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

The worst - getting the roof painted to prevent leaks, etc. cost over £2000 and we have a leak. The best having the drive redone with bricks. It had been tarmac, broken, cracked and very steep. It's still steep, but nothing to what it was. £5000 well spent.

Made a lot of mistakes moneywise. Employed a builder on recommendation of a neighbour to change garage roof and make it pitched also build gf extension. Roof leaks plus we have rising damp in extension and the builder is no longer in business.
Had bathroom redone 12 months ago by a large firm. The tiles looked great in a bright showroom but awful in our small bathroom which has little light. They are too dark and way too big.

Best buy has been two chairs bought in early nineties specifically designed for a bad back. Been recovered over time but still perfect armchairs.

Best buys: northeast facing conservatory, and I'm in the live in it club too!
Also underfloor heating in it.
Altered kitchen window to casement to give through draught when very hot.
Kenwood chef bought for £4 at school fete 20 years ago.
American fridge freezer.
Cream leather sofas £50.
Loads of second hand furniture.
Worst buys: spiralizer! (Not strong enough to turn the handle.)
Brand new cream leather look chair and stool (for conservatory). Two years old and stuff peeling off the arms.
I've got a bread maker but do use it from time to time.

What a great thread, I have read through it all with interest. We moved to our present house seven years ago and are hoping we will be here for some time so have made a few changes and will make more in the future.

The best have been incorporated into a new kitchen 18 months ago. Before getting the design we moved the washer, tumble dryer and fridge-freezer into the garage to give more cupboard space In the kitchen. It sounds inconvenient but there is a door from the kitchen into the garage and we have a small built in fridge in the kitchen. We got rid of the under-the-counter cooker which was a pain to clean and had a new one housed in an oven unit which has drawers underneath the double oven and a cupboard above it so I no longer have to get down on my knees to clean the cooker. We got rid of the gas hob which we had to take to pieces to clean after we cooked on it and now have a wonderful induction hob. We also had a water softener installed under the sink which has cut down on the lime scale and made cleaning the bathroom and en suite so much easier.

Another best buy is my Bissell Crosswave floor cleaner which cleans and vacuums in one process so cleaning the tiled kitchen floor and laminate floor in the adjoining dining room is now so easy, it also has a function for rugs so I can clean the heavy traffic areas in the lounge regularly as well.

Our worst buy ever was an electric fire and surround we bought for the lounge. We looked at lots and were very taken with an expensive Dimplex Optimyst electric fire and surround. The flame was very realistic looking and we just loved it. The reality was that it was very temperamental and didn’t work properly after it was switched on for a few minutes. We tried everything, cleaning it, blocking off draughts but nothing worked. When we looked on the Internet the reviews were terrible, most people had the same problem as us and the Dimplex customer service was poor, people were having to pay a fee even when the fire was under guarantee and the repair didn’t last long so in the end we removed the fire part, kept the surround and bought a cheaper electric fire to fill the space.

Another great buy was a year old Honda Jazz automatic car which we had for 12 years and it always started first time, even after we had been away from home for seven weeks. We finally traded it in last year.

Like others, bad buys have been a juicer and a potato ricer.

This house also has a block paved driveway and we have found no easy way to maintain it, just occasional power washing, regular sweeping with a stiff brush, pulling out weeds regularly and putting weed killer on the weeds that don’t pull up easily. I recently read that you can get sand that is mixed with weed killer so next time we power wash it we will get some of that and see if it works.

Jane 43 Thank you for the tip about your Bissell Crosswave floor cleaner /vac. I've been thinking of buying something similar for my large kitchen /garden room with tiled floor. Will look at Bissell on your recommendation. ☺️

Way back in 1992 we replaced our yuk ORANGE bathroom suite. tiles and brown radiator with a white suite with gold fittings from Texas homecare. The whole refurb cost was around £600.00 including wall tiles and flooring. We updated in the flooring and wall fixtures in 2011.
I keep looking at it and considering a whole new fitting but it still looks pretty pristine.

Aldom I believe Vax have now brought out a similar thing and so have Karcher but my Bissell has been a Godsend. You do have to buy the bottles of special cleaner which are quite expensive but they last a while as you dilute the cleaner with water.

Best - firstly the 2 storey extension my husband built himself, it was a tiny 2 up down cottage. Now we have a third very roomy bedroom and en suite. Downstairs I over ruled him and we have a large kitchen diner which we both now love.

Second best - roller blind fly screens fitted in bedrooms and some downstairs. Such a good buy. Hardly visible but as we are rural, they keep the flies and wasps out and enables us to have bedroom windows open at night without spiders or hornets getting in.

Worst ? Our expensive wood burner. It is fitted in a chimney and doesn't percolate heat around the house. Just makes the sitting room extremely hot.

Roller blind fly screens sound like a good idea, I didn’t know they existed. Our little dog exhausts himself trying to catch flies or wasps.

Jane they are excellent. Something like this picture, but we got ours done by a local blind company.

www.flydor.co.uk/unika

Thank you seacliff, I have made a note for when we redecorate our lounge.