HOUSES THAT ARE UNTOUCHED FOR DECADES

One reason being that I think people judge you by your house, and I don't want to be treated as an 'old person ' just because my house looks like an old person's house!

Who cares if people judge you? If they’re a judgy sort of person, if they can’t find anything to judge about your house, they’d find some other yardstick to judge you by.
I don’t care if people think I’m an old person. I am.

I think you should mind your own business about how much money people spend ir do not spend of their houses.

Their finances are their business and they are free to spend or save it on what they choose. Absolutely nothing to ro with you.

To be. honest you sound a bit sad really. You know, the sort of shallow person who lives for status symbols and what you have bought for your home.

Snotty, better than the neighbours type.Keeping up with the Joneses.

Hycinth Bouquet meets Margot from the Good Life l

Poor thing

Greyduster

I just hate the disingenuous viewers who rave about some feature of a house and then having bought it, do away with it as quickly as they can. Our buyer did that with the garden. He raved about it - we couldn’t get him to come back indoors. When I saw it was for sale again, I looked on line at the sales details. Within a year of buying it, they had torn up the patio, the pergola and the water feature he was so ecstatic about, dug out every plant and flower and grassed it all over. When I saw it, it broke my heart but, each unto his own.

Yes, I looked at an old garden of our on Google Earth and was sad to see that it was just grass with a bed down each side. All the buyers in that area seem to do that, and then to build a huge garden room at the far end. We had a much admired and lovely garden split into "rooms" with pergolas, raised beds, good paving and some shrubs.
However I'd taken lots of picture of it before I moved so at least I can remember how it was then.

Not everyone has the funds to do up a home, as long as it's clean & tidy I don't see a problem, I expect you bought it for a reasonable price if it needed updating. I feel your
post lacks empathy as you don't know how the previous owners felt or their financial situation, just enjoy your home now you have it as you wish

Doodledog

I don’t think the assumption that it’s only money that stops people constantly renovating is a sound one. Not everyone’s bothered about having the latest decor - it’s about priorities.

Not only that, but ‘having things done’ means hassle and often being around when people would prefer to be away or out doing things they enjoy.

As winterwhite says, the environmental impact is important to a lot of people too, and others might put helping ACs with a deposit on a house above a new kitchen for themselves.

What does it matter? And antiques are basically ‘other people’s furniture’ 😂. Do you turn your nose up at those too, OP?

I agree winterwhite

We've just had a new kitchen after nearly 40 years but I reckon the solid wood one which was in the house from new would have lasted another 40 years. However, it was quite inconvenient on some ways.

Our furniture is probably retro (or nearly) but we like it.

People live as they wish within the constraints of their budget.

Greyduster we had to move to a more expensive area when interest rates were 15%.
I did insist that we changed the toilet seat 🙂
Other improvements were made over time - by us as we couldn't afford to employ firms.

When we moved to this house, a new acquaintance came for coffee and was rather rude about some of my antiques, wondering why I 'fetched them old things' with me 😯

SporeRB

RillaofIngleside

Cariadagain, I find it odd too. There are people I know who haven't changed their house for 40 years, living with dark old carpets, old furniture and aertex walls. I couldn't bear it. Now we can I afford it, I like to keep mine light and modern. One reason being that I think people judge you by your house, and I don't want to be treated as an 'old person ' just because my house looks like an old person's house!
But also that 70s to 90s look is for my parents, not for me.

Do people really judge you by your house?

When we were running our online business, we had a few wealthy male collectors that came to our house to meet my husband. For example a bloke who works as an investment banker from Luxembourg and one of the collectors could well be the richest man in Midlands.

So far, none of them have gagged at the sight of our swirly 1960s carpet in our living room, our second hand 1960s display cabinets, dining table and chairs or our plain net curtains.

Our house is a 1960s house and I love vintage.

No, kind people do not judge others by their homes.

janeainsworth

^One reason being that I think people judge you by your house, and I don't want to be treated as an 'old person ' just because my house looks like an old person's house!^

Who cares if people judge you? If they’re a judgy sort of person, if they can’t find anything to judge about your house, they’d find some other yardstick to judge you by.
I don’t care if people think I’m an old person. I am.

We're old.

I like my brown furniture. I've polished it today 🙂

I like my brown furniture. I've polished it today 🙂
Me too Allira.
Ours is second-hand G-plan dining room furniture which cost us £500 for a dining table, 10 chairs & a wall unit/sideboard, including the cost of van hire to get it from the sellers.
Our sofas & chairs were from M&S in 1994 and we’ve had them re-covered once.

