four different types of shower, the thing in the bath that makes massage bubbles (both husband and I are having a blank moment and can't think what they're called ), mood lighting, blue tooth, radio - it was just amazing. It cost us £2,000.

Except it never worked. It was totally unsuitable for the bathroom, despite the promise that it would be perfect. The electrics never worked, the bubble thing never worked, the aromatherapy bit never worked. It was a nightmare.

In an ironic turn of fate, there was an issue with the way the toilet had been fitted in the bathroom and it had been leaking for two years. Eventually, the bathroom floor couldn't take the weight of the accumulated water, and we ended up with the kitchen ceiling all over the kitchen floor because of it.

Our insurance company were amazing, and because the water pipes went under that awful bath, and the panel was an integral part of the unit and couldn't be removed, they had to literally rip our bathroom out, right back to breeze block and rebuild it. We now have a lovely walk in shower and lovely toilet/sink unit.

I've never been so pleased to have a home disaster. I thought we were stuck with that awful bath for life.

I did the best things earlier and have now remembered the biggest waste of money: using the “ best” company to decorate our hall, stairs, landing and kitchen. The boss was great when he quoted and advised, but the work was done by two of his lads, one of whom was pretty useless. A year on and the paint is very worn in busy places where I think it only had one top coat. Unfortunately the boss did not come at the end of the work to check it. Won’t be using that firm again.

My best buy was my house in 1990. Sold it last year (no one to leave it to) and now rent a lovely bungalow so no money worries. (If you need care/nursing home etc they take your money or property anyway).

Sparkle fizz, I hated my kitchen tiles and didn’t fancy the mess it would make to remove them.A handyman told me they could be tiled right over them., you paint the old tiles with a special primer then put the new tiles on as you would normally. Mine look great and it was inexpensive.

https://www.gransnet.com/uploads/talk/202006/medium-993018-cd1313eb-d27e-4472-8064-3ee5999e9e59.jpeg https://www.gransnet.com/uploads/talk/202006/medium-895022-f7f6a26f-58cc-4b58-9797-d7758ebe8cac.jpeg

The best money we’ve spent in the 48 years we’ve been together is the money we’ve been paying an absolutely wonderful woman who helped us achieve the garden of my dreams for the cottage we downsized to 14 years ago.
I told her that I’d like a garden like many of the National Trust properties have, with informal herbaceous borders and flowers I could cut to use inside.
She did that brilliantly and put her heart and soul into finding the best quality plants for our quite small back garden. We have wonderful colour nearly every month and it just gets better and better.
This year I asked her if she could change our rather boring front garden into a rockery, which is all I asked my husband to buy me for my 70th birthday present. Again she has excelled herself. It has cost a lot but was so worth it.

The waste of time thing we’ve bought is probably the Nutribullet! What’s wrong with a liquidiser? Granddaughter number 3 has now got it!

Worst - Kitchen and bathroom, bad fitting.

Best - Pellet stove, saved us £1s' is heating bills.

The best money i spent on the house was crub appeal getting our driveway done and the kitchen refitted and instoring a hot tub

I have several good purchase ideas in the last few years; changing to a large larder fridge and large freezer has been great. I can keep more fresh veg and fruit, dishes freshly made, in the fridge. Also expensive Lino that looks like wooden floors, it’s a dream to walk on and is warm underfoot but classy. In my old house, getting a combi boiler and being properly warm for the first time in years also spending a lot in plants, lawn on my garden there, to create a flowery, scented retreat and extra room to sit out in and entertain. Priceless.

Bad money purchases? I research a lot before buying anything but a sofa that didn’t survive long with family life, a too heavy lawn mower. Too heavy posh saucepans, too heavy for me to lift safely. A new double bed when down sizing, now have a comfy single - and gorgeous bed linen is cheaper, single sized.

Good story HurdyGurdy

Worst in our new house are the bathroom and kitchen black worktops and shower back panel. Also the stupid round stainless steel kitchen sink, taps that spray everywhere and black bathroom flooring. Also don't like all the laminated floors downstairs (click clack) much prefer vinyl floors doesn't show dogs scratches so much.
Best is the huge kitchen and lounge both 18 ft long and quite wide. And the self cleaning oven I bought but haven't used the cleaning program yet.

