Despondent over renovating our 1901 terrace, advice and encouragement appreciated!

[Jess_Chatsworth]

We bought a large 3 bed, 1 bathroom Victorian terrace for around £219k 3 years back.

I favour tradition where possible so we're slowly repairing and restoring the property. Unfortunately a lot was removed and repainted in the 70s. The coving and most trim is intact, baring minor water damage.

So far we've spent 12.5k on:
- Boiler replacement
- Upgraded RCD fuse box
- New lead bay roof, with reclaimed cast iron hopper and pipe
- Sewer and water waste line replacement
- Lead pipe removal (replacement scheme)
- Restored remaining sash windows (repaired with sapele, double glazing, plant-on bars)
- Lead abatement, including evenings spent self-stripping all the roses, coving, architraves and additional woodwork with Peel Away 1 and 7. Cobra SpeedHeater outside.
- Multitude of specific use tools

To-Do:
- Chimney repair, repointing and flashing
- Minor repairs to main roof
- Kitchen roof replacement with reclaimed slate
- Kitchen (traditional free-standing)
- Bathroom
- Skimming and/or replastering to lath with lime plaster
- Bay window replacement, new timber units with bespoke profile architrave
- Repointing and replacing spalled bricks, lime mortar (previous repairs were done with a very cement-rich mortar so damp and efflorescence are an issue in some areas) r

There's far more but the above are either essential structural repairs or large budget projects.

We've been extremely lucky so far with the sash window restoration: 2 large centre bars, 1 large three light and a smaller non-bar for a total of £4.5k which includes priming and painting.

Unfortunately the UPVC bay windows are in a bad shape, to replace with timber would be another 6K.

The problem isn't repairing and restoring the house as such (for now) but the area, lack of care (Sherwood, but more towards New Basford) and the fact that the house is right on a busy B road makes everything feel like a waste. Constant noisy old bangers, speeding and pollution worries.

We can't afford to move outside the area, both new builds and period properties would far exceed our budget.

I feel like if we ever sell that we'd never recoup any of the repair costs but... I also don't want to live in a run down butchered 70s terrace, it's depressing. I love this house, just not where it's situated.

We talk about going back to renting or moving into a flat every so often when we're overwhelmed, but then flip flop to staying.

What would you consider as out-valuing our house for the area? Considering all the other repairs, I would estimate another 40k minimum on top of the 12k already spent.

 

[a twig]

These evaluations are always tough. Frankly it is rare for a period property that the market value will reflect the cost, time and effort put in as the majority of UK house buyers value location, cheap energy bills and the latest interior design trends over historical preservation.

From my personal point of view you need to take a view on what is important to you, and how long you intend to stay there. Our previous home was intended to be our forever home and we sunk best part of £150k over 6 years into doing everything properly with the view to being carried out in boxes in 40 years time. Probably would have ended up putting another £50k into it over the next 5-10 years as we finished off and added the “nice to haves” like reinstating wooden shutters etc.

Unfortunately Covid plus other family pressures then happened and we ended up selling and moving. While we Ended up just about covering our costs due to getting the place for a song because it was absolutely knackered in property price but the house was a tough sell despite the migration to the countryside that Covid brought on.

If we were doing it for financial gain we would have been much better off doing a quick and dirty “hide the problems” house flip with modern materials, fobbing it off onto an unsuspecting buyer and running off into the sunset even though that would have ruined the fabric of the building in the long term.

Ultimately it comes down to you and your situation - if you can see yourselves there for the long term and completing the work making you happier there in that time then push on, if not then work out what would maximise the value increase for the investment, sell up and move to something that ticks your boxes.