Doodledog

We went right through the house a couple of years ago. Every room decorated, new carpets or hard floors in every room, blinds and curtains replaced where the old ones didn't match, light fittings replaced, bookcases built, a new kitchen and bathroom and a bedroom covered into a study. I'm very happy with it, but I will never do it again 😂.

Everything had to be declutterred, which is a task in itself, the organisation was daunting (particularly doing all the bedrooms at once, which was my daft decision), and it felt as though the house wasn't our own, as there were workmen and decorators in, which I find stressful. We slept on the floor for a week waiting for new carpets and beds to be delivered and the rooms decorated, the kitchen ran into snags and all the contents were in the dining room for ages - I'm hyperventilating just remembering it😂. I was about 63 and my husband is around to help. At 73, 83 or older it would just be too much, particularly if I was on my own.

In my area, bungalows tend to be on modern estates on the outskirts of town (the centre is old and built before bungalows were popular), so when one does come up for sale in the centre, where the facilities are located, they command a high price and are snapped up. I can well imagine someone selling a house that might need a bit of work and getting less than the cost of the bungalow, so if they are on a fixed income they might not be able to justify spending thousands on updating - the important thing is living somewhere with no stairs near the doctors and shops.

We went right through the house a couple of years ago. Every room decorated, new carpets or hard floors in every room, blinds and curtains replaced where the old ones didn't match, light fittings replaced, bookcases built, a new kitchen and bathroom and a bedroom covered into a study. I'm very happy with it, but I will never do it again 😂.
Even just replacing the kitchen was horrendous.

Trying to find a trades person to do some decorating is a feat in itself.

Ths thing is - you could update a home when you're in your 60s and think that's it!
If you should live to your 90s and still able to live at home, then it will look dated.

Just don't invite any judgemental people round for coffee!

Bungalows that have been 'improved' often result in awkward layouts.

Wow, CariadAgain

I can't believe what you have written. I think it must have been said in jest just to provoke discussion but if this is not the case it is a very blinkered opinion that I don't share

janeainsworth

^I like my brown furniture. I've polished it today 🙂^
Me too Allira.
Ours is second-hand G-plan dining room furniture which cost us £500 for a dining table, 10 chairs & a wall unit/sideboard, including the cost of van hire to get it from the sellers.
Our sofas & chairs were from M&S in 1994 and we’ve had them re-covered once.

😁

Some of ours is Stag, some was new, a few pieces were 'inherited'.

Other furniture is teak G plan.
I'll be careful who I invite into my bedroom.

We've got a newish G plan suite but the old one was comfier.

David49

Cabowich

Perhaps they're like the situation I'm in at the moment and JUST CAN'T FIND ANYBODY to do it!!! Grrrr!

A couple of builder friends of mine are worried because they only have 6 weeks work in front instead of the usual 6 months. The problem is cost of materials and labour is beyond customers expectations, one friend does supply kitchens and doesnt fit the doors until the cash is waiting for him.

Do they do painting and decorating?

Jockytaff

Cariad - have you considered taking up a hobby?

She has one 😂

Our first home was a thirties semi, which we l loved. However, the previous owner had undertaken every possible decoration fad from the late sixties/early seventies. The door panels were boarded up, the carpets were eye-watering, woodchip wallpaper everywhere, built-in cupboards in the master bedroom with a large mirror in the middle which had a red light. The bathroom suite was blue, which would have been fine if it had not been paired with black tiles on the walls. We replaced all this when we were able to but I am sure that people who had the house later than us would have turned their noses up at our nineties inspired ideas. Our next two houses have been eighties houses and in immaculate condition. Both were previously owned by people of a similar age to us and with similar ideas décor wise. We gradually decorated our second house as and when it needed it, including a new kitchen, bathroom and cloakroom. We have been in this present house for two years and have not redecorated yet. Just before we moved in, we had the double garage converted into a music room/library. The only problem we have found with this house is that the previous owners were obviously somewhat taller than us and the hooks for pictures and mirrors were too high, which is why the hall mirror is in a portrait position rather than landscape.

One reason, l think, for people not seeing the need to update their homes is that house decoration follows fashions as much as everything else.. It is very often possible to roughly gauge the age of the occupants by the furniture and décor of the house. There is nothing wrong with this - it is simply a matter of taste - but our likes and dislikes are often shaped by the fashions of our younger years. This is why the Fifty Shades of Grey look with Live, Laugh, Love signs or Family photo frames have been so popular with people in their thirties and early forties.
I think many of us find time capsule homes interesting. Back in the eighties, I was invited to a house where an elderly lady lived. The house had been built at the turn of the nineteenth/twentieth centuries by the lady’s parents and she had lived there all her life. It was as if she clock had stopped in 1913 and was the perfect middle class Edwardian home in every possible dimension.

janeainsworth

^I like my brown furniture. I've polished it today 🙂^
Me too Allira.
Ours is second-hand G-plan dining room furniture which cost us £500 for a dining table, 10 chairs & a wall unit/sideboard, including the cost of van hire to get it from the sellers.
Our sofas & chairs were from M&S in 1994 and we’ve had them re-covered once.

