Bad taste or TV induced?

[plumbers mate]

I've been semi-looking at houses for sale in North Wales as I plan to move in 18-24 months - if money allows me to get this house made saleable by then.

I am getting quite upset by what people have done to the houses - my heart sinks when I see "extensively modernised by present owners".
They have this mania for "original" features which are not what they claim. Practically every house has "exposed beams and a feature stone fireplace".
I'm talking victorian houses with a touch of respectability about them, not cottages.
The ceilings have been removed to expose the beams and the chimney breast in the living room denuded of all plaster, leaving a big hole with a stone lintel.
Fine if the house was designed like that but not a semi detached middle class looking house.
They have not restored original features but stripped away what is original to expose the originally *hidden* structure.
My first thought when I see these houses is "That'll cost a lot to get re-plastered and fireplace reinstated"....

Do these people have so little taste or sense or are they all TV indoctrinated by lifestyle programmes?

I wouldn't care so much if they actually lived in the houses but they are the buy to rent and buy to make more money squad.
They have bought these houses for what may be cheap, to them but still expensive for the local people, and then try to sell on for £50grand more and so way out of reach for any local having taken the original character out.

 

[middi]

This is the way things are. For the majority of house buyers which like living in old buildings the " modernised" bit is extremely appealing, simply because it has got all the up to date mod cons, new DG windows, brand new plasterboard with a beatifull even finish and painted, plus some guarantees , not forgetting the "odd" exposed fully sandblasted and cleaned beams along with the the old soft brick or stone chimney replaced or faced with brand new similar materials and beautifully pointed with bright " black" cement. Oh.., the decking, forgot to mention the beatifully landscaped garden with brand new decking.

I am not a lover of estate agents, but, the poor sods would get done if they used the word " fully restored" to sell these properties, and the very few properly restored properties that they mange to sell would not appeal to the category of the uninitiated as mentioned above and these buyers make the bulk of the buyers.

It is sad, but a fact.

 

[Penners]

I don't disagree with you, Plumber's Mate, but the Victorians weren't above a bit of vandalism themselves!

In this area you'll find any number of houses whose beams have had great chunks adzed out of them to provide a key for plastering them over, because the Victorians thought that exposed beams looked too "peasant".

 

[plumbers mate]

And THIS is listed -- before or after "improvements"????
Our bet is on illegal improvements after listing .......

http://www.dafyddhardy.co.uk/TSparser/pdfs/DH014791.pdf

 

[Nemesis]

Unfortunately there is no easy access to listing descriptions for Wales so we can't see what it says.

Sad though.

 

[Penners]

I don't feel very well.

 

[MDE]

I once sat next to a man at a dinner who spent the whole evening telling me how he'd "done up" his listed Welsh cottage (which he used at weekends, commuting from Manchester). This included a proud description of his UPVC double glazing. Not good for the digestion.

 

[Lime]

It is strange that so many people buy old houses when in reality they want a modern "ticky tacky" one.
The complaints are always the same along the lines of:-
It's cold and draughty and cost too much to heat.
It's so big I get fed up with cleaning it.
I've never been able to open/close(!) the windows since I've been here.
There's no cupboard space or fitted wardrobes.
etc.

For the first six months after moving in there is a frenzy of activity.
Builders and DIY merchants become richer and the house becomes poorer.
New paint is thrown over old and anything that is mentioned in the survey is "done" as cheaply as possible.

Then, perhaps for years, they do nothing.
They just "use" the house ignoring anything that would take a moment to put right until it is irreparable.

Then, prior to selling, they spend another fortune ripping out the windows and front door and replace them with plastic and tart up anything that they are aware of that might affect a sale.
Then they move.

Why is it that the new purchasers then complain, often quite bitterly, about the modern plastic windows ("we'd much rather have wood") and all the other "improvements" that the house has had to endure?

Why do so many people never spend money on renovation and restoring what they have?
Why is new always thought to be better by so many when it obviously isn't?

 

[Nemesis]

This beautiful little row, in Lazonby, Cumbria, snapped in 2004, had two out of the three houses sold and 'improved' following this pic.

Given the benefit of plastic doors and windows of course...must take a pic of after.

Cumbria is being ruined, as is most of Northumberland, by uPVC.

Evelyn

 

[Penners]

But they look so... old.

I can see them now, properly modernised with nice, bright uPVC windows and a thick coat of Sandtex paint. Actually they look as though they might also benefit from having polyurethane foam sprayed on the underside of their roofs.

