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Just count yourself lucky you have a house to have a list for, I'd love to have a few projects to get stuck into!
No I'm not doing any of your houses 😜
4 bathrooms
Are you living in a hotel? That just sounds like unnecessary hard work.
The list at my old house was a lot, lot longer than that!
I moved house
Me too.
20ish years there and only fixed stuff when it was unusable/unsafe.
Just couldn't be bothered with any of that shit when we could be out riding.
As Mrsstu's dad always used to say to us "you can always do that stuff when you're too old to ride".
He was a wise man.😁
I'm not even making a list.
😀
Not broken at all, spent Covid lockdown doing all the jobs after I gave the TV and booze up after the first week. Choices choices.
I did the same, got to a decent spot, one room needs redecorating still.
Then a joint on the bathroom sink taps monoblock decided it had had enough of life, and started to drip. Very slowly. Didn't realise because sink is on cabinet and it was running along the back of the cabinet into the wall and then downwards. Making the wall and floor wetter and wetter, but not in a way that you notice. Finally the ceiling in the kitchen and the kitchen wall started to show damp, but by now there so much soaked in that drying it out has only caused the plaster to all crack. And it's got into the plywood base under the (vinyl, but expensive) tiles in the bathroom. Which the cabinet sits on. So the ply has swelled and created gaps between the tiles that because it's the only bathroom the humidity of showers has got further into so the tiles are starting to curl a bit and if you aren't careful you can impale your feet on a sharp corner, / crack the corner off.
So I now need to replaster a wall, patch a ceiling, lift and retile a bathroom floor which has a cabinet sat on it and might therefore need removing but it's sealed and grouted to a tiled wall behind......
All for a tiny ****** drip.
I feel so much better about my house now. Just need
* some repointing done at the back
* an internal door handle/latch replaced
* some dripping guttering fixed
* downstairs bathroom tap replaced with something my four year old can actually use
* the woodwork at the front sanded and repainted
Mines being a right pain, the todo list is now over two full pages of A4 each with two columns.
Every time I tick something off, three more things get added!
I've got maybe 15 major things such as black mould in the hallway, built in fridge freezer not working properly, slow leak in the central heating, leak in the roof when rain comes from a certain direction etc.
The rest are things like the toilet flush not working properly unless you hold the button for an extended period, the bathroom extractor not extracting, doors catching on the carpet.
The main issue is I have a 1 year old and a 7 year so don't have big blocks of time to actually complete a job without a little helper getting involved.
Plus why in the eff will people turn up to do a quote, measure everything up then not get round to issuing it?! Some of the jobs are probably 10K+ and they seemingly can't be bothered. If you don't want the job then just say or give me a "****-off" quote, rather than waste both our times with me chasing you every week and you fobbing me off.
There definitely something to be said for having a house no bigger than is really necessary....
Less maintenance. Less to clean. Less to heat.
This is turning into a Monty Python sketch!
*Rolls up sleeves, takes a deep breath*
Well the builders have finished most of their work so there's just a couple of rooms that I need to paint.
They still need to tile the bathroom and fit everything.
As for the DIY stuff... insulating the house to start with... so far I've hacked the old thick plaster off the walls of 2 bedrooms and the downstairs rooms. 2 bedrooms to go, but we're living in those at the moment (2 adults, 4 young boys and a new baby).
The bare walls need rendering, then insulation sticking on, then a plaster topcoat. The render and insulation we're doing ourselves, 1 room rendered so far.
Also 1 wall has been entirely removed downstairs, I'm replacing it with a wide cupboard with the back of it built to be like a stud wall. Cupboard on the hallway side, wall on the living room side. This is half quarter done.
The kitchen is removed entirely, that room is bare plaster with a few old units freestanding with a sink bolted on etc... it's not ideal. Finalising quotes for the new kitchen.
The garden's also a mess from the builders and becoming a priority what with the nice weather and young children needing an outlet.
The grass needs doing, bushes/hedges planting, oh and I need to finish building the wooden playhouse thing for the kids. At least the pair of new chickens will occupy them for now 🐔
Electrics too, a few new and replacement sockets which I'll probably do myself. Must remember to do this before the walls are done...
The front door is off its hinges and replaced by a sheet of OSB for now. The door's been stripped and my wife's painting it now. Must find a source for the new glass panels.
It's been like this for close to a year now and is taking its toll on us and the kids... however the end is in sight!
Trying to get it done and fitting in time around work means I'm staying up until 2am or so most nights... which also means I can't use power tools after a certain time so everything takes longer.
Might be easier to move to a cardboard box in the middle of the road 😁
Edit: Oh and in a spare moment I built myself a bunnyhop bar practice thing. Just need to make the bike usable... I think all it still needs is the new pads bedding in, though it's Magura so that's a job in itself!
(They say accelerate to 20mph then go to a full stop. 30-50 times. Per wheel. You're 'avin' a larf.)
I refuse to make a list. It would be demoralising.