Worst purchase was a silk rug during a tour of India after a few glasses of the local rum like brew. It was hand woven, beautiful quality and we also paid to have it shipped home.
When we unwrapped it the pattern and colours were absolutely hideous and it matched neither the style or colours in our house. It’s still rolled up in the attic. Taught us a good lesson about not mixing alcohol and shopping.

PenJK50 Your photos of your cottage garden flowers are lovely, I bet it’s a pleasure to spend time outside or look through the windows of your home. ?

We live in an old barn and installed new wooden windows 5 years ago. 50% of these now need to be replaced?

The best purchase was having the separate toilet and bathroom made into one room. Instead of two small spaces, it became one far more attractive larger space with enough room to include a separate walk in shower. Took me ages to persuade dh to agree. He hates upheaval and it meant a wall knocked down and door closed up as well as all the usual tiling, plumbing ext. The end result, with fitted cupboards and mood lighting was definitely work it though.

Worst was very recent. I'm usually very careful and look around a lot before I buy but I absolutely hate the new sitting room carpet. We usually get very good quality carpets for the sitting room and I'm quite happy with cheaper in other rooms. This time, for some reason, I took it into my head that as the cheaper ones look fine in the bedrooms, they would be fine in the sitting room as well. Big mistake. 18 months on ...it was cheap and looks it. Carpets usually last us ages but after lock down I will sally forth and buy a new one. No way will dh re-docorate the room so I am in the unusual position, for me, of getting a new carpet in a room that hasn't been newly decorated. Oh well...as a dear friend used to say 'buy cheap, buy twice'. On this occasion she is definitely right.

Love my fitted kitchen after17 years with the old one. Love our fitted wardrobes but realise if we decide to move, our next house would need to have them as well.
Wish I had done more with the re-tiled bathroom and had a big shower added . Hardly use the bath these days and wish we had a door from the hall into the integral garage. You can tell a man designed this house!!!!

Sandelf, would you be willing to specify a 'good' pressure washer, please? I don't have enormous paths but have to scrape them every year and it's becoming more of a chore. Does 'good' mean power or brand, please?

My best decision was to have an upstairs shower room and loo. We were in the house for 30 years before we had that done and actually I don't believe plumbers back then would have been able to do it.
The area was an internal cupboard on the 3rd floor with a sloping roof into the eaves. The house is 200 yrs old
However, a local plumber said it would be possible and hey presto I have used it everyday and several times a night for 10 years.
Other happy making things have been sanding our floors, restoring the old bath, restoring the 1930s settee.

Not so good?
Admitting other peoples cast off furniture into our house and never liking it.

The worst?
Various electrical goods that I never used much. Juicer, big food mixer, coffee makers, bread maker, toastie maker (remember those?)
A coffee grinder which DH tried to grind peanuts in. yuck.

Nortsat

Best - having paving done in the garden. My partner wanted it all lawned but then didn’t cut the grass regularly.
I had decorative paving laid, with deep borders and beds. I love the garden, even when it’s a bit dishevelled, it’s still a pleasure to both of us.

Worst - the alarm system, which doesn’t accommodate three cats leaping around the house, whilst we are out. ???

@Nortsat We have animal sensors on our alarm system which let our 2 cats chase around and jump about as much as they like without tripping it. Ask your installer (or any installer for that matter) to swap them for animal friendly versions.

The utility room. We converted the old kitchen into a utility when we extended. I love the new kitchen too but just having washing facilities, chest freezer, and lots of storage is fantastic.

The decking is probably the worst thing we did. Very dangerous to walk on in the winter.

Best - putting a solid roof on the pre-existing conservatory - it was freezing in winter and stifling in summer, now useable all year

Worst - the lime render DH insisted on having on the front of the house, because the colour is not consistent it now looks like we have rising damp

Like many others love our conservatory which OH did himself about 19yrs ago. It is cold in Winter and hot in Summer though, even though our garden faces North East!

I'm really pleased that we invested in a water softener, surprised no one else has mentioned those. We live in a really hard water area and I was always scrubbing away at limescale and now it's amazing to just have to do a quick wipe over.

Also love having a really large larder fridge and freezer which are bolted together to look like one unit, I can never understand why those American fridge/freezers have such a small freezer.

Worst thing is probably our ceramic kitchen floor which is kind of off white on the surface, but as soon as you break something on the floor you see the dark colour underneath which I am always putting dabs of Tippex on to make them less obvious.