Sales Brochure of house I once lived in...

[Nigel Watts]

I have no illusions about the way the first house I owned and restored back in the 1980s is likely to have been treated since, but coming across some recent sales blurb was still a bit of a shock. The front is unchanged except for the replacement front door (my old house is the right hand end-of-terrace):

Inside it's rather different. The two small ground floor rooms which I used as a dining room and study have been knocked through. The front half, which had a sweet Edwardian cast iron fireplace, now sports one which Fred Flintstone would be proud of, but I am pleased to see that the wooden fire surround which I constructed myself for the back room is still there. In fact much of my carpentry seems to have survived including two cupboards and the newel post and banisters in the attic room.

I am sure I took some photos before I sold the house in about 1989 but I can't find them just now, otherwise I would post a before and after.

http://www.globrix.com/property-details/30691480-lion_lane-haslemere-gu27-2_bed-terraced_house

 

[Maddie-Rose]

I have spent 15 years trying to do up my Victorian Chapel. I have put in so much of my taste and personality, that if it was ever sold I would be heartbroken too see things removed. Especially in keeping with the style of property

It's sad that sometimes people don't appreciate character, and the past history of a property. :|

 

[vicky whitworth]

Makes you weep. There are people who go on holiday and decide they want to create that hotel bathroom thing in their own home. Personally I can't think of anything worse than living like I was in an hotel all the time. Soon the new people will be welcoming their friends to see the delightful, period cottage they have bought. Still if there weren't people like that there would be no one to out up against the wall come the revolution. Whoops, that just slipped out. Must be heat stroke.

 

[Nigel Watts]

But there are some positives. The sash windows have been retained, no ugly dormer has been added at the front (one has been at the back) and a little of the character of the garden I created has survived.

One needs to be a bit philosophical about these things. My own view is that there is practically no chance of any bathroom or kitchen surviving long beyond a change in ownership, so building one that will last more than a decade is futile (Biff will shoot me for saying so). Nor will any decorative scheme survive long, however expensive the wallpaper was or classy you think it is.

However, if you restore the fabric well and add some good, classic fittings there is a chance that much of this will be respected.

 

[jocelyn plummer]

Like you Nigel, I have followed progress of 2 of my homes through changing hands in the past 3 years, one in Ampthill and one in the Holy Land ( still on the market) . On the whole the latter did not suffer in any way except for the removal of 2 big box topiary trees from the garden. The rest of the work done to the house has ben carefully constructed as befits an early 14th c building. The former, suffered marble floors in the kitchen, hall, and upstairs bathrooms, and one bedroom was turned into a cinema room. The rest, fortunately cosmetic, displayed bright blue plastic chairs in the dining room and black and white photographs of celebrities. The latest owners moved in on Saturday, and , for some reason I have been particularly affected by this--- my Son who owns part of one of the outbuildings says he has met them, and they do not seem to quite know what they have bought-- they were talking to him of rebuilding their section of the grade11* listed oubuilding. The rest having been meticulously supported with reclaimed timbers and carefully restored brick work by a local craftsman, at great expense to the co-owners. Well, we will see... I hope that they have been told of the 400 year old mulberry tree which sits in the middle of the garden.

 

[Penners]

One needs to be a bit philosophical about these things.

Indeed one does - and learn to bite one's tongue.

The elderly woman who bought our first restoration cottage announced to us that one of the first jobs she would ask her son to carry out was to "paint the lovely beams black, the way they ought to be".

These were the same beams that I had spent many months stripping, repairing and waxing.

I told her tactfully that, as this was a listed building, I was sure the Conservation Officer would have lots of useful advice for her. I have no idea whether the beam-painting ever took place... and I don't want to know.

 

[AMc]

You prodded my nosiness button - it seems our last house (2006) and our previous flat (2001) have both remained with the people we sold them to so I can't find out what they might have done to them bar going back to the smoke to stare through their windows.

 

[Penners]

Don't risk it, AMc! Think how you'll feel if they've installed PVC windows and woodchip-papered everything.

 

[Moo]

One of the many blessings that we count every day:

The people who bought our beloved house-before-last have been (and still are) an absolute joy.
They've made changes, of course, but those have been either things that we wanted to do but couldn't afford/didn't get round to, or things that we wished we'd thought of ourselves.
And they so liked the graffiti with which our daughter (then aged 7, now 30) covered her bedroom door and its frame that it's still there. It seems to have become a cherished part of the history of the house - so much so that when some young visitors wanted to add some marks of their own, the owners covered the whole door with paper, to protect the original historic artwork.

 

[Sue Wilkinson]

I used to live in a nicely built 1930's bay fronted house in a quiet street in Coventry. It had not been modernised other than having gas fires put in where the real fires should have been. Still had the original tiny kitchen and bathroom suite. And original windows. It had a nice garden front and back and a garage. It was well presented and the original front door had a pretty oval of stained glass in it.

I had to go back after several years away to collect some post that had accumulated there unbeknown to me and the forwarding system and the current tenants had called to let us know they thought it important. (It was all insurance stuff). So I went. I was horrified to find the picture rails gone, the ceiling of the sitting room painted navy blue with damage where stars had been stuck and taken back off. The unusual design of stair rails broken and left jagged and the windows replaced with sheet glass.

The front door stained glass was broken. It has since been replaced, along with the windows, with plastic door and equally horrid plate glass window panes. I never want to see it again.

 

[JoceAndChris]

Another reason to be buried in the garden.

 

[LadyArowana]

Another reason to be buried in the garden.

Maybe, but then there will always be sceptics ( you know who you are ) who put your ghostly objections via the baby monitor sound system down to some unlikely high tech problem and refuse the offer of a nice seance for a chat about the place.

 

[JoceAndChris]

:lol:

Woe betide them if they change a single one of my improvements! As for cluttering the place with baby monitors :x I'd shove it down the nearest rat hole.

 

[Flyfisher]

Another reason to be buried in the garden.

That's my plan.

 

[Penners]

Another reason to be buried in the garden.

That's my plan.

I think you're both mad. Don't you realise how dangerous that could be? You could suffocate, you know.

 

[JoceAndChris]

:lol: :lol: :lol:

 

[Flyfisher]

Another reason to be buried in the garden.

That's my plan.

I think you're both mad. Don't you realise how dangerous that could be? You could suffocate, you know.

Perhaps I'll leave instructions in my will to delay burial until I've, er, gone off a bit.

 

[Penners]

Well, I don't see that as a 100% safe solution, FF.

What happens if you go off a bit before you've departed this vale of tears? It can happen - take it from one who knows.

 

[Flyfisher]

:lol:
OK, I'll amend it to 'gone off quite a bit'.

 

[Penners]

Personally I've included a bacon sandwich test in my anti-premature-burial procedure. Before the coffin lid is screwed down, my survivors are required to wave a fresh bacon sarnie under my nose. If I don't dribble they can go ahead and plant me.