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There are many small things and a good number of big things. So let's just settle on the electrics for now:
- Kitchen light is in the hallway. Which requires a trip through the sitting room….
- 2 x sitting room ceiling lights are wired "backwards" like allthepies.
- Stair light switches are wired so that one switch is always in the "on" position, even when the light is off.
- We can access the garage from within the house. The light switch for the garage necessitates me walking across the unlit garage to the opposite corner
- No light switch is like any other in the house.
Time for a rewire!
Ours faces west so we don't get the sun in the garden on an evening & my mrs thinks you can only have a BBQ in the sun.
I may have to start having street BBQ's.
So does ours and that's what we do.
Thankfully most of our niggles are just about gone, will look forward to burning the cholera trap we call a carpet in the living room, only kept because the (pet) rats liked to eat it, they're on their way out so new carpet time soon.
Have a few wonky light switches and some things to sort out but by and large the biggest bugbear is the 90% completed extension at the moment.
1. How much in debt is had made me.
2. How small it is.
3. Lack of room for any workshop.
Plus the previous owners were enthusiastic but crap at DIY, but I get the impression that that's not unusual...
I've addressed it now. But the previous owners blocked off the single toilet and made an opening for it into the bedroom, fine you say.
But, blocking off meant removing the door handles, leaving the door in place and wall papering over it.
And the opening? made the opening far too wide so no door would ever fit. Instead they fitted saloon bar style double swing doors. Louvred they were and didn't reach the floor or ceiling by miles.
put back to original state now.
Another fuse box niggle;
When a breaker trips, it hits the cover of the fusebox so although luckily it cuts the circuit, when you glance through the cover it all looks normal. (not really trivial, more dangerous so ended up prising off the cover)
My drive is about 1 in 4.
Previous occupants fitted a breakfast bar above the washing machine position, making it impossible to use the detergent tray. (now removed and a bit of rounded edge skillfully bodged into the cutout on the remaining worktop!)
Kitchen floor (laminate sheet style stuff) has been fitted so the pattern is repetitive and they must have done the measuring with a tape measure that only had marks every 10mm. Half the door frame cuts are about 5mm too big and not every the right shape (rather than cutting off the bottom of the door frame) and they cut out a big rectangle under the radiator, roughly cut it to fit under the pipes but put the wrong way round, so the pattern doesn't match.
Built a kitchen cupboard around the boiler in such a way that I have to dismantle it before it can be serviced.
We have shared parking area and the neighbour rents part of his to a mate to store his caravan, it's sat there for 3 years without moving (owner is pretty much on deaths door now). But it blocks our light in summer evenings for the last 30 mins while we should be enjoying the last beer.
Downstairs toilet is tiny. As in your shoulders are touching the walls when you stand up to pee. Useful if you've had a few drinks though, easy to stay propped up 🙂
Carpets are stained and marked but too expensive to replace right now. And one of the pipes in the wall makes popping/cclicking sounds when the heating is on. I don't always mind it though sometimes it's strangely satisfying to listen to when tucked up in bed on a cold morning with the heating on.
There's lots of little (and not so little....) things that we inherited when we bought our current abode.
Firstly the tiling in the downstairs toilet. It looks as though it was done by a five year old who had practiced with fridge magnets.
Secondly, we have a double power socket in the kitchen, recessed into the wall, tiled (better than the loo) on all sides. It's set vertically so that the sockets are one above the other, I just have no idea why this is the way it is.
Theres a corner of my garden cut out and given to the rear neightbour. Its not big 1m x 1m probably but because the fence comes in now it feels much bigger.
Another fuse box issue! When it rains from a certain direction, the water comes through the joint between the garage and the house and over the electrics/fuse box thus tripping it out. Not only effecting us but the house next door as we supply them too.
In winter our garden resembles a swamp as it drains so badly.
Mrs M loathes the checker plate tiles in the bathroom as they hold mud and look dirty all the time (I love them as they are very non slip).
(currently in rented whist we do up our new place, but...)
Our bathroom is really small, but has a bath, toilet, huge sink, bidet, and is very draughty...
Trying to bath a newborn (in a baby bath rested on bidet) and 5 year old in this hellish space is the sole cause for my agonising back ache I suspect..
This is why our new bathroom we're building should only have a hole in the floor and holes in the roof for water/excrement etc to fall out of and into...NO CLUTTER....
