You can have your pool if you wish M0nica
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De-cluttering, still at it, still no end
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HOUSES THAT ARE UNTOUCHED FOR DECADES
(244 Posts)As many of us do - I still check out properties for sale - even though I bought my current one a few years back and have no intention of moving.
When I bought mine (ie a 1970s bungalow) I had darn nearly everything ripped out. It really needed work - and all that's left is I kept the windows (as they were upvc), kept the internal doors and most of the skirting boards. Everything else got ripped out from both the house itself and garden.
Mine really needed it - poorly-planned 1980s kitchen, tatty 1970s bathroom, etc. All that - despite the fact there's been two owners in between the first owner and myself and the last owner did buy it this century.
Anyways - at long last it's done now - new kitchen, new bathroom, new floor coverings throughout, garden gutted and turned into my style, new decor throughout (had to be replastered before that could be done), all exterior doors changed, etc.
I still struggle with just why, in particular, the house still had a 1970s bathroom - despite those owners no 2 and no 3 since then and it was one that didn't even work well (high bath, trickling little shower, 1970s wall fire!!).
Since then - I've seen someone I used to know sell her house here and buy a 1960s bungalow here and do absolutely nothing to it (not even changing the 1970s carpets and having it decorated) - despite the fact she would have had quite a bit of leftover money from selling her last house. Me - I was walking through her "new to her" house when she moved in enthusiastically making suggestions for what a new kitchen/new bathroom could be like (yep...the house needed that) and defo taking it for granted she'd change the old 1970s/1980s carpets throughout and decorate at least (it needed it).
I was also very surprised to see that a neighbour bought an adjacent house and she would have had quite a bit of money over from her (noticeably dearer) last house and yet all she's had done was there was a painter in for a couple of days and so I think she's probably just had one or two rooms painted. She didn't even bring her own furniture with her when she moved - and is just using the previous owners furniture.
Looking at houses for sale (specifically bungalows - as that's what I bought - and I'm seeing 1980s or maybe even 1970s kitchen after kitchen/bathroom after bathroom. 1970s/1980s carpets). Cue for me thinking "It's obviously a probate house - and nothing much looks like it's been done since the 1970s/1980s. Have they had that house for 40-50 years personally that they don't seem to have done anything much to it? But it appears they must have bought it more recently than that and that means they're living with stuff from a previous owner a couple of buyers ago by the look of it?
That puzzles me personally - ie to move into a house that's basically not been touched for 40-50 years and do nothing at all (even though some of them will certainly have the money to do so). I would understand if they didn't have the money to do the work - but it often looks as if they did.
Very puzzling to use someone else's old furniture - I'd be wondering what the heck might have happened over the decades to the sofa I wanted to sit on and could be "harbouring" all seats of spills/dog hairs/etc.
Thankfully I have got the renovation work on this house finished before feeling I'd run out of energy to chase the "manana and unreliable" workmen this area seems to specialise in.....and so I can 'put my feet up' and just keep it up from here onwards.
The thing that surprised me most with my own current house is that owners no. 2 and no. 3 had obviously both kept the tatty old Rayburn, hybrid central heating set-up and oil tank in the garden that owner no. 1 wanted. I came in and thought "I wouldnt even know how to work that stuff" and out it came and I've got a normal gas central heating system and the Rayburn got taken out.
Certainly what puzzles me most is even living with a previous owners furniture....but I see it happening...
M0nica
NotSpaghetti
Ha ha M0nica - never say never!
Only if I can do it in a nice heated swimming pool. I learned to swim in warm tropical waters and have never adjusted to the idea of swimming in cool European seas, streams or lakes.
That I can relate to. I like a nice swim - but it has to be in warm water (that's British seas out then.....). If it's Britain = it has to be a heated swimming pool and am off that idea at the moment even from having picked up athlete's foot last time I went to a local spa here (followed by the hotel staff went on deny/deny/deny it was there that some passed it onto me when I commented on it - but I ain't been swimming anywhere else before then for quite some time........). Successfully treated - and appropriate karma wished on the miscreant that cba to be responsible to avoid passing their illness onto other people....