Instead I just work on whatever appears to be the biggest priority at the time/fits the weather/is more appealing to me.
Where's that Australian fellow whose house was demolished by storms last year?
My house is over 600 years old.
This is what the main roof looks like from inside the attic:
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I try and avoid going in the attic so I don't need to think about it.
This is one of the smaller jobs we've had done since we moved in:
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Admittedly with the second one I did get to walk round on the deck pretending I was Captain Bligh for a couple of days but, still.
I try and avoid going in the attic so I don’t need to think about it.
Same technique as me then!
Good God. How do some of you sleep at night? 🙂
Loads of issues with our house (although not as bad as that ^^^ lot). Paid a builder, decorator, gardener, cabinet maker, etc to sort them. This after mostly ignoring them for 10+ years. I am so glad we decided to sink some savings into it than trying to do it ourselves (and a lot we couldn't - roofing etc)
Still stuff to do, see when we run out of cash but won't be doing it myself. Work enough/crap at DIY/want to spend spare time doing stuff we like to do.
Really the main roof needs to come off. But we had a quote for that. It's not happening.
Mugboo
Re:rats. Have you had cameras down the sewer pipes. My old house had rats in walls driving me mad, cameras found they had travelled up sewer pipes then gnawed through them to dig a tunnel to get into the cavity wall to run round the house.
Good God. How do some of you sleep at night?
I've been working my way round sorting out 600 years of bodges.
This was the upstairs shower:
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They'd actually built it over a window. It was the only window in the building with a lock on it.
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This was the base of the wall under the window - yes, you can see the outside...
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turned out alright (imo)
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But everywhere's the same. It gets a bit wearing sometimes.
Overheats and I have to remove rear panel to reset a fuse
The thermal trip in the back of tumble dryers is usually fairly accessible and very easy to replace, assuming you can buy the part. IIRC from one I did a few years back it was two pozi self-tapping screws and two push-on 'spade' type connectors. The trip/reset might be borked or there might be a bigger issue causing a lack of airflow over them, that'd be more worrying as it's a major cause of overheating.
Add it to your list...
HTH 😉
Where’s that Australian fellow whose house was demolished by storms last year?
That's Reeksy. He commented earlier in the thread, 14 months of living in a shed.
They’d actually built it over a window
I mean of course they did. Who wouldn't 😉 Does look good now tho. Some proper skills on show there.
When the builders were fixing the little roof (only added around 1980) they kept pointing out short cuts/cheap fixes/terrible design decisions which all transgressed a number of building regs.
Where was the building inspector I asked? Either buried in the garden or enjoying his envelope of cash down the local spearmint rhino came the response. It was the 80s I guess 😉
Those before bathroom photos look like an improvement on mine! I would post pictures but I’m genuinely ashamed 😂
My house is in good shape structurally and I think the roof is OK.
However, the geothermal heating system just had its 20 year anniversary and has needed repairs and filling yearly for few years now. It is connected to discontinued model of mechanical ventilation system and replacing both will cost at least 15 000€ for parts and labour. Adding to complexity is that system is behind wall built after installation, of course all the electricity for the house are on that wall too.
It is quite likely that the system will fail when it is needed the most. We are lucky to live in the south so low winter temperatures (-20C) will usually last only a couple of weeks.
House is absolutely fine, but full of MIL's (dear departed) stuff that needs sorting but MrsF not upto it. It's been a very slow process. Loads of videos, files, 8mm cine, 16mm cine etc etc to go through. Got some furniture we don't need that's just taking up space. The mess is getting me down, but it's getting slowly better. Son has car parts all over the place, very messy person, and I built him a shed for his bit's - that's overflowing and he won't get rid of stuff. Got a heavy 'broken' gearbox in the middle of my greenhouse that I want shifting (his).
Really gets to me when I can't get my bike out of my garage - I tend to lose it with him !
Sven, is that you?
loved his books
I sold my dream house when I realised that I couldn’t afford to do it up and pay off the mortgage. Bits of it were in a puddle some of the time. There was ice on the inside of the windows I hadn’t double glazed in the winter. I couldn’t work out how to ditch the aga because it was linked to the hot water and kept the kitchen warm so redoing that was a massive job.
Was a bit gutted but selling up opened new doors. Also I think I would have been bankrupt if still I had it through the energy crisis. Especially as it was on a tracker mortgage. Now have a more sensible house in France.
The oven has packed in though. Dealt with that by buying an air fryer…
Imagine how the people who pay £150k+ for this would feel:
It is effectively a lean-too, wooden-framed tin shed that almost certainly will need completely flattening
I need a new roof (it's only a simple pitched roof, but 120 sqm of it)
And a complete set of new windows and some exterior doors. (4 doors and 16 windows, all the glass is coated and triple glazed as well)
I also need to repaint all the exterior wood work on the house and re-clad the garage (a large double garage) there's also some patching needed on the foundations of the house and the foundation need repainting as well.
Oh, the wind out awning at the back is dead too, need to make an effort to replace that too, and remove the broken one on the side of the house, which i didn't use for the 10 years that it did work.