DrP
Previous owners extended our house adding a dining room making joining it to the sitting room with double doors. The light switch to the dining room is by these doors but in the sitting room. Best place for my TV is in front of these doors so can't use them so to turn on the lights to the dining room have to go down the long way around to the switch in the sitting room.
Our house's previous owner annoys me every time I go to do any work on the place. I'm very thankful he got someone in to do the roof, wall ties and windows. The coil of live wire dangling from the ceiling in our pantry being the least dangerous of his forays into amateur wiring.
Loo roll holder loose
towel rail loosa
front door frame needs replacing
back windows need doing
shed needs rendering
Oh yeah and 4 years ago we spent £25k on converting the attic to a master bedroom of a standard comparable with a boutique hotel with ensuite and views over the crake valley. We currently use it to store massive quantities of child related plastic shite.
We bought a project house, there are so very many things which annoy me, but the minor niggle that gets me every day is the pull switch for the bathroom light is about 3 feet from the door against the side wall, even after 6 months I still find myself scrabbling around just inside the door before I remember where that bloody switch is!!
This thread is actually having the reverse effect and making me grateful for some of problems I [i]don't[/i] have!
We have a breeze that comes from the back to the front of the house, through the gap in the living room down and straight onto my neck.
Can't locate the sauce. 😐
We have a nice big garage just to the rear of the house on the side. Unfortunately no modern car will fit through the gap between our house and the neighbours' fence to get to it!
Can't locate the sauce.
Don't think alcohol will help Kryton! 😉
Where houses are concerned alcohol ALWAYS helps.
Every time we spend money on anything in the house it takes MrsMC 3 weeks to damage, break, overload whatever it is. 👿
Height of me: 6'2"
Height of bedroom #1 and bedroom #2 doorways: 6'
Chances of fixing that: nil.
Bathroom fan always has an incoming draught, because it's located on a wall which forms a kind of alleyway which receives the prevailing wind. One day I might fit a flap vent. Maybe.
Number of sinks in kitchen: 0
The sink is in the "utility room".
Less annoying than it sounds, TBH.
Got a lounge which ticks all the STW boxes, i.e. woodburner.
It's perfectly sized for a room three times as large as our lounge.
Got about a million others.
Our burglar alarm has been going off for 15 months now. It went off at 2am on Christmas Day 2013 during a long power cut, we don't know the code, no one does. I removed the fuse for the siren, but you can still hear it in the cupboard under the stairs if you get close enough.
Ought to get someone out to shut it up.
This thread is actually having the reverse effect and making me grateful for some of problems I don't have!
Ditto (also bought a house with a "bit" of work needing done, your thread was inspiring...).
I see half of these and think "i'd just rip that out/deal with it". But that perhaps a side effect of living in an undecorated [strike]house[/strike] hole where every job for the last 5 months has ended up with "just get the jimmy bar and a hammer".
Still, moved onto positive "making things better" progress lately rather than ripping stuff out. Though having said that, all the windows are coming out this week (and hopefully new ones in!).
Oh, my fuse box lid does never stay shut mind 😉
We have more light switches than lights. I know not why.
Similar.
I have at least one remote relay toggle light switch that makes the remote relay toggle, but god knows what it's connected too.
I have 1 light inside the main door that appear to be permanently live with no switch. Fortunately it's all edison screw here rather than bayonet, so there's been a bulb in there not fully screwed in for 10 years. Proper 100W incandescent - may have to ebay that one day.
The double power sockets in the kitchen, I bet its an old cooker switch.
Our burglar alarm has been going off for 15 months now. It went off at 2am on Christmas Day 2013 during a long power cut, we don't know the code, no one does. I removed the fuse for the siren, but you can still hear it in the cupboard under the stairs if you get close enough.
You should be able to google the manual for your alarm and reset everything with the engineer code. Had to do this when the previous occupants didn't leave the pin.
Oo, that could work, ta!
We also have a light switch that does nothing. At all. It's live, but buggered if I can find what it switches!
Try looking outside for light fixings with no lights.
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My two front windows are double glazed white PVC, perfectly functional.
Except that, for reasons I will never fathom, they have this diagonal leading on them. They're large single units, it looks awful. It's inside the bloody units so I can't even pick it off.
£2.5k to replace them though, can't bring myself to do it whilst the windows are otherwise fine.
The light switch in the hall has one switch for the hall light and one for the landing light. Great.