Complete renovations cost around 40 000 or how much in this country?
Milsa - I suppose it depends what a complete renovation looks like?
When we did our kitchen a number of years ago, some of the kitchens we saw were that much and more 😱
I found some beautiful tiles at the Design Centre that were 2 and 3 thousand pounds for a square metre!
...someone is buying them.
Milsa
Complete renovations cost around 40 000 or how much in this country?
Depends on your definition of complete renovation and then it depends on the property, its age and size. Some renovation costs run into £millions. Watch some of the 'Homes under the Hammer' tv programmes and it can be done for £4-5k.
You need to consider what the house will be worth after it is renovated, and how long you intend to stay there, whether you do it yourself or use contractors and what your time scale is.
We are about to take on our 5th renovation project. It will be short in time and expensive because DH is now too old and ill to do it himself and, as we are in our early 80s, we want it done in time for us to enjoy it, but we are downsizing and moving to a cheaper area of the country, so we are happy to pay to get the work done. We do not expect it to cost more than the house will be worth once renovated. the Estate Agent has already told us what the renovated house could be worth in todays housing market.
M0nica this is what my mother-in-law did when she moved from an expensive area to one much less expensive. She employed people to renovate and remodel and it was all done PDQ!
She has added to the value of the house, yes, but more importantly she has had 5 years of pleasure out of it already.
M0nica
Milsa
Complete renovations cost around 40 000 or how much in this country?
Depends on your definition of complete renovation and then it depends on the property, its age and size. Some renovation costs run into £millions. Watch some of the 'Homes under the Hammer' tv programmes and it can be done for £4-5k.
You need to consider what the house will be worth after it is renovated, and how long you intend to stay there, whether you do it yourself or use contractors and what your time scale is.
We are about to take on our 5th renovation project. It will be short in time and expensive because DH is now too old and ill to do it himself and, as we are in our early 80s, we want it done in time for us to enjoy it, but we are downsizing and moving to a cheaper area of the country, so we are happy to pay to get the work done. We do not expect it to cost more than the house will be worth once renovated. the Estate Agent has already told us what the renovated house could be worth in todays housing market.
I remember those "Homes under the Hammer" programmes. I watched quite a few of them and believed them - at the time!!!
Since then I've realised there are basically two levels of renovation job - ie:
1. a quick and cheap bodge-over (the new kitchen maybe doesn't have many wall cupboards for instance). The walls needed replastering before redecorating - and maybe that wasn't done. There is little (if any) electrical work done. A nearish neighbour is giving me the rundown now as to just how much (unexpected) work and money he's having to put into the house he recently bought - that house had been (apparently) renovated and it looked modern and nice and I liked the look of it. The Victorian walls had umpteen layers of wallpaper on and the "renovation" had just added another layer. He's having to replaster throughout. The windows were new (he's having to replace them again - as they were so cheap/bodged with huge gaps around their edges), etc, etc.
2. a proper renovation (ie loads of electrical work done and maybe a complete rewire), a carefully thought-out kitchen (with as much cupboard space as one can get in - unless it's a big kitchen and doesn't have to maximise storage space).
I did what I think I'd call a mid-level renovation and I didn't keep account of what it cost (I daren't with the way the money was going out!!!) and I reckon we're talking upwards of £50,000 for a 2 bed/1 bath/1 kitchen house - including its garden revamp (extensive - as it was what I call a "tatty heartsink concrete garden" - and finally I've had compliments on it two days in a row now for the way I've done it).
It cost that much because I bought it with the intention of staying in it for the rest of my life - and hence wasnt going to do a "Homes under the hammer" level of renovation.
A lot of the cost is how much you do yourself and how much you pay others to do. The other cost is sourcing your materials; kitchen units, bathroom units.