Then there's some decorating needed inside.
And the household income halved fairly recently. So i'm broke.
Oh, the kitchen will need doing sometime in the next 3-5 years as well.
Tasteless 70's A-Frame box built out of old Cornflake packets and Bostick.
Rebuilt everything.
Proper down to the brick job. Floors, insulation, roof, dormers, rewire, windows etc.
We went with 70's colours too, orange, white and green. 😀 Looks like a set from Playschool.
Just minor paintwork and the garage to sort.
Last house was a three storey 1860's cottage. Not a straight edge in the place, constantly demanding and basically a money pit.
Well rid.
We nearly bought an ex wild west themed brothel, that would have been fun.
wild west themed brothel,
"Yee whore" is the best I can manage.
Where’s that Australian fellow whose house was demolished by storms last year?
I’m a dual citizen 😉
Yep… this is annoying as the bricks aren’t available anymore.
Just needs a sticker Reeksy.
In all seriousness I hope you get it sorted soon and can move out of the shed.
^^ Houses like that are usually sold as ”lovely opportunity for buyers with renovation skills”
“Yee whore” is the best I can manage.
You've set the bar fairly high there, my best was "ho down".
Anyway.
Thanks to all the posters who have made me feel much better about my place. With its crumbling plaster, rotting door sills, floors that bounce and not in a good way, and all the rest of it.
Lol at 'dick stain'! 🙂
Not-so-golden shower?
We've just had a 10 grand quote for replacing some fascias/soffits/gutters, so it looks like I'll be spending more time on scaffolding than on a bike this summer.
Current major job list:
Bathroom needs complete redo/remodel. Putting it off for as long as I can.
Two exterior doors warped, need replacing, so do their sills (rotten)
General redecorating.
Replace flooring/carpets.
New build 4 years ago, so the cheap builder's paint is now scruffy and needing decorated all through. Last time this happened we moved house (to here).
My flat is slowly heading for the river. Its taken 150 years to get as far as it has tho so I am not too worried. One of my floors has a 4" drop in it.
We spent ages tarting the garden up when we moved in, added loads of sand to the soil so it was less claylike, bowling green lawn etc....
The new pups have turned it into a mini Bakhmut, esp with the carcasses of the toys they've shredded
One of my floors has a 4″ drop in it.
This was how I levelled the bed when we moved in. There was a 13cm drop along the length of the bed. We need crampons to to climb the floor to the bathroom steps (the steps are there because that's the difference in ceiling heights between the original house and the mid-victorian extension).
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Wonder how many people on here also typically contribute to the usual 'zomg, as if you'd buy a new build house, they are so bably built, urgh so tasteless and characterless' 😉
On the other hand my house was literally built out of bits someone could scavenge from a falling down Norman castle up the road and it's still standing over 600 years later. Some of the beams were probably cut nearly a 1000 years ago.
My garage has been collapsing since long before we bought the house, 24 years ago. Finally got round to it this year. Someone had extended the original "loose box and carriage house" by adding an extra six feet of shonkiness without any footings. Here's how it was a month ago.
Just the doors to sort now.
Here’s how it was a month ago.
and now project creep means its a full house rebuild!
Oh, if you want some horror stories.
Three of the houses that were considered and bid upon when we moved in.
One of them they found that large picture windows on the ground floor and one on the second had been clad/drywalled into the wall in the 1930s, so there was no proper structure behind the cladding, so a damp problem... The large rock that was supporting the central wooden column/frame for the house, that had been excavated around (by hand) to create a earth cellar some time in the 50's could actually be wobbled by hand during the summer (due to ground shrinkage). They had to live in a caravan for a while, until the frame/rock could be stabilised
Second one (that we only lost out on by a couple of thousand quid) they found that the borehole (in corner of the basement) had actually been drilled into a spring and over the years the piping and cap etc had corroded so badly that the spring was now flowing out of the borehole about a metre below the ground, then diagonally across the foot print of the house and into a stream at the bottom of the hill. Again, they were in a caravan/parents house for 6 months. And all the budget they had for new bathroom/decorating etc was eaten up by other expenses.
Another one had a "soft" floorboard next to the ground floor fireplace, apparently easy enough to fix. Except it wasn't just the floorboard, it was a leak in the back of the chimney that had rotted the end of the beam, errrr, several beams.
That was a bit involved. Some of the side of the house had to come off to get new beams in. Then they found some of the foundations round the outside had been undermined and were actually hanging off the bottom of the wall.
Mines needs new windows.
But I'll take that over a Stewart Milne new build any day *
We have lived here for 12 years now so I'm ok with that situation....if I keep going with the epoxy filler they will pretty much be solid plastic shortly
* If you know you know.
Wonder how many people on here also typically contribute to the usual ‘zomg, as if you’d buy a new build house, they are so bably built, urgh so tasteless and characterless’ 😉
That would be a great point if any of these new builds had fewer defects than my "old" house!