The light switch on the landing has a switch for the landing light but none for the hall light downstairs.
Infuriating.
Everything else is a major niggle due to the generally half arsed nature of everything the previous owners ever did to the place.
It's not mine.....
Althoguh it is in 10 days time 🙂
The light switch in the hall has one switch for the hall light and one for the landing light. Great.The light switch on the landing has a switch for the landing light but none for the hall light downstairs.
This, except the landing light has one switch for the landing and one for the loft. I've had to tape the second one up to stop certain people leaving the loft light on for weeks at a time 🙄
My two front windows are double glazed white PVC, perfectly functional.Except that, for reasons I will never fathom, they have this diagonal leading on them.
Same for me but vertical/horizontal lines. Must have cost more but no point to them - the house is a normal looking 50s built one and not some sort of mock tudor thing which might be the reason some do it.
I've had to tape the second one up to stop certain people leaving the loft light on for weeks at a time
Loft lights should be high up so only be reachable when up the ladder - or in the loft like mine.
pictonroad, will be immensely cheaper if you can get replacement sealed glass units for the existing frames.
But even then, £2.5 k to replace two normal windows?! That seems a lot when I can get a window knocked into a fully glazed door and made good for £1k.
Loft lights should be high up so only be reachable when up the ladder - or in the loft like mine.
Totally agree, and when a qualified leccy is in the house this will happen, but until then the tape is staying 😀 .
I don't do electrics, since I witnessed my dad being launched off a step ladder whilst fitting a ceiling light.
[quote=jfletch said]The light switch in the hall has one switch for the hall light and one for the landing light. Great.
The light switch on the landing has a switch for the landing light but none for the hall light downstairs.
Infuriating.
I thought this was normal TBH.
Mainly the floor boards upstairs, they are cracked, creaky and in desperate needs of replacing or repairing. Not enough to pull all the carpet up and start again though, not quite...
Toilet roll holder mounted on the only wall available which is behind you when you need it.
Shower drips and is corroded in place at one temp which is very slightly too hot for summer so I have to change the boiler settings instead.
Garden is shaded by a neighbour's Eucalyptus tree which sheds lots of leaves that don't rot and need sweeping off my grass.
I'm moving, it's all too much.
Toilet roll holders seem to be a minefield.
If it's fitted in a convenient place for me, Mrs TTP and Miss TTP will not be able to reach, or get burned by the radiator when reaching for the paper.
If fitted in a position for the ladies I knock the roll off the holder with my elbow and I have to root around on the floor to retrieve the paper.
Guess where they are fitted in our house?
pictonroad - Member£2.5k to replace them though, can't bring myself to do it whilst the windows are otherwise fine.
That's quite some cost! We had new double glazing put in our house last year and it came to £5k including a new front door, a new skin for the back door (so we could put a cat flap in it), decent size French windows and every other window in the house.
Reading this thread has made me feel better about the state of our house, to be honest!
jfletch - MemberThe light switch in the hall has one switch for the hall light and one for the landing light. Great.
The light switch on the landing has a switch for the landing light but none for the hall light downstairs.
Infuriating.
Ours has this too. Just assumed it was normal, but yeah it does lead to the odd 'bollocks, forgot to turn the hall light off' moment....
My two front windows are double glazed white PVC, perfectly functional.Except that, for reasons I will never fathom, they have this diagonal leading on them. They're large single units, it looks awful. It's inside the bloody units so I can't even pick it off.
£2.5k to replace them though, can't bring myself to do it whilst the windows are otherwise fine.
You can keep your current frames and just replace the sealde units. We did the same job at our last house. The units themselves cost very little - I am having some 2m x 1m sealed units made and they only cost just over £100 each.
You can prise the beading out with a flat scraper or something similar, and remove the unit intact. You'll need to measure the length, width and thickness of your current unit, and then order un-leaded replacements from your local glazing company.
Suddenly I'm interested.
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Quote was for complete windows but if I can just replace the glass myself then that would be brilliant. I'd probably just do the large panes.
off to investigate.
The door on our fuse box is too tight, so it only shuts if you thump it. One of these days it'll crack when I do it...
Swap it for one of the "too loose" ones? 🙂
It worries me that if dodgy DIY - either in the planning or execution - is so common, are we unintentionally, unwittingly doing things that some owner down the line will look at and think "what the *** were they thinking?!"? I don't think so, but presumably the previous owners thought the same...