I remember watching a house renovation programme. possibly an early George Clarke, where someone on a tiny income was doing up an old chapel. He spent about 2 hours a day on ebay, Facebook, any other source, buying luxury fittings for next to nothing, Driving 100s of miles to collect items because even with transport costs it was a fraction of the full maker's price.
At the end he had a superbly renovated home with top quality fitments for less than if he had bought poorer quality items from his local B&Q, plus no labour costs. It can be done if you have the inclination and capacity to do it.
£50,000 to renovate a 2 bed house sounds extortionate, unless it was Listed and had special features. Did you add £50,000 of value to your house?
M0nica
A lot of the cost is how much you do yourself and how much you pay others to do. The other cost is sourcing your materials; kitchen units, bathroom units.
I remember watching a house renovation programme. possibly an early George Clarke, where someone on a tiny income was doing up an old chapel. He spent about 2 hours a day on ebay, Facebook, any other source, buying luxury fittings for next to nothing, Driving 100s of miles to collect items because even with transport costs it was a fraction of the full maker's price.
At the end he had a superbly renovated home with top quality fitments for less than if he had bought poorer quality items from his local B&Q, plus no labour costs. It can be done if you have the inclination and capacity to do it.
£50,000 to renovate a 2 bed house sounds extortionate, unless it was Listed and had special features. Did you add £50,000 of value to your house?
Admits to having known earlier in my life that my father was very handy - and he'd done a fair bit of work on both my erstwhile brothers house and my own (yep....he'd never touched anything to do with gas beforehand - but looked at their 1960s house with appropriate heating and decided to read a how-to book on it and DIY and then call in the Gas Board to inspect it to make sure he'd done it right). It all went according to his plan. That was followed by quite a long-term steady boyfriend - who did some stuff on that 1st house too.
So what I'd ever done before I moved here consisted of painting a couple of rooms and that was that. Errrrm....I'm not interested in DIY either.
This area is one where houses are much less likely to have had necessary renovation work done on them than my home area and this house was pretty typical - ie needed a LOT. Since I moved here I suspect some others would find it rather easier to get an at least superficially modernised house now - as since that time I walk along nearby streets and house after house has just been done (to one standard or another) or is being done currently and there's a positive outbreak of renovation going on round here (as I'd anticipated there would be....). Houses in the immediate vicinity of mine are basically 1960s and 1970s and nothing much done to them since they were built by the look of it - but it is being now....
Admits I hadnt realised just how much it was all going to cost me - make that £16,000 for the kitchen and £6,000 for the bathroom, £4,000 for 2 exterior doors (one particularly wide and awkward), £15,000 for a conservatory, £5,000 for a wall (replacing a long and 6' tall wooden fence that blew down in the Welsh gales pretty promptly and so on and so on...), garden revamp = don't ask...no wonder my hair is darn nearly completely white now.....
All my pension lump sum went on that and subsidising my job pension in the gap that had been put in between my retirement age (60) and my revised State Pension Age (being a WASPI woman).
So I ran out of money and one way and another it's part of why it's only just been finished 12 years later. Just wondering whether to clad the house and that would be it absolutely finished (as many houses here aren't brick - and that includes mine) - so cladding would remove the sight of those rendered painted walls and the concern whether it will need doing again at some point and make it look more modern/more "me". I tend to think that I might just as well get the house as I want - as I have no plans on moving ever...this is it for the rest of my life (possibly bar a lottery win).
Yep....basically I was paying for all the labour, as well as all the materials. The theory was it would be much easier and quicker than if I even tried to do any of it myself. Admits to envy of a friend of mine here who does enjoy the thought of renovating a place - and she also basically read "how to" books and then started in on her place (even though it's a housing association rental - and not her own). I think she was pretty pleased when I walked into her kitchen and was commenting impressed at the good workmanship - as she then told me it was her workmanship and she'd learnt how to do it as she went. She is much handier than I am for sure....but she enjoys doing that sort of thing....whereas I hate the thought of it....