Ooooh - I thought I was the only one left on planet earth who liked dark wood furniture. I have a house full of Ercol - beautiful, classic furniture that looks amazing with bright cushions and curtains. It is eye wateringly expensive, but as we dark wood furniture lovers are in the minrority, it is remarkably good value second hand.

@Allira, you are definitely correct about updating a home in your fifties or sixties and not doing anything else to it. This is surprisingly common. Relatives of mine had their house revamped in the very early eighties and everything was done to a high standard. The house was always immaculately clean and tidy but, by the time they had both died, nearly forty years later, the house was not full of vintage charm but seriously out of date. There was a Wilton carpet in one of the rooms that had been there since the late sixties and was in as good condition as the day it was laid but it was hopelessly dated. The house was sold as it was and I expect the new owners would have taken it back to plaster and renovated it to their own specifications. It was a very nice family house but it was to the tastes of a previous age.

LovesBach

janeainsworth

I like my brown furniture. I've polished it today 🙂
Me too Allira.
Ours is second-hand G-plan dining room furniture which cost us £500 for a dining table, 10 chairs & a wall unit/sideboard, including the cost of van hire to get it from the sellers.
Our sofas & chairs were from M&S in 1994 and we’ve had them re-covered once.

Ooooh - I thought I was the only one left on planet earth who liked dark wood furniture. I have a house full of Ercol - beautiful, classic furniture that looks amazing with bright cushions and curtains. It is eye wateringly expensive, but as we dark wood furniture lovers are in the minrority, it is remarkably good value second hand.

I'd love to replace our kitchen table and chairs with Ercol but we've spent enough and the old ones are ok (well, fit for purpose but not up to everyone's exacting standards!).

some people like the retro look
often things made years ago were a darn site better than the 'modern' things

You'd hate our local Upcycling Furniture Shop, CariadAgain!

They're offering retro sofas and furniture at the moment.

Of course people can live how they want, it's their choice. Just not for me. And yes, realistically I do think people judge your house, it's human nature, especially if they don't know you. I'm quite untidy and have books and hobbies lying around, very different from many of my neighbours who have very tidy houses. I'm sure I'm judged for that, it just doesn't worry me.

Caria, why does it concern you, you still bought the house. I am not concerned what new furniture or modern gadgets any one has, doubt I could be friends with anyone that was. I would not be comfortable in a dirty house, it costs nothing to be clean, apart from time.

Ths thing is - you could update a home when you're in your 60s and think that's it!
If you should live to your 90s and still able to live at home, then it will look dated.
Absolutely, but I'll be putting up with that . Seriously, unless the doors start falling off the cupboards or something serious happens, I couldn't face doing it again. We'll probably replace the flooring when we do the room behind the kitchen (sometime soon, if the carpenter comes out of hiding), but nothing that involves emptying the room and having fitters in for ages. We fitted the previous kitchen in 1998, and I would have lived with it longer if not for the fact that the dishwasher stuck out, and one thing led to another.

There is a programme on iPlayer, called Signs Of The Times. It was made in the 90s, I think, and the cameras go into various houses and the owners/tenants speak about their tastes in decor. It's interesting and at times quite amusing to see the snobbery about floral wallpaper and borders that match the quilt cover and curtains, or the 'genuine reproduction' furniture that the owners feel sets them above their neighbours.

The reality is that we can only buy what is available when we buy it, and these days even five years later we won't be able to get it again, so things are dated almost immediately. If we aren't looking at real antiques, what may appear to be classic styles are simply the popular ones that aren't too 'trendy', and as the TV programme shows, they can look very 'of their time' just a few years later. I think the trick is to get what you like, and keep it until either it has worn out, it has become impractical for whatever reason, or you just don't like it any more, and then get whatever is 'in' at the time (as that will be all that's available anyway). If we hang onto things for long enough they come back in again anyway.

Absolutely, but I'll be putting up with that .

Just be careful who you invite round!
Should that be whom?

Although our new kitchen is great and cost a fair bit, I don't think the quality is as good as the old one.
The hinges seem fine, though! 😁

CariadAgain,what a judgmental post! What has it got to do with you?

Weird....but up to them,theur house!