 

[Nemesis]

You have it in one...

 

[Sue Wilkinson]

Do you remember the lovely thatched cottage I posted details of recently? Well the horrible man who lives in a monstrocity of a house next to it (fortunately not visible from the cottage or garden) talks long and loud to anyone who will listen about how the only thing to do with it is raze it to the ground and build a new house on the plot.

I've had so many run-ins with this sad character (who knows everything there is to know about every subject you can think of) about lime that I've given up even trying to be polite. I just ignore him totally now. As do 90% of the rest of the village!

There should be an exam set for anyone wanting to buy an old house. Fail it and you can't have it. If only...

Sue

 

[Nemesis]

Is it still for sale?

I did suggest it may be a Building of the Month, but there are a number in line for that!

 

[Lime]

Actually they look as though they might also benefit from having polyurethane foam sprayed on the underside of their roofs.

A neighbour had their roof sprayed with this stuff a few years ago.
They were lulled into the process by the sales talk of a warmer house, use of the loft (because it is warmer) and cheapness compared to a re-roofing.
The tiles are now starting to come adrift again, as I expected, but that would not be my main concern if I owned the house.
The neighbour had previously assured me that it was fire proof but later changed that to fire resistant when he read the brochure again.
By chance I picked up some waste sprayed insulation foam from the job and tested it for flammability.
It lit immediately when a flame was applied to it then turned black on the surface. The flame spread quickly to unburnt areas until it was black all over and then the flame went out. The body of the foam did not burn.
But it was obvious to me that if confined in the void of a loft the flames from this foam would easily spread throughout the loft.

However the flames were the least of my concerns.
From the moment the smallest piece was lit a very large quantity of dense, choking, acrid, black smoke was given off.
I was surprised at the amount of smoke from such a small piece.
Just a tiny amount of the smoke choked me and I was in the open air!
If the sprayed loft caught fire the people in the house would have no chance of escape once that smoke got to them.

 

[Sue Wilkinson]

Evelyn, it currently says 'sold subject to contract'. But its been here before, several times. People get put off when they find they can't extend, just replace the existing single storey extension with a better built same again copy.

Sue

 

[Penners]

However the flames were the least of my concerns.
From the moment the smallest piece was lit a very large quantity of dense, choking, acrid, black smoke was given off.
I was surprised at the amount of smoke from such a small piece.
Just a tiny amount of the smoke choked me and I was in the open air!
If the sprayed loft caught fire the people in the house would have no chance of escape once that smoke got to them.

Lime - strongly recommend you not to try that experiment again:-

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=1114319&dopt=Abstract

 

[Geoffrey]

Lime - couldn't agree more, especially the quick fixes to sell. I've got so much emulsion to remove where it was obviously done to "freshen up" for selling but has actually just trapped moisture making a fairly slight case of damp so much worse!!

 

[Becka]

my current house narrowly escaped that fate (quick fix to sell) the previous owner had accepted my offer then saw some UKstyle type programmes and pulled out saying she was going to do it up, i.e. cheap kitchen + bathroom, dreaded damp proofing etc.. I told her in no uncertain terms if she did that I definatly would no longer be interested, she relented and I got the dishevelled, unmodernised house of my dreams.. Unfortunatly most people follow the tv example before putting it on the market, I saw so many that had undergone slapdash cosmetic surgery or worse before i got there in order to encourage a quick sale..

 

[bournonite]

Ouch..

Read that listing in Wales - has anyone checked the spelling?????????????

Nemesis - that's my home country, around Lazonby and the Caldbecks - it comes down to education. I've just looked at YET ANOTHER wet, damp house that a client wants help with - cause of most of the problems in a 400 year old house - damp, obviously, but only condensation caused by unvented pvc windows, blocked up fireplaces and cement render on outside walls, coupled with umpteen layers of acrylic emulsion on internal lime plaster walls..


How do you educate people when half the TV series trumpet pvc as a cheap and effective way to 'upgrade' a house?

 

[NT]

Why do so many people never spend money on renovation and restoring what they have?
Why is new always thought to be better by so many when it obviously isn't?

Sales. Companies only sell their goods if they can persuade potential buyers that what they bought last year is now - inexplicably - rubbish. Sadly many are such mugs they swallow it. The justificatoins for these beliefs are bogglingly daft, yet believe it many still do.


NT