How long is a piece of string, it all depends how much work needs to be done £4k might cover redecorating, if the roof needs doing and major work £50k or even £100k might be needed.Listed can cost much more, replacing like with like can double the cost.
Smart developers live in the house for a few years because then it counts as your residence and doesn’t get taxed
£50,000 to renovate a 2 bed house sounds extortionate, unless it was Listed and had special features. Did you add £50,000 of value to your house?
Having our kitchen replaced, with no actual building work involved, was half that amount but, had we made all the alterations I would have liked, it would probably have cost £50,000.
We decided that was a step too far at our age.
Hmmm.....out of interest David49 - re your comment on "Smart developers live in the house for a few years - because then it counts as your residence" = that's a bit of new info. to me.
Have you got any link on that info. please - as that may add something else into the mix of a couple of households near me did-up an old-fashioned house each to "Homes Under the hammer" standard - rather than "proper" standard (as I call it) and then flogged the house on about 2 years later...
I knew one of those households had intended to do precisely that from Day 1 and it was a surprise to me re the other house (which was also only done up to "bodger standard") and duly bought thereafter by someone who is ripping all the bodges apart and doing it properly this time.
CariadAgain
Hmmm.....out of interest David49 - re your comment on "Smart developers live in the house for a few years - because then it counts as your residence" = that's a bit of new info. to me.
Have you got any link on that info. please - as that may add something else into the mix of a couple of households near me did-up an old-fashioned house each to "Homes Under the hammer" standard - rather than "proper" standard (as I call it) and then flogged the house on about 2 years later...
I knew one of those households had intended to do precisely that from Day 1 and it was a surprise to me re the other house (which was also only done up to "bodger standard") and duly bought thereafter by someone who is ripping all the bodges apart and doing it properly this time.
If a small builder or a private individual buys a house that needs renovating, on completion he can either sell it and pay tax on the “profit”, or rent it out and pay tax on the rent plus CGT on any gain, or live in it.
If he decides to live in it it becomes his residence, if it is sold say 3 yrs later there is no taxation all, except the stamp duty on original purchase.
The revenue would be interested if you did that too often and you would need a tolerant partner , but it’s amazing how tolerant they can be when the end goal ls worthwhile.
My second daughter bought a semi derelict place with her builder husband, renovated it room by room. It took 10 yrs but sold for £800k.
I have known a number of people who have done that, one way or another. Most are not builders but have day jobs, but enjoy DIY and renovting a property. They buy a project house renovate it while they live in it and then sell on and buy a bigger better renovation projecct. No tax paid because it is the owner's main residence.
It is essentially what we have done. We are about to buy our 7th house. 2 have been new, the other 5, including the one we are now buying have been run down and in need of improvement. We have improved them and sometime later, anything from 4 to 28 years later, we have moved on and reaped the benefit of all our hard work. With the house we are moving to, it is our family who will reap the benefit.
David49
How long is a piece of string, it all depends how much work needs to be done £4k might cover redecorating, if the roof needs doing and major work £50k or even £100k might be needed.Listed can cost much more, replacing like with like can double the cost.
Smart developers live in the house for a few years because then it counts as your residence and doesn’t get taxed
Happens often. I don't know many people, apart from us, who've not moved from house to house. Wait a few years, no tax on gain.
Our home is was my grandparents, and their parents before. It has been extended, Mansard addition, Conseratory, kept up to standard. We'll not move. Our home is low value, the land is the value.
The cost of moving is increasingly a factor. Each of my four children have bought what they plan to be their " forever" home, in varying degrees of mess/ disaster . They do jobs properly, extend where necessary, and upgrade as they can afford.
I think that this might be the future.
Being of immigrant stock, we go where the work is.
M0nica
Being of immigrant stock, we go where the work is.
So did we. Over and over again to places where we'd never been, knew nobody, had no family support to cry on the shoulders of. Or babysit.
So, he learnt how to change a nappy and I learnt how to keep my